Haunted New Orleans Hotels
New Orleans' hotels offer luxurious and elegant accommodations, but some have an extra element — paranormal activity.
New Orleans' hotels offer luxurious and elegant accommodations, but some have an extra element — paranormal activity.
The Big Easy holds its own among the most haunted cities in the United States. It's a city known for embracing the dead among the living with extravagant funeral processions, above-ground cemeteries and voodoo culture.
It’s been said that Louisiana’s complicated early history has made conditions perfect for ghosts to haunt the city — so begin your exploration of ghost stories with these haunted hotels in New Orleans where restless spirits roam the halls.
Haunted Hotels in New Orleans
Hotel Monteleone
The Hotel Monteleone holds four generations worth of history. There is one tale this family knows well: stories of ghosts wandering the halls. Over the years, Monteleone guests have reported ghostly visions of former employees still tending to their duties and children playing in the halls.
Visit the 14th floor of the hotel, where there's a chance to spot the ghost of a mischievous young boy rumored to be named Maurice, who died of fever while his parents, Josephine and Jacques Begere, were at the famous French Opera House on Bourbon Street. Later, a carriage accident left his father dead, and his mother died of a broken heart shortly after. You might be able to hear his child-like laughter or watch him play, as it’s said that Maurice’s ghost still roams the halls searching for his deceased parents.
Dauphine Orleans Hotel
Tales of twisted fates are retold through the generations at the Dauphine Orleans Hotel and its bar, May Bailey's Place. Through sightings, paranormal research and documented letters, there seem to be four main characters who keep establishing their presence from beyond the grave.
One of these frequent visitors, the Lost Bride ghost, is believed to be the spirit of a young woman, Millie, who was working at the bar as a courtesan. She met a young Civil War soldier, fell in love and was set to be married. She became obsessed with the wedding and perfecting her wedding gown.
The morning of the wedding ceremony, her groom was shot in a gambling dispute. Millie was told of the news on her way to the altar and never recovered from the grief. According to accounts, Millie took to wearing the wedding gown around May Baily's Place, and even after her death, Millie still roams the Dauphine hopelessly waiting for her fiancé.
The Lost Bride, said to haunt the Dauphine Orleans
May Baily’s Place, a reportedly haunted bar at the Dauphine Orleans
The Bourbon Orleans is one of the most haunted hotels in the city
Lafitte Guest House
The beautiful Lafitte Guest House on Bourbon Street offers its own thrills. Items are known to move around the house — a brush from atop a table to a chair or pad of paper from a nightstand to a desk. The ghost seems to be the young daughter of the original owners. She succumbed to an early demise when she fell down the staircase and died “way back in the 1800s,” says a Lafitte Guest House employee, “but her spirit lives on in the house.” The young girl ripples as she moves, her long blonde hair streaming across her nightgown as she roams across the second-floor hallway.
Hotel Provincial
The Hotel Provincial sits on land that was a grant from King Louis XV. After passing through many different hands, a military hospital was constructed in 1722. It’s said the ghosts of soldiers still haunt the buildings.
Guests have reported seeing wounded soldiers crying out in pain, only to disappear when they turn on the lights. Bloodstains mysteriously appear on the bed covers, only to be gone at second glance. Guests also report sightings of a young female ghost, thought to be someone who cared for the ill in the hospital.
Bourbon Orleans Hotel
The Bourbon Orleans is said to be one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans. Before it was a hotel, the building served as the beloved Orleans Theatre and Ballroom, offering European operas and entertainment for Creole society. In 1881, it became a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family — the first African-American religious order in the U.S. Now, the hotel is home to many ghosts. Some say they’ve seen children and nuns from the former convent, a Confederate soldier gasping his last breath and even a lone dancer, still swaying under the crystal chandelier, forever awaiting a partner who will never join her.
Spend time in the great lobby and you might see an elderly ghost who reads the newspaper while smoking a cigar. It’s reported that guests smell the cigar before seeing the apparition.
Love haunted history or haunted architecture? See our top 10 recommendations for touring the city.
Sara Hudson is a Louisiana-based freelance writer and author for New Orleans & Company.
