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 is a city known for embracing the dead among the living with extravagant funeral processions, aboveground cemeteries and voodoo culture.
It’s been said that Louisiana’s complicated early history has made perfect conditions 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 the mischievous young boy, rumored to be named Maurice. His parents, Josephine and Jacques Begere, were at the famous French Opera House on Bourbon Street, when a carriage accident left the father dead. Maurice’s mother died of a broken heart shortly after. It’s said 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 in May's Place as a courtesan. She met a young Confederate soldier and they fell in love and were 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 the way to alter and never recovered from the grief. According to accounts, Millie took to wearing the wedding gown around May Bailey's Place and even after her death, Millie still roams the Dauphine hopelessly waiting for her fiancé.
Get your spooks in at these Haunted Hotels.
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 atop a table to a chair or pad of paper on a nightstand to a whole 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. In 1718, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville claimed the area as the original "La Nouvelle-Orléans.” After passing through 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 or bloodstains that mysteriously appear on the bed covers only to be gone when one looks again. Guests also report sightings of a young female ghost seen in the Hotel Provincial 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. In the past, the hotel was the Convent of the Holy Family, and in 1964, the convent was transformed into a hotel. The infamous second floor ballroom hosted many of New Orleans’ most prestigious events. Now the ballroom is said to have a lone dancer who sways under the crystal chandelier.
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 sometimes 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 GoNOLA.com.
