Hi, it's Zee Michelson here. And on this special episode, because it is Halloween week, we're going to be doing the world's most haunted hotels. So check in if you dare. This travel podcast, we're gonna pack our bags, grab a flashlight, and explore some of these ghostly sides of the globe. And you know what? There are 19 of them. These are the places where things will bump in the night, where old guests never really leave, and where the room service might just be from the other side. So get cozy, turn down the lights, and remember, if your bed shakes or you hear footsteps in an empty hallway, it's probably just your imagination. Probably. So let's start with the classic. Number one on my list is the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. You probably know this as the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. King stayed there one night in 1974. It was just him and his wife. And a mostly empty hotel. By morning he dreamt of a little boy running through the hall screaming, and he had the idea for this most famous novel. And of course the most famous line we all know here's Johnny. But long before King arrived, the Stanley already had a reputation. The original owner, F. O. Stanley, died in 1940. He is still seen checking on the guests at the front desk. Now that's dedication. There's laughter in the halls, pianos that play by themselves, and lights that flicker without reason. If you want the full experience, the hotel actually offers spirited stays on its most haunted floor, complete with ghost tours at night. So if you dare, choose the Stanley Hotel. Number two, we're gonna pop across the pond. We're going to London, to the Langham Hotel. It is an elegant hotel in London. It opened in 1865. It was once a height of luxury. The Prince of Wales himself attended the grand opening. But even royalty can't keep these ghosts away. Room three hundred three three is said to be the most haunted in London, with multiple spirits claiming squatters' rights. There's a ghost who shakes the bed for fun, a Victorian doctor who stares into the distance, and even a German prince who appears in full military dress. Elsewhere in the hotel you might spot a man with a wounded face, or Napoleon III himself wandering the halls. Imagine that. A whole spectral guest list. I wonder if Napoleon III would re sign the guest list for you. Well, that's in London. And like I always thought, most of the hauntings must be overseas in London and England and Scotland. And Ireland, of course. So where am I going to next? I'm going to the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. In Dublin, the Shellbourne's elegant, historic, and home to a very, very mischievous guest spirit called Mary Masters. Mary was just seven years old when she died of cholera in the hotel during the eighteen hundreds. But her presence is still felt, especially in one particular room. Guests have reported faucets turning on by themselves, wardrobe doors creaking open, and the unmistakable sound of giggling. One staff member even volunteered to sleep there to prove it was all nonsense. Well, let's just say they didn't get much sleep that night. So if you're there at the Shelbourne Hotel, make sure you say hi to Mary Masters. Now I do apologize in advance for mutilating this name of this hotel because my French is not so good. Fairmont Le Chateau in Frontenac, Quebec City. High above Quebec City is the chateau. It's a castle like hotel, it overlooks cobblestone streets. And among its ghostly guests is Count Frontenac himself. He died centuries before the hotel was even built. Locals say he returned anyway, searching the holes for his lost love. Oh, isn't that romantic? There's also a woman in a nightgown who likes to wake people up, which is probably not the kind of room service that you had in mind. Boy, how rude she wants to wake people up. You want to get a good night's sleep and she's waking you up. Well that's number four, the Fairmont Le Chateau Fronteniac. Now number five, we are back in the United States. We are in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Who would have thought we had ghosts in Arkansas? Not me. If you're brave enough to visit one of America's most haunted hotels, this is the one you have to look at. The Crescent Hotel in Arkansas. It was originally a luxury resort. It later became a cancer hospital run by a fraudulent doctor in the 1930s. His so-called treatments killed dozens, and the morgue he built still exists right next to the modern spa. Today guests report full bodied apparitions of nurses, patients, and even children. The hotel embraces its haunted reputation, offering nightly ghost tours, and some say not all the guests are alive. Well now I'm gonna jump across to Denmark. The Drag's home slot and we're gonna go medieval. The Drag's home slot in Denmark dates back all the way to twelve fifteen, and it's home to more than a hundred ghosts. It's already crowded. Why would we want to check in there? Three are the most famous. There's the white lady, a nobleman's daughter who fell in love with a commoner. Her father bricked her into the castle walls. Can you imagine that? The Grey Lady, a kind spirit, said to help guests who've lost something. Oh that's nice. If you lose your keys to your car, maybe she'll help you find them. And James Hepburn, who rides through the courtyard in a phantom carriage every night. Ooh, can you imagine? Talk about a lively guest list. And of course, this is in Denmark. The Drags Home Slot Denmark. Number seven on my list is the Hotel Monte Vista in Arizona. Well, we're back in the United States again. Who knew the US had all these haunted hotels? But the Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff is so haunted it practically encourages ghost hunting. From a man who messes up the bed to a phantom bellboy, a crying baby, and a dancing couple, every floor has a story. One guest woke up to their TV blasting, only to find it wasn't even plugged in. I guess they wanted to watch a little TV, huh? Maybe checkout time before checkout time. Hotel Monte Vista in Arizona. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? Again, I want to thank the article I read, which was in the Daily Passport, for all these wonderful places to go on this haunted week. Of course, this is Halloween week. Now, number eight. This hotel is in Malaysia. It's the first world hotel in Malaysia. It's enormous. Over seventy, three hundred rooms. Seventy three hundred rooms. Yikes. But the twenty-first floor, guests say the elevator skips it entirely. They usually skip the thirteenth floor, but in this hotel, they skip the twenty first floor. Some swear they've been pushed in their sleep or seen figures that vanish into the walls. Rumor has it, the ghosts come for gamblers who lost everything in the hotel's casino and decided to stay forever. So if you were a gambler and you died there, you might be staying there forever. Number nine. Lord Milner Hotel in South Africa. So this hotel stands as a relic of the Boer War and is home to countless ghosts. A nurse named Kate walks the stairs. Soldiers linger on the balcony, and a woman named Marianne loves to jingle the doorknobs of room twenty six. Guests say the hotel feels alive with whispers, footsteps, and flickering lights that no electrician can explain. That sounds kind of fun. So if you're in South Africa and you want to stay at a haunted hotel, the Lord Milner Hotel is it. Number ten. Now I've been on this. I have gone to the Queen Mary in California. Now the Queen Mary is permanently docked in Long Beach, California, and I did a little trip through the Queen Mary just to see it. And it is the most haunted ship hotel in the world. It once carried soldiers during World War II and passengers across the Atlantic. Now, guests report knocking on cabin doors, ghostly children playing by the pool, and a woman in a wedding gown wandering the decks. They say the ship never really stopped sailing. It just crossed over. And I have been on this ship, so I have seen it. I didn't see any of its haunted guests though. Number eleven Le Chateau de Marseille in France. Le Chateau de Marseille hides a gruesome legend. You know how it is over everybody overseas. We always have these gruesome legends. It's the story of a woman cursed to become a werewolf. When a farmer shot her one night, he buried her body in secret, and now her ghost walks the castle grounds, wrapped in white, under every full moon. I wonder if she bathes at the moon. Supposedly she was a cursed werewolf. Number twelve. We are back in the United States. I keep bouncing back across the water here. We're going to Chicago. Congress Plaza Hotel. Chicago's Congress Plaza Hotel opened in 1893 World's Fair and soon gained a darker nickname. The Home of Presidents and Ghosts. Interesting, Presidents and Ghosts. From a phantom worker who fell to his death to a shadowy figure in the ballroom, guests often report cold spots and whispers near the old roller rank. Even El Capone is rumored to make an appearance every now and then. So if you're in Chicago, check out the Congress Plaza Hotel. Alright, now here's something right up my alley. We're in Scotland. This is where I thought all the ghosts would be. Dalhousie Castle. In Scotland, it's nearly 800 years old and haunted by the Grey Lady. A mistress locked in a turret by a jealous wife. There's also Sir Alexander Ramsey, a nobleman who died in 1342 and reportedly still patrols the halls. That's dedication. The castle now hosts weddings, though you might want to check that every guest on your list is actually alive. All right, are you ready to go on these haunted hotel tours? How about back in Wisconsin? We're gonna go to the Fister Hotel in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to be precise. The Pister Hotel has a reputation that even Major League Baseball players can't ignore. Players have reported radios turning on by themselves, tapping noises, and items moving across the room. One player swore he saw a skeleton in his bed. I bet that scared him. The hotel's founder, Charles Pister, is said to roam the halls to this day, just making sure things run smoothly. You gotta love these hotel owners that stay there even after their death to make sure everybody has a good night's sleep. Or maybe not. Now, I never even knew about this. The Taj Mahal Palace in India. It's in Mumbai, it's grand and it's haunted. Its architect, W. A. Chambers, was so distraught to learn the hotel was accidentally built backwards that he took his own life. How could you build a hotel backwards? I don't understand that. Well, now his ghost roams the halls, protecting the building he once designed, perhaps trying to make peace with the mistake that haunted him in his lifetime. Now, I love the name of this place. It's called the Mermaid Inn. It's in Rye, England. The Mermaid Inn dates back nearly one thousand years, and has seen everything from sailors to smugglers. Whew, sounds a little kitschy, doesn't it? Guests have reported a rocking chair that moves on its own, a lady in white by the fireplace, and shadowy figures disappearing through walls. The inn's motto You may check out, but you'll never forget. Again, that's the Mermaid Inn in Rye, England. Well, I'm moving, I'm getting closer to the end here of my nineteen hotels. I'm up to number 17. And I'm back in Canada, and everybody has heard of Banff. Well the Fairmont Banff Springs, that's in the Canadian Rockies. It looks like a beautiful fairy tale castle. Until you meet the ghosts, and of course, you got some ghosts that can be a bit pesty. A bride who died on her wedding day still dances in the ballroom. And a bellman named Sam, who worked there in the nineteen sixties, still helps guests with their luggage, even though he's been dead for decades. Haha. If you see him, don't forget to tip. Wouldn't that be interesting? A ghost carrying your luggage to the room. I wonder what he does with the tip money. Number eighteen. We are in Sydney, Australia, and we're going to the Russell Hotel. It was built on the site of Australia's first hospital and later became a sailor's hostel. Today, room eight is said to be haunted by a ghostly sailor who appears at the foot of the bed, but only to women. Downstairs a lady in white wanders silently through the bar. Guests describe the atmosphere as watchful, like the building itself remembers everything that's ever happened inside. Well, it must be nice to be watched over. What do you think? Would you stay at the Russell Hotel in Sydney? All right, going back to my nineteenth one, this is the last one on my list. I can't believe we've made it through all nineteen. There's a lot to be said about all of these hotels. And again, I found all this information from the fabulous magazine the Delhi Passport, which I get quite frequently, and I thought I might share all this information with you, just in case you want to go on your own ghost tours. And number nineteen. This name is even scary. Chillingham Castle in England. Chillingham Castle is in Northumberland, England. It was built in the twelfth century. Wow, the twelfth century. It's one of the most famous haunted castles in the world. In the world, that's right, I said in the world. Guests hear voices in the chapel, they see figures in the courtyard, and encounter a blue boy whose cries echo through the night. Even the current owners host ghost tours, but they warn the castle doesn't like to be mocked. So don't mock it. And if you're gonna have to chuckle, maybe you should chuckle quietly. And there you have it. Nineteen hotels, nineteen stories of love, lost, lingering spirits. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, one thing's certain, these hotels are full of history, and sometimes history re just refuses to leave. So again, thank you for joining me on this special edition of the Z. Michelson Travel Podcast for Halloween. 19 of the most haunted hotels throughout the world. I hope you enjoyed this. And if you stay at one of these hotels, hopefully you will come back. I always say travel the world, reach for the stars, and if you only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. Thanks for joining me today, and happy Halloween.