6 Most Haunted Hotels in Nevada: From Ghost Towns to the Strip
Nevada holds both ends of the range at once. One hotel on this list has been sealed for safety since long before most of its investigators were born. Another has slot machines running under it right now.
That gap is the whole story of the state. The mining towns boomed, emptied and froze in place, while the Strip built its own history at speed a hundred miles south.
We pulled this list from our directory of haunted places across Nevada. Five of the six are open, and the sixth is the most famous haunted hotel in America.
Here are the 6 most haunted hotels in Nevada, what people report inside them, and which ones you can actually get into.
Why Nevada Hotels Are So Haunted
Nevada’s mining towns went from nothing to enormous wealth and back to nothing inside a generation.
Goldfield and Tonopah built hotels grander than anything between San Francisco and Denver, for populations that then vanished. The buildings stayed, largely unaltered, in towns too small to redevelop them.
Las Vegas is the opposite case. It has almost no old buildings, but it has an unusually dense and violent recorded history packed into a handful of properties that never close.
1. Goldfield Hotel, Goldfield
The Goldfield Hotel opened in 1908 for around $400,000, which made it the most expensive building between San Francisco and Denver. It had 154 rooms, gold leaf ceilings and mahogany columns.
The gold ran out, the town collapsed to a few hundred people, and the hotel has been closed for decades. It is routinely named among the most haunted buildings in the country.
The central story is a woman remembered as Elizabeth, said to have been imprisoned and to have died in Room 109 in a dispute involving mining magnate George Wingfield. Investigators report sharp temperature drops and recordings from that room. The details are legend rather than documented record, and worth treating as such.
2. The Mizpah Hotel, Tonopah
The Mizpah Hotel opened in Tonopah in 1908, five stories and 47 rooms, and was the tallest building in Nevada at the time.
It was financed by the same mining money as the Goldfield, but unlike the Goldfield it was restored and reopened. You can book it tonight.
Its ghost is the Lady in Red, a woman named Rose said to have worked and died on the fifth floor. Room 502 is the room people request. The signature report is the scent of roses with no source, along with doors opening on the upper floors and devices draining.
3. Silver Queen Hotel, Virginia City
The Silver Queen Hotel has taken guests since 1876, at the height of the Comstock Lode, in a town that once held tens of thousands of people.
Virginia City is now a preserved historic district, and the Silver Queen is one of the least altered Victorian buildings on its main street.
Room 11 carries the reputation, tied to a woman remembered as Rosie who is said to have been killed there in the 1880s. Guests report crying heard in the early hours, heavy bootfalls in empty upstairs hallways, and cold spots that come and go within seconds.
4. Flamingo Las Vegas, Las Vegas
The Flamingo opened on 26 December 1946 as Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel’s attempt at a luxury desert resort, at a cost that ran to around six million dollars.
Siegel was shot dead in Beverly Hills six months later. The Flamingo is the oldest resort still operating on the Strip.
Reports centre on the memorial garden that carries his name, where visitors describe being watched and phones and cameras draining fast. Staff also describe a figure in 1940s tailoring crossing the casino floor.
5. Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino, Las Vegas
The Westgate opened in 1969 as the International Hotel with 1,512 rooms, the largest hotel in the world at the time.
Elvis Presley opened its showroom that year with 58 consecutive sold out performances, a residency that restarted his career and ran for most of the following decade.
Unsurprisingly, the ghost people report is Elvis. Staff describe a figure in a white jumpsuit in the backstage corridors near his former dressing room. Elsewhere, guests report cold spots on the upper floors and lifts stopping at floors nobody selected.
6. Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas
The Luxor opened on 15 October 1993, a thirty storey black glass pyramid that was then the tallest building on the Strip.
It is the youngest building on this list by almost a century, which makes its reputation unusual. Deaths during construction and in the years since are the root of it.
Guests report shadow figures in corridors late at night and cold spots on the casino floor and upper guest levels. The most repeated single account is a man in work clothes and a hard hat near maintenance areas. Reports concentrate on the higher floors toward the apex.
How to Visit Nevada Haunted Hotels Safely
The Goldfield Hotel is the one that matters here. It is not open to the public, the structure has deteriorated badly, and entering it without the owner’s arrangement is both trespassing and genuinely dangerous. Supervised investigations are occasionally permitted and must be booked in advance.
The other five are open. The Mizpah and the Silver Queen take normal bookings, and the three Las Vegas properties run around the clock with no entry fee for public areas.
Distances in central Nevada are long and services are sparse. Fuel up before the drive between Tonopah and Goldfield, and carry water in summer.
If you want to record anything, our ghost hunting equipment guide covers the EMF meters, recorders, and cameras that actually capture evidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most haunted hotel in Nevada?
The Goldfield Hotel, by reputation and by the volume of investigation it has drawn. The Mizpah in Tonopah is the most haunted hotel you can actually sleep in.
Can you stay at the Goldfield Hotel?
No. It has been closed for decades and the building is structurally unsafe. Access is limited to occasional supervised investigations arranged with the owners, with waivers. Do not attempt to enter it any other way.
Are any Las Vegas Strip hotels actually haunted?
Three carry long standing reputations: the Flamingo through its Bugsy Siegel history, the Westgate through Elvis and its showroom, and the Luxor. All three are open around the clock and free to walk through.
Plan Your Nevada Haunted Hotel Trip
Nevada splits into a Strip night and a long desert drive, and the drive is the better half.
From Las Vegas, Tonopah is about three and a half hours north on US 95, with Goldfield another twenty five minutes beyond it. Stay at the Mizpah, look at the Goldfield from the street, then carry on to Virginia City for the Silver Queen.
For everything beyond the hotels, browse our full directory of haunted places in Nevada or read our roundup of the most haunted places in Nevada.
