Haunted Hotels: Spooky Halloween Lodging From Stephen King To Airbnb
In the psychological horror film 1408, a journalist played by John Cusack makes his living writing about haunted hotel rooms, but while his fans eat it up, he is a haunting cynic—until he checks into room 1408 at the eerie (and fictional) Dolphin Hotel.
It’s made up, but in real like there are no shortage of travel guidebooks to haunted hotels and sites, dozens of them, and the subject remains hugely popular with a large following of fright fans who seek out such places to lay their heads. I’ve personally visited many reportedly haunted hotels of considerable notoriety, including the Omni Parker House in Boston, the Hay Adams in DC, Vermont’s Equinox, Denver’s Brown Palace, The Fairmont Banff Springs in Canada, the Grove outside London, and the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, but I’m still ghost-less. At this time of year, I am often asked for examples when interviewed on the radio, and to me, there is no better choice than the Stanley Hotel, in Estes Park, Colorado, gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Even if you don’t see anything you might not sleep well, knowing its history.
