It's probably safe to say that most hotels have a ghost story or two, but some of them advertise the haunting in the hopes that it will bring in ghost hunting guests.
I am that person that would absolutely stay at a hotel that has things that go bump in the night. I'm fascinated by ghosts and hauntings. In fact, lots of weird, unexplained things have happened in my own home and rather than being scared, I think it's kinda cool.
If you're looking to stay overnight with unearthly beings that walk the halls, there are several hotels here in Rhode Island with some ghost stories to tell. In August, I took a haunted boat and the tour guide talked a lot about the old Biltmore Hotel (now The Graduate). Apparently that is one of the more haunted locations in the state!
The hotel was financed in 1918 by Johan Leisse Weisskopf, who did not hide the fact that he was a practicing Satanist. He would host wild parties for some of his famous friends including Louis Armstrong, Douglas Fairbanks and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in the Bacchante Dining Room. Nude waitresses called the Bacchante Girls would serve guests! There were even chicken coops on the roof of the hotel not only for food, but also rumored to be used as blood sacrifices!
Weisskopf was also connected with the mob, so during Prohibition a speakeasy was run in the basement. Several murders and deaths have occurred over the years within the walls of The Biltmore, including an 11-year-old prostitute who drowned in a bathtub.
Many guests have reported seeing a man falling past the window outside of their room. Supposedly that is the ghost of a financier who learned of the stock market crash on October 24, 1929, and jumped out of his 14th floor window to his death.
Other visitors say they are kept up at night by loud parties, glasses clinking and dancing. If that sounds a little like The Shining, there are rumors that Stephen King used The Biltmore as inspiration for the fictional Overlook Hotel, although King himself gives that credit to The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.
Other places where you might see a ghost on your overnight stay include The General Stanton Inn in Charlestown. Built in 1655, the building originally served as a schoolhouse. The ghost of a man is sometimes seen in The Washington room of this hotel. If you sleep there, be careful, they say he likes to throw things.
A little girl's spirit is sometimes seen looking down from the windows of The Pilgrim House Inn in Newport. Otherworldly laughter and music have been reported late at night as well.
The Harborside Inn on Block Island and Castle Hill Inn in Newport are a couple of other places where you can stay that have had some ghostly happenings.
Have you ever stayed in a Haunted Hotel? Would you like to, or would you be way too scared to do that?
Check out the videos below to see some of the ghostly activity that's been captured!
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