At L.A. Family Travel, we love a good haunt! We are huge fans of pleasant (and slightly unsettled) ghosts that haunt the corners of our most posh Los Angeles hotels.
Meet the ghosts at these haunted Los Angeles hotels. It might be too late to get their autograph, but families could try to snap a photo!
If you’re reading this in October, you’re already in the right headspace — and if you’re in Southern California, you’ve got a bonus haunt to add to the list: Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary runs through November 1, 2026, making it the perfect excuse to turn a ghost story into an actual night out.
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Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel dates back to the Golden Era of Hollywood. It’s an iconic hotel located on Hollywood Boulevard, tracing the Hollywood Walk of Fame, next to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The historic hotel was built in 1927 and has hosted many famous stars, including Tinseltown’s sweethearts Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, Marilyn Monroe, and Charlie Chaplin. More recently, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stayed at this hotel. The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel offers more than just a luxurious stay—it provides a unique opportunity to rub shoulders with the glitzy ghosts of Hollywood’s past.
Those staying at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel have reported sightings of Marilyn Monroe’s spirit, mostly in her favorite haunt, suite 1200, and also in a long mirror that hangs in the lobby. The mirror was once in Marilyn Monroe’s suite. Marilyn’s ghost seems to have a flair for the dramatic, often shocking people by appearing in the full-length mirror while locking eyes with whoever is in the reflection. But hey, who wouldn’t want to check themselves out if they looked like Marilyn?
Marilyn’s ghost isn’t just a one-room wonder; she’s also been spotted cutting a rug in the Blossom Ballroom, the very same venue that hosted the first-ever Academy Awards. It begs the question, do blonde ghosts have more fun? To be honest, we wouldn’t mind sharing a room with Marilyn, alive or dead; imagine the bragging rights!
In addition to Marilyn, Montgomery Clift’s spirit haunts Room 928. He’s been heard practicing his trumpet, although it would make more sense if he were practicing “Taps” on his bugle, not trumpet, to perfect his horn-tooting scene in “From Here to Eternity.” But, we’ve never been one to argue with a ghost. He’s said to turn up the heat and radio to let guests know he’s there. His shadowy figure has been spotted pacing the hallways and keeping a watchful eye on guests in his room, like a paranoid, paranormal security guard, making sure visitors are safe from…well, him.
Guests have also reported a little girl in a blue dress who goes by the name “Caroline” skipping through the lobby. Caroline can be seen playing and wandering the hallways in search of her mother. This ghost seems so real that guests and employees often mistake her for a living child, typically sporting a pink jacket and jeans. Do you think the employees remind Caroline she isn’t allowed in the hot tub without an adult?
Other phenomena witnessed at the Roosevelt include cold spots, mysterious phone calls, and weird orbs. That sounds like a normal teenage Friday night at our house.
Parent heads-up: the Roosevelt offers paranormal history tours and occasional ghost walk events — great for teens and older tweens who are into that kind of thing, less ideal for kids who still sleep with a nightlight. If you want to turn your Roosevelt visit into a proper ghost-hunting evening, you’ve got options. The Terrors of Tinseltown Ghost Tour is one of the most-reviewed haunted Hollywood tours around — $26–27/person, one hour, 4.7 stars, and also bookable on GetYourGuide — or step it up with the Hollywood Ghost Hunting Experience , which actually meets right here at the Roosevelt and puts real ghost-hunting gear in your hands for $55/person (1.5 hours — thrilling or terrifying, depending on your nerves). If you want a longer night out, the LA Ultimate Dead of Night Ghost Tour covers the area in two hours for $30/person and earns a solid 4.6 stars.
Spine-tingling stories and celebrity ghosts await you at the iconic Roosevelt, a popular hotel for visitors, alive and dead.
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The Knickerbocker Hotel
The Knickerbocker catered to the Hollywood film industry and was frequented by several of its biggest stars. Today, it is a retirement home and a haunt for celebrity ghosts who never retired.
Let’s start with a ghost story that we all can relate to. In 1936, Bess Houdini, the better half of Harry Houdini, held her final séance on Halloween night on the Knickerbocker’s roof to contact her deceased husband. This wasn’t the first time she had tried to contact her hubby. Her plan was to contact him through a séance, and then he was to recite a message that she had previously (in his mortality) instructed him to say so both knew that it was really him. Apparently, Harry was a no-show to that séance and every other séance Bess performed.
As his career began to dwindle, director D.W. Griffith spent a lot of time at the hotel as a long-term guest. Once a Hollywood darling and considered the pioneer of directing, he fell into obscurity, and other guests had no idea about the previous fame of the older gentleman, reading in the lobby. That’s where his body was found after a cerebral hemorrhage. Current residents are used to the figure of a dashing older gentleman swinging his cane as he walks through the halls. When newer residents ask about him, long-term employees usually advise them to ignore him. “That’s just old Mr. Griffith,” they say.
Another infamous haunt that wanders the hotel is Golden Era MGM costume designer Irene Gibbons. Irene famously took her life by throwing herself out her bathroom window from room 1129. She left behind two nearly empty pints of vodka bottles, a suicide note, and a bloody bandage. Residents say they also sometimes see her throwing herself out the window and landing on the roof of the structure below.
And it’s not just Hollywood royalty that haunts this hotel. Another famous resident spook is the ghost of an obedient and loyal English Setter, Speck. Speck rides the elevator with guests, allowing them to get off first. He escorts guests through the lobby and waits patiently for his master outside his old room.
A beloved bellhop named Roger is also afloat. His haunts are free, so there’s no need to tip.
Here’s the thing about the Knickerbocker — it’s not a hotel you can stay at anymore, so the next best thing is the Los Angeles Downtown Hollywood Guided Ghost Walking Tour on GetYourGuide, which is the only guided tour we found that actually stops here. It’s $35/person for two hours — a genuinely good deal for the amount of Hollywood history packed into one walk.
A retirement home with working dead celebrities. © Wikipedia
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Château Marmont
The Château Marmont in Los Angeles, California, is rumored to be one of the most haunted hotels in the city. This apartment building turned hotel has seen its fair share of famous faces, from Marlon Brando to Jim Morrison – some of them featured on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! But it’s not just celebrities that have graced these halls—rumor has it that the ghost of comedian John Belushi still roams Bungalow 3. This world needs more ghosts that crack a good joke! Maybe John’s just looking to make a sequel with his blues brother, Dan Aykroyd.
Kidding aside, some guests have reported windows opening and furniture being moved without a soul in sight. It’s said that the hotel’s paranormal energy is trapped in the layers of paint, even though the gothic high-rise has been renovated many times. That must be some paint job!
Bungalow 3 gets most of the headlines, but guests with a nose for paranormal activity point to Suite 79 as another hot spot — reportedly the favored haunt of Howard Hughes, who used to rent out entire floors of the Marmont during his reclusive years and is said to still wander the corridors on certain nights, presumably dissatisfied with the linens. Marilyn Monroe has been spotted near the pool and in the main building hallways, which tracks: she lived here off and on in the early 1950s and was known to use the bungalows for private meetings. Jim Morrison, who famously dangled from a drainpipe off a fourth-floor window one particularly enthusiastic evening (he later said it had used up “the eighth of my nine lives”), is another name that surfaces in paranormal circles — though Morrison always had a flair for the dramatic, alive or otherwise. And then there’s the driveway, which carries its own grim footnote: in January 2004, Helmut Newton — the legendary fashion photographer who had wintered at the Marmont for decades — suffered a fatal heart attack while pulling out of the hotel, crashed his Cadillac, and died at Cedars-Sinai. Some guests say they’ve seen a figure near the entrance at odd hours, though whether that’s a ghost or just a celebrity trying not to be photographed is, at the Château Marmont, genuinely impossible to say.
Other famous guests of the Château Marmont include Dennis Hopper, Rita Hayworth, James Dean, Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, and Sidney Poitier. Did these celebs encounter ghostly figures or witness paranormal activity? We may never know.
The Château’s dark reputation fits right in on the Sunset Strip True Crime and Ghost Stories Tour — $39/person, two hours, and one of the highest-rated tours we’ve seen at a perfect 5.0 stars across 95+ reviews (also on GetYourGuide ). If you’re already doing a Sunset Strip evening, pairing it with this tour is honestly a no-brainer.
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The Cecil Hotel
A notorious crime scene and home to ghostly guests, you’ll get more than you bargained for when you stay at the Cecil.
There were also plenty of murders and unsolved deaths in the Cecil Hotel. In 1964, a man found the body of beloved retired telephone operator “Pigeon Goldie” Osgood lying in her room after someone strangled, raped, and beat her. The gentle woman had just returned from her regular routine of feeding the pigeons in Pershing Square. Her murder remains unsolved.
Most recently, the Cecil was the nightmarish backdrop for the disappearance of a young woman, Elisa Lam, in 2013. Lam’s story, which was followed by amateur sleuths around the world and became a Netflix show, turned the Cecil into a source of national fear. A surveillance camera caught Lam, a Canadian tourist traveling alone, inside one of the hotel elevators, demonstrating bizarre, fearful behavior as she pushed several buttons and briefly walked out waving her arms. She then disappeared, prompting the search. Weeks later, guests reported low water pressure and an odd smell in the water. A maintenance man found Lam’s dead body in a water tank on the hotel roof. Investigators ruled the death an accidental drowning, though how she could have scaled the 10-foot cistern remains unclear. They didn’t find evidence of foul play. The hotel’s history is so twisted that it inspired season 5 of American Horror Story!
Fans will have to gaze at the spooky hotel from outside as the Cecil became units for affordable housing in 2021. Will the saga continue with the new residents? Time will tell.
Millennium Biltmore Hotel
Once the sight of the Academy Awards, the Biltmore Hotel hosted beacons like Jack Warner and Cecil B. DeMille. Clark Gable and Ginger Rogers walked away with Oscars after that night. This was the place to be seen.
Legend has it that Elizabeth Short, more commonly known as the Black Dahlia, may be haunting this place. Guests have reported sightings of her ghost in the lobby and on the 10th and 11th floors. As the story goes, the Hollywood starlet was seen partying with an anxious-looking red-headed man; maybe they started at the lobby bar and moved to private guest rooms. She was last seen alive leaving the Biltmore in his car on January 9, 1947. Then, six days later, her mutilated body was found in an abandoned lot, but her spirit never left the Biltmore.
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The Black Dahlia mystery is all the more creepy with these cut-out letters and crooked, cryptic messages, don’t you think?
And that’s not all–there’s a mischievous little boy running around the 10th floor, a nurse ghost on the 2nd floor, and guests staying on the 9th floor sometimes hear the sounds of a little girl giggling and her footsteps.
Hotel staff says the 2nd and 9th floors are among the most haunted, so apparently, little boy ghosts and giggling girl ghosts are more frightening than the haunted history of the Black Dahlia. I couldn’t agree more. And most moms can relate—little kids can be real nightmares!
But the real kicker? A haunted elevator! I don’t know about you, but I draw the line at sharing an elevator with a ghost. Awkward elevator silences are bad enough without adding apparitions into the mix.
If the Biltmore’s history has you wanting to go deeper, the DTLA Murder Mystery Ghost Tour covers the Biltmore alongside the Cecil Hotel in one three-hour evening — $60/person, and two of downtown LA’s most notoriously haunted addresses for the price of one (also bookable on GetYourGuide ). Fair warning: it’s not an early night, but it is an unforgettable one.
The Hotel Normandie
Queen Mary
We can’t talk about haunted Hollywood hotels without mentioning the RMS Queen Mary, the royal liner who’s appeared on the silver and small screen multiple times. She’s the spookiest ship you’ll ever encounter, and your family could book a hotel room here! Docked in Long Beach, California, this ship is like the Disneyland of haunted destinations, and not the Mickey Mouse kind with a cute wizard hat! These ghosts are really nasty!
An old boat and stories of haunted hallways and paranormal pirates, the Queen Mary is the perfect setting for a Halloween movie.
Legend has it that the good ole Queen Mary ship is home to a bunch of restless spirits, including a young girl named Jackie Torin, who apparently loves playing peek-a-boo by the second-class pool. To be fair, if there was ever an appropriate game for a ghost to play, it’d be peek-a-boo, right?
If that’s not eerie enough, there’s an engine room crew member whose screams of pain still echo through the ship. And let’s not forget about the lady in white who’s always ready to dance in the lounge. I bet she looks like she’s floating on air as she twirls her way across the ballroom!
But wait, it gets even spookier. There’s this guy named Samuel the Savage who caused chaos back in the 1940s. They had to lock him up in room B340, which, surprise surprise, was drenched in blood the next day. Yikes! And if all that wasn’t enough, the ship apparently has wet footprints by the pool, ghostly kiddos running around, temperature changes, knocking, flickering lights, and slamming doors. It’s like a horror movie come to life!
If the haunted history isn’t enough for you–the Queen Mary offers ghost tours, ghost investigations, and even overnight stays in the most haunted stateroom, B340. Seriously though? That seems excessive, even for ghost hunters. It’s like the trifecta of everything you DON’T do in a Halloween movie. Isolated in the ocean. Stuck on a boat at night, with way too many tiny hallways.
So, if you’re ever in Long Beach and feel like tempting fate, go check out the Queen Mary. But don’t say we didn’t warn you about the ghostly peek-a-boo and the floating wet footprints.
Parent heads-up: Dark Harbor (September 18–November 1, 2026) leans hard into the scare — this is a full haunted event with mazes and actors, best for teens and brave older kids (think 12 and up). If your family wants the ghost history without the theatrical fright, the Queen Mary also offers daytime paranormal tours and overnight stays that are more history-focused and significantly less terrifying.
The Queen Mary runs its own paranormal experiences directly — including the Paranormal Ship Walk ($69) and the Grey Ghost Project — and we’d recommend booking through queenmary.com directly since these tend to sell out, especially around Halloween. You can also grab general admission bundled with a guided tour on GetYourGuide starting from $45/person — it has 200+ reviews and ratings between 4.3 and 4.7 stars, so you’re in good hands either way.
Happy ghost hunting, thrill-seeking, and blood-curdling screeching!
Haunted Hotels in Los Angeles: Your Questions Answered
Why is the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel haunted?
The Hollywood Roosevelt has a ghost story for almost every floor. Marilyn Monroe lived at the hotel early in her career and reportedly still shows up in the mirror that used to hang in her poolside suite — it was moved inside after too many guests reported seeing her reflection. Montgomery Clift called Room 928 home for months while filming From Here to Eternity, and guests have reported feeling a cold presence there ever since, occasionally accompanied by the sound of a bugle. When a hotel has hosted the first Academy Awards ceremony and that many dramatic departures, it’s really not surprising things got complicated.
Can you stay in a haunted hotel in Los Angeles?
Yes — and there are more options than you might think. The Hollywood Roosevelt is probably the most famous, but we’ve rounded up seven hotels across Hollywood and greater LA where the guest list includes guests who never technically checked out. Most of these are fully bookable, walkable from major attractions, and a genuinely fun alternative to a standard hotel stay — especially if you’re visiting around Halloween or traveling with teenagers who are hard to impress.
Is the Queen Mary haunted?
By most accounts, absolutely. Time magazine once named the Queen Mary one of the ten most haunted places in the world, and we’ll admit — we spent a night aboard to find out for ourselves. The ship, permanently docked in Long Beach (about 25 miles south of downtown LA), has officially logged 57 deaths, and paranormal investigators have catalogued over 100 reported hauntings. The most active spots tend to be the engine room and the first-class pool, where the ghost of a young girl named Jackie is said to play. We wrote the whole thing up here if you want the full debrief.
What is the most haunted hotel in Los Angeles?
The Hollywood Roosevelt consistently tops the list, and for good reason — it has the receipts. Between Marilyn Monroe’s mirror, Montgomery Clift’s bugle, and decades of reported activity across multiple floors, it’s the one we’d put money on. That said, the Château Marmont, the Knickerbocker, and the Hotel Cecil have all earned their own reputations. If you’re making a trip of it, Los Angeles is genuinely one of the better cities in the country for this kind of historical haunted-hotel crawl.
Are haunted hotels in Los Angeles appropriate for families with kids?
It depends entirely on your kids. For families with teenagers or adventure-seeking older children, a stay at somewhere like the Hollywood Roosevelt or a ghost tour of the Knickerbocker can be the highlight of a whole LA trip — the kind of story they’ll tell for years. For younger kids who are easily scared (or who will not sleep, and therefore will ensure you do not sleep), a daytime ghost tour at the Hollywood Roosevelt is a better call than booking the room. We’d rate the experience as “thrillingly weird” rather than actually terrifying — but we also know our kids, and you know yours.
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. I am a master brand storyteller, creative ringleader and kick-a content creator, based in Park City, Utah, where I live with my three incredible kiddos, my guy, and three of the goofiest doodle doggies you’ll ever meet. My specialties include copywriting, content creation, word smithing, editing, proofreading, SEO marketing, brainstorming, and picking brains. I’m also very good at multitasking, single-tasking, and “I’ll just do it myself” tasking. Last, but certainly not least, I specialize in spontaneous bursts of sheer brilliance. I traded life near the Pacific Ocean for mountain town living in Park City, which actually feels like a chill beach town…so, it’s a pretty even trade, except for the snow – obvi!