Haunted Hotels in New Orleans

The Nine Hotels Side by Side

The table gathers every hotel in this guide that you can stay in, from the Monteleone to the Cornstalk. Build dates come from Wikipedia, the hotels' own sites and reporting named in each hotel section below. Ghost stories are legends told on ghost walks and in hotel copy, and the table keeps the wording loose where historians dispute the claim.

Bourbon Orleans Hotel: the 1817 Ballroom and the Dancing Ghost

The documented history is the strongest of any hotel here. The Orleans Ballroom was built in 1817 and hosted subscription balls, carnival balls and masquerades, including the so-called quadroon balls. Architect Benjamin Latrobe called it the best ballroom in the United States when he visited in 1819. The Theatre d'Orleans next door burned in 1866. In 1873 Thomy Lafon bought the site and it became a convent and school of the Sisters of the Holy Family, who the hotel's own copy says cared for orphans there. The Bourbon Orleans Hotel took over in 1964 and restored the ballroom. The address is 717 Orleans Street, and the hotel offers four room categories from Guest Rooms to Bi Level Suites.

The ghost stories, as the city's tourism board tells them, are a female ghost dancing under the ballroom chandelier and a ghostly nun, which maps neatly onto the two eras of the site's past. Treat both as legend. If you want the story told on the spot, the New Orleans French Quarter Ghost Tour with Interior Visit lists the Bourbon Orleans Hotel on its route for $37 over 2 hours. The operator says guests also go inside one private haunted location, and the listing does not name it.

Hotel Monteleone: the Boy on the 14th Floor

Sicilian cobbler Antonio Monteleone bought a small hotel on this site in 1886, and the family has run it ever since through Frank, Bill and William Jr. The hotel was expanded in 1903, again in 1908 when it was renamed from the Commercial Hotel, and again in 1928. Wikipedia calls it the only high-rise in the interior French Quarter. The Carousel Bar, installed in 1949, is the city's only revolving bar, with 25 seats and one turn every 15 minutes. Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and Faulkner stayed, and the hotel was named a literary landmark in 1999.

The ghost story is a boy named Maurice Begere. The legend says he was left with a nanny in the 1890s, died of fever at the hotel and is heard as footsteps on the 14th floor. The tourism board repeats the story, but no historical record has been produced for it, so treat it as legend. Historic Hotels of America has put the Monteleone on its Top 25 Most Haunted Hotels lists from 2019 through 2026, which is a documented claim about reputation rather than about ghosts.

Andrew Jackson Hotel: a Disputed School Fire and Prankster Boys

The hotel stands at 919 Royal Street, one block from Bourbon Street, with a courtyard and a fountain. The legend says a boys' school on the site burned with five boys inside, and that their ghosts still play pranks on guests, moving covers and turning faucets on. Laughter in the courtyard is also reported. One retelling names a child spirit called Armond in Room 208, with activity also reported in Rooms 107 and 109.

Historians push back, and it is worth knowing why. The school fire is placed in different years in different tellings, and the standing brick building dates from 1890, which is long after any school fire in the 1700s. The tour company that tells the story also notes the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1965. So the honest version is this: the building you would sleep in is a 19th-century structure, the fire story is legend, and the pranks are guest reports rather than records. If you want to hear the tale told outside the building, the Dark Side of New Orleans ghost tour ends its route near the Andrew Jackson Hotel on a 1.5 hour walk from St. Louis Cathedral, with every stop seen from the street.

Hotel Provincial, 1024 Chartres Street

The Dupepe family has owned the Hotel Provincial since 1961, and the hotel sits in five restored buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The land has a medical past. Travel Agent Central reports that the courtyard of the 300 Building was a medicinal herb garden for an 18th-century military hospital, the 400 Building dates from the 1830s, and the site of the 500 Building held a military hospital as well.

The legend that follows the hotel is a hospital legend. The story says a Civil War soldier walks the grounds and a nurse in white, described as benevolent, has been seen on a staircase. That account comes from a travel trade profile, not from any historical record, so treat it as a story. What is documented is the site itself: an 18th-century hospital, herb garden and all.

If you sleep at the Provincial, you can hear the story told on a walk that stops at the door. Dark Side of New Orleans: French Quarter Ghost Tour puts the hotel on its route and starts at St. Louis Cathedral.

Dauphine Orleans Hotel, 415 Dauphine Street

The Dauphine Orleans is a group of three buildings, the Main House, the Carriage House and Hermann House, and the hotel itself says one of them was among the first and most notorious bordellos in the city in the mid-to-late 19th century. That space is now May Baily's Place, the hotel bar, and the hotel markets itself as one of the most haunted in the city.

The documented pieces, per Ghost City Tours, are these: banker Samuel Hermann built the house, May Bailey ran a licensed brothel there from 1857, and John James Audubon painted in what is now the Audubon Room. Sources disagree on the date of the Hermann house and of the modern hotel, so no single year is given here. The Southern Spirit Guide adds that cottages on the west side of the property date to at least 1775.

The ghost lore, again per the tour company and the guide, includes a soldier's spirit by the pool and former prostitutes reported by the International Society for Paranormal Research in the 1990s. Legend, not record.

Place D'Armes Hotel, 625 St. Ann Street

The Place d'Armes stands at Jackson Square in buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries, owned and operated by the Valentino family according to frenchquarter.com. That is the documented part, and the hotel's own pages say only that the buildings date from those centuries.

The ghost story arrives from ghost roundups, not from the hotel. The tale says a school on the site burned and that children's voices are heard there. Two cautions apply. The hotel's own pages give no year for its buildings, so the story cannot be confirmed, and the roundup that carries it notes that no record was read. Treat it as legend and nothing more.

What you do get is the best address on this list for sightseeing. Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral are at the door.

Le Pavillon Hotel, 833 Poydras Street

Le Pavillon is the only hotel on this list outside the French Quarter itself, on Poydras Street. It opened in 1907 as the New Denechaud Hotel, was renamed the DeSoto Hotel in 1913, and sources disagree on the year it took the Le Pavillon name. Wikipedia says the building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Historic Hotels of America has listed it as a member since 1994 and notes its Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers.

Before the hotel there was a theatre. Ghost City Tours says the National Theatre, also called the German Theatre, opened on the site in 1867 and burned in 1887.

The legends are the busiest in this guide. The story says a teenage girl named Ava or Ada, struck by a carriage on Poydras Street, haunts Room 930. It also names a prankster called George on the third floor and a couple from the 1920s who linger in the lobby. All three come from tour company retellings, not from documents. If you want the girl's floor, ask at the desk, but expect a smile rather than a confirmed room history.

Omni Royal Orleans, 621 St. Louis Street

The Omni Royal Orleans was built in 1960 as the Royal Orleans, designed by Samuel Wilson Jr. on the exterior and Arthur Davis inside, per Wikipedia. Its ground has a heavier history than most. The site earlier held the City Exchange, a slave auction site until the 1830s, and then the St. Louis Hotel, which was destroyed in the 1915 hurricane. The hotel appears in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die.

The ghost walk legend here is a gentle one: a maternal 19th-century maid who tucks guests in, and a Confederate soldier said to appear on the seventh floor. American Ghost Walks carries both stories.

One entry in the Omni's ghost reputation is not legend at all. A 2006 murder-suicide linked to the rooftop bar is folded into the hotel's haunted reputation, and it is a modern crime, not folklore. If you read ghost forums before booking, you will meet it, so it is better to know the context here first.

The Cornstalk Hotel, 915 Royal Street

The Cornstalk is described as the most photographed of the French Quarter's small inns, and the reason stands at the sidewalk: a cast-iron fence cast as a row of cornstalks. The building's age and the date of the fence are not confirmed by a page the hotel publishes, so no year is given here.

The legend is a single figure: a heartbroken bride in a Victorian wedding dress who is said to wander the inn. The story circulates in hotel-ghost roundups. An often-repeated link to Harriet Beecher Stowe is unproven and is not repeated here.

The Cornstalk is at 915 Royal Street.

Which Walks Stop at a Hotel Door

Most French Quarter ghost walks build their route around mansions, taverns and alleys, and only a few pass a hotel from this guide. The clearest is the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, which the Interior Visit tour lists on its route. The Hotel Provincial and the Andrew Jackson Hotel share a route on the family-friendly walk that starts and ends at St. Louis Cathedral.

One adults-only tour names a stop called The Haunted Hotel, and the listing does not say which building that is. Note that the family-friendly walk visits all locations from the outside only. Use the table to compare price and length, then check availability for start times on the tour pages.

Questions Worth Asking the Hotel

Ask which building your room sits in. At the Hotel Provincial the five restored buildings have different histories, including a courtyard that was a medicinal herb garden for an 18th-century military hospital. At the Dauphine Orleans, the cottages on the west side date to at least 1775 while the modern hotel is newer, so the room you get decides the history you sleep in.

Ask about the floor, too. At Hotel Monteleone the legend points to the 14th floor, and at the Omni Royal Orleans the story places a soldier on the seventh. No hotel in this guide confirms a ghost, so treat any answer as storytelling, not a guarantee of a quiet or an active night.

French Quarter Noise

The Quarter does not close. New Orleans has no state closing-time rule and 24 hour bars are common, and drinks may be carried on the street in an unbreakable container, so foot traffic and noise run late on Bourbon Street and nearby blocks. The Andrew Jackson Hotel sits one block from Bourbon Street.

If you want quiet, ask the hotel about its quietest rooms. Either way, carry a plastic go-cup rather than glass, since glass bottles are prohibited on the street.

Hurricane Season, Heat and Timing

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November and peaks around 10 September. Katrina made landfall on 29 August 2005 and flooded about 80 percent of the city, which is why travel insurance and a flexible cancellation matter in those months. August is hot and humid, so book hotels with pools and plan ghost walks for after sunset.

Sunset shapes your evening: about 7:09 PM in March, 8:03 PM in June and 5:03 PM in December, so a winter booking gives you a dark street at dinner time. If Halloween is your goal, the Krewe of BOO! parade rolls on 24 October 2026 and is free to watch, and Halloween New Orleans weekend runs 30 October to 1 November 2026. Book rooms far ahead for those dates.

After dark, stay on busy, well-lit streets, travel in groups and avoid isolated alleys, per standard travel advice for the Quarter. For orientation, the National Park Service visitor center at 419 Decatur Street is a free first stop.