Travel Guides
Sky Ariella
Most people go out of their way to avoid ghouls, goblins, and ghosts, but staying in a New York hotel might only increase the chances of a run-in. While New York is rich in creepy haunted places like hospitals and homes, it’s only the haunted hotels that allow you to book a night, climb into bed, and possibly get the spook of your life (Via Haunted History Trail of New York). Who wouldn’t jump on that opportunity?
If you’re one of the few paranormal seekers looking for an extra boost of excitement on a trip to New York, you can always spice things up by staying at one of the state’s haunted hotels. Guests at these hotels have reported a variety of paranormal experiences, like playful ghost children pulling pranks or phantom couples enjoying dinner before promptly disappearing out of nowhere(Via I Love NY). From New York City to the Finger Lakes, all types of ghosts and ghouls have (allegedly) taken up residence in New York’s hotels. Just be warned that a night at any of these 13 haunted hotels in New York State is not for the faint of heart.
The Sagamore Resort
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Lake George is usually known as a fun, little upstate New York vacation destination for those hot summer days, but things can take a turn for the spooky if you decide to stay at the Sagamore Resort. From an outside perspective, the Sagamore is a grand accommodation with a prime lakeside location and many years of interesting history. However, the hotel’s current status as one of the most haunted hotels in the United States is even more interesting than its past (Via Lake George).
According to Times Union, The Sagamore is so overrun with spirits that it was voted as one of the top 10 most haunted hotels in the country. Haunted Rooms says that people have many different types of eerie experiences at The Sagamore, but most of the ghosts must be hungry because they tend to turn up in the resort’s restaurants. In the hotel’s fine dining restaurant called The Trillium, there are often ghost couples who pop in for dinner in the reception room before disappearing mysteriously into thin air. Another common spirit is a tall woman with blonde hair and a pure white dress. She prefers eating at the resort’s other restaurant and even reportedly walked right through the kitchen’s cook once (Via Haunted Rooms)! This haunted NY hotel is extravagant with a side of scary.
Hotel Chelsea
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Hotel Chelsea is one of the most famous hotels in New York City, and that’s fairly impressive in a place like the Big Apple. It’s hosted all types of famous guests in its more than 100 years of operation, including Mark Twain, Bob Dylan, and Andy Warhol (Via E News). It wasn’t just celebrities and musicians who left a mark on the place. According to Rolling Stone, Hotel Chelsea was also the scene of some ghastly crimes, like the murder of Nancy from the famous Sid and Nancy couple. That might be why Hotel Chelsea isn’t just an iconic NYC hotel, but it’s also totally haunted.
There are quite a few ghosts that call Hotel Chelsea their home, like the spirit of a Titanic survivor called Mary who wanders around the fifth floor in the afterlife (Via Book Riot). After she survived the tragedy and her husband didn’t, she took her own life on that very floor of the hotel. Then, there is the ghost of a woman named Nadia with a severed hand, who guests often see desperately trying to get inside Hotel Chelsea (Via NY Ghosts). People have also experienced lights flickering, weird bubbles coming out of the drains, and even the distant sounds of screams (NBC New York). All things considered, Hotel Chelsea is easily one of the most haunted places in New York.
The Algonquin
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New York City is known for a lot of things, but who would have ever thought that one of its accolades would include having tons of haunted hotels? The Algonquin Hotel, located on the west side of NYC, is one of those places with a long history of paranormal activity and ghosts. It actually has a pretty crazy history in general, it was even the place where the famous New Yorker magazine was born (Via NY Daily News). Old places must have more ghosts because the Algonquin gets so many supernatural visitors that it was named as the #1 best-haunted hotel by NY Daily News in 2012.
The hotel was once a popular meeting spot for a group of high-profile creatives called the Round Table in the early 1900s, many of whom have decided to stick around (Via Haunted Rooms). Passed-on Round Table members are often seen walking around all over the building. Employees who have worked at The Algonquin over the years have also reported terrifying experiences in the hotel, like seeing footprints randomly appearing on the floor and apparitions floating by in the lobby (Via NY Ghosts).
The Otesaga Hotel
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You might not be able to make it through the night at the Otesaga Hotel without running for the hills because there are just so many paranormal encounters stirring here. Even for a paranormal enthusiast, it’s a bit much. There are so many spirits wandering around this hotel that it’s a little difficult to keep track of them all. Historic Hotels of America says that people have heard sounds of children puttering through the halls, giggles of little girls, shadowy figures, and disembodied voices at Otesaga. Sometimes, the ghosts of this hotel even like to play little tricks on the guests, like moving their chairs when they look away for a moment.
You can find just about every type of spooky experience at Otesaga. Inn At Cooperstown adds that the third and fifth floors of the hotel are both hotspots for these types of bone-chilling happenings. So if you’re looking to come face to face with Otesaga’s ghosts, that’s the place to go.
The Shanley Hotel
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Located in the tiny town of Napanoch, the Shanley Hotel is an unassuming building that makes a point of highlighting its ranking as one of the most haunted hotels in New York. The hotel even has a friendly ghost painted on its sign! With over 100 years of history under its belt, there are spirits from all different time periods here. The Shanley Hotel is so proud of its hauntings that they even have a whole page dedicated to creepy evidence that’s been captured over the years.
According to The Haunted Shanley Hotel itself, they have video and audio evidence of crazy paranormal happenings like ghost cats, disembodied whistling, and even spirits arguing with each other from beyond the grave. Other guests have reported to Haunted History Trail that they heard out-of-place clock chimes and the smells of food when nobody is cooking. Yes, apparently the Shanley Hotel’s ghosts can even affect your sense of smell! The paranormal activity in the Shanley Hotel has even attracted the curiosity of the popular tv shows “Ghost Lab” and “Ghost Hunters.” As you can tell, this particular hotel really capitalized on its haunting, to the point where they even offer guests the chance to do their own ghost investigations overnight. At your own risk, of course.
Fainting Goat Island Inn
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Get your giggles out now about the adorably hilarious name of the Fainting Goat Island Inn because this haunted New York hotel is no joke! It’s crawling with beings from beyond our realm. Before you ask, yes, there are also fainting goats on the property, too! Inside the walls of this spooky hotel located in the Finger Lakes region are over 200 years of haunted history. All this time has culminated to create a jack-of-all-trades haunted hotel. It was even voted as the #2 haunted hotel in the entire country (Via Haunted History Trail).
There are only five rooms, but each spot of the Fainting Goat Island Inn is believed to have a unique apparition. In the Fainting Room, people are often startled awake in the middle of the night by the voices and presence of two women (Via Haunted History Trail). According to New York Upstate, another room in the house often gets a little boy visitor who sheepishly hides under the bed when guests come around. Whichever room you step into at the Fainting Goat, you’ll probably run into someone from the other side.
Belhurst Castle
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For paranormal enthusiasts who want a touch of elegance and grandiosity with their ghost hunt, consider booking a room at the huge Belhurst Castle. This is one of New York’s fancier haunted hotels located in the city of Geneva. It’s also the type of place that you take one look at and immediately assume that it’s probably haunted.
There are a few spirits who make frequent appearances at Belhurst Castle, including a criminal named William Henry Bucke who drowned while trying to frantically escape through the castle’s underground tunnel system (Via Time Out). However, the most well-known ghost who haunts Belhurst Castle is a beautiful spirit named Isabella who was an Italian Opera Singer. Guests catch glimpses of Isabella blankly wandering from the hotel’s lawn to the nearby Lake Seneca wearing a distinctive flowing white dress (Via Haunted History Castle). People also say they’ve heard a lullaby being sung off in the distance when they went to bed at night here or the much less comforting sounds of screams coming from other rooms (Via Haunted History Castle). These are the types of haunting experiences that will stick with you for years after you check out of Belhurst Castle.
The Bowery Hotel
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The Bowery Hotel in the Lower East Side of Manhattan has provided a comfy bed for celebrities like Blake Lively, Robert Pattinson, and Chris Hemsworth (Via Daily Mail). Besides its celebrity acclaim, The Bowery is also a favorite place to stay for ghosts and other types of otherworldly entities. They go wild here and the paranormal occurrences at this hotel are more chaotic than in most of New York’s other haunted locations.
According to NY Ghosts, things really get going at The Bowery Hotel in the middle of the night, which is when all the spirits come out to play. If you’re sleeping at this haunted hotel, your peaceful slumber might be interrupted by the elevators acting crazy or ceasing to function altogether promptly at 1 a.m. (Via Haunted Rooms). Many people believe that a poltergeist presence is the force behind the elevator mishaps. Guests also say that they’ve been in the middle of talking to another hotel guest when they suddenly disappeared into thin air (Via Haunted Rooms). According to Haunted Rooms, not all the ghosts at The Bowery are friendly though, some people have even had an unseen entity smack their drink right out of their hand!
The Historic Old Bermuda Inn
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This Staten Island hotel was converted from an 1800s house into a charming little bed and breakfast – just with a couple of extra ghosty friends! According to New York Haunted Houses, this historical property was built in 1832 by a woman named Martha Mesereau and her family. To this day, it seems as though Martha still has her claim on the house even though it’s changed hands since then. Her ghost has been seen sadly staring out the window of the Historic Old Bermuda Inn, eternally looking for her husband who died in the Civil War.
Martha isn’t the only spirit who resides in the Historic Old Bermuda Inn, though. Employees at the B&B said that they’ve heard unexplainable whispering voices saying the word “listen” and had the constant, gnawing feeling of being watched whenever they worked a shift at the hotel. (Via Haunted Rooms). It’s clear that there are lots of ghosts unwilling to let go of the Old Bermuda Inn.
Batcheller Mansion Inn
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There is just something innately spooky about mansions, isn’t there? Well, the Batcheller Mansion Inn of Saratoga Springs definitely confirms those suspicions. Even though it’s an undeniably gorgeous estate, just one look at this Victorian-style hotel and you can tell that there are some eerie things going on inside.
According to Only In Your State, it’s believed that the spirits of the family who originally owned the mansion, the Batchellers, still reside on the grounds and claim ownership over the home that originally belonged to them. They make their presence abundantly known as well. Guests of the hotel say they’ve seen bizarre orbs floating through their room right before their eyes and things around the hotel moving on their own. That’s not a hotel amenity you see every day. Due to its reputation as a paranormal hotspot for the Batchellers, the mansion has been investigated numerous times. Each investigation came up with chilling evidence of ghosts living in the Batcheller Mansion Inn (Via Haunted History Trail).
Historic Hotel Broadalbin
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The history behind the Historic Hotel Broadalbin might be even scarier than its current hauntings. This hotel was converted from a hospital that once offered treatment to alcoholics that involved some pretty terrifying things at the hands of a mad doctor named Dr. Finch (Via Haunted History Trail). His treatments were extremely inhumane, including injecting the patients with toxic substances like ammonia and alcohol – this is the stuff that nightmares are made of.
As you can imagine, all of these disturbing things happening under one roof left the hotel’s facilities plagued with some pretty uneasy spirits that watch over the guests. According to Haunted Houses, the ghosts of former patients who endured Dr. Finch’s alcohol treatment are often witnessed swigging back drinks at the bar. His miracle treatment must not have been too effective. Other guests say that they saw soldiers who were once treated in the building walking around the hallways and staircases. One guest at the hotel even reported that the frigid fingertip of a spirit poked him right in the middle of his bare foot while he was snoozing. Its history and super active presences make Historic Hotel Broadalbin one of the scariest haunted hotels in the state.
Mohonk Mountain House
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Mohonk Mountain House is a gorgeous and elite hotel near New Paltz, New York that was popular with presidents like Teddy Roosevelt and Bill Clinton. Even though it’s one of the most expensive places to stay in New York state, it is also speculated that it is haunted by a giggly spirit of a child. Fright Find says that this little kid ghost goes from room to room, carrying laughter throughout the hotel. That sounds heart-warming at first, but if you imagine the idea of hearing disembodied child laughter roaming the halls of your hotel for a more than second, it becomes a lot more horrifying. People have also claimed to see the apparitions of ghoul dogs, chairs moving on their own, and even visions of the hotel’s ghosts.
It’s also hypothesized that the Mohonk Mountain House inspired Stephen King to write about the haunted hotel in “The Shining” (Via New York Haunted Houses). The famous horror author is a frequent guest of the Mohonk Mountain House. Maybe he became buddies with some of the ghosts here!
Brae Loch Inn
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Can you imagine being brought to your hotel room by the unearthly ghost of a girl in a long, blue dress? Well, if you spend a night at The Brae Loch Inn, this is actually a very likely possibility (Via Haunted History Trail). According to The Brae Loch Inn, this haunted NY hotel was established in an old farmhouse in the city of Borodino. Perhaps the woman in the blue dress once lived at the farm and decided she was going to take up a new job once it turned into a hotel. The girl in the blue dress also has some companions living with her at the Brae Loch Inn. Guests have said that they saw phantom men and women walking right on through walls and closets into nowhere and glowing spheres of energy floating above their beds (Via Haunted History Trail).
The craziest thing about this haunted hotel in New York is that one of its ghosts actually made its presence known right in the middle of a newscast. According to Local SYR, a newscaster was interviewing the co-owner of the hotel when suddenly in the middle of a sentence, both of them were silenced by the pervasive sound of glass shattering. When they went to check, they found broken glass at the bottom of the stairs and nobody around who could have done it. Just another ghost looking for its five minutes of fame.
