A Guide to the Haunted Hotels of New Orleans

In the French Quarter, away from bustling Bourbon Street, The Cornstalk Hotel was built in 1816. Famous guests have included the Clintons, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. Filled with shimmering chandeliers and gilded mirrors, the hotel exudes old-world charm. However, the decorative iron fence, which depicts corn growing around the property, is alleged to have potent paranormal energy, and guests have reported seeing a woman in a black dress and hearing children laughing.

This townhouse hotel, with wrought-iron balconies and a courtyard, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But the property history is a tragic one. It first opened in 1792 as a boarding school and orphanage for boys, but burned down two years later with five boys inside during the Great New Orleans Fire. Today, the hotel is known for hauntings: a young boy named Armand wakes up guests by pushing them out of bed or laughing, while others report seeing the orphanage caretaker wandering around.

The luxury Le Pavillon Hotel sits on the corner of Poydras and Baronne in the Central Business District. It has a dramatic past dating to the early 1900s, with frequent apparitions reported by guests. These include a couple in evening dress walking around the first floor, a finely dressed woman roaming the lobby, a young woman in room 930 and a ghost who enjoys playing pranks on the cleaning crews and guests on the third floor.

Once the Orleans Ballroom and Theater, and then a convent in the 1800s, the Bourbon Orleans Hotel lies in the heart of the French Quarter and reportedly has more ghosts than any other place in New Orleans. Guests have reported hearing children’s laughter echoing down the hallways, while others claim to have felt their shirts being abruptly yanked. Other supernatural tales include hearing tortured cries around room 644 (where, supposedly, a nun took her own life), a bloody Confederate soldier limping down the hallways of the sixth and third floors and a ghostly woman dancing under the ballroom chandeliers.

The luxurious Omni Royal Orleans, on fashionable St Louis Street, is thought to be home to around 50 ghosts, but the one that most frequently encounter is that of a maid who is said to tuck guests in as they sleep, flush toilets and turn taps and lights on in the night. A gun-toting Confederate soldier has also been spotted on the seventh floor, and some friendly spirits have been known to follow their favorite guests around the property.

The stylish Dauphine Orleans Hotel, one block from the hedonistic French Quarter thoroughfare Bourbon Street, comprises three buildings, including a 19th-century sporting house (brothel). Moans of spirits engaged in amorous pursuits drift around rooms and corridors, while beds shake of their own accord and privacy-seeking ghosts (former clients?) lock doors from the inside. Other long-term residents of the Dauphine include a woman with long dark hair – believed to have been a prostitute – who dances alone in the courtyards, and a uniformed general who hangs out in the bar.

Le Richelieu is a smart boutique hotel in the heart of the French Quarter where some guests have had more direct contact with the past than they bargained for. A group of Spanish soldiers believed to have been executed on this site reportedly march through the courtyard and appear in the bar in their uniforms. There have also been bizarre occurrences, such as child-size handprints appearing on mirrors, and the presence of a dark-gray apparition in bedrooms.