Casa Monica Resort and Spa – Haunted Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida

The Casa Monica Resort and Spa is a stunning Moorish-style hotel that’s been welcoming guests in America’s oldest city since 1888. But beyond its luxurious amenities and beautiful architecture, this historic hotel has a darker side—guests and staff regularly report ghostly encounters that have earned it a reputation as one of Florida’s most haunted hotels.

Historical Background

Year Built: 1888

Original Purpose: The building was constructed as a luxury hotel by Boston businessman Franklin W. Smith, designed to attract wealthy winter visitors to St. Augustine. Over the years, it has served various purposes including a courthouse annex during the Great Depression before being restored to its original grandeur as a hotel.

Significant Events: The hotel has witnessed over a century of drama, including financial hardships, closures, and transformations that left emotional imprints on the building. The most significant paranormal activity seems tied to the early 1900s when the hotel operated during St. Augustine’s Gilded Age, a time of both opulence and personal tragedies among its wealthy guests.

Paranormal Activity Summary

Guests most commonly report unexplained footsteps in empty hallways, doors opening and closing on their own, and sudden cold spots that appear without explanation. Many visitors experience the sensation of being watched, particularly in the older sections of the hotel, and some have captured strange orbs and shadowy figures in photographs.

The paranormal patterns seem to intensify at night, especially between midnight and 3 AM when the hotel is quietest. Several notable spirits are believed to roam the property, including a woman in Victorian-era clothing and a mysterious male presence that appears in vintage hotel attire.

Ghost Stories & Reports

The Woman in White: The most frequently sighted ghost is an elegant woman dressed in Victorian clothing, believed to be a former guest from the hotel’s early days. Visitors report seeing her gliding through the fourth-floor hallways, sometimes pausing to look out windows before vanishing into thin air.

The Phantom Bellhop: Staff members have reported encounters with a man dressed in an old-fashioned bellhop uniform who appears briefly before disappearing. Some guests claim to have been helped with their luggage by this mysterious figure, only to turn around and find no one there.

Children’s Laughter: Perhaps the most unsettling reports come from guests who hear the sound of children laughing and playing in empty corridors late at night. The source of these ghostly children remains a mystery, though some speculate they may be connected to families who stayed at the hotel during its early years.

Local folklore suggests that the hotel’s spirits are residual energy from the building’s golden age, when it hosted society’s elite and witnessed countless personal dramas. Some paranormal enthusiasts believe the Moorish architecture itself may trap spiritual energy, creating a hotspot for supernatural activity.

Most Haunted Spot Inside

The fourth floor is widely considered the most active paranormal hotspot in the entire hotel, with Room 424 earning a particularly spooky reputation. Guests staying in this room have reported waking up to see shadowy figures standing at the foot of their beds, and many refuse to stay the night after experiencing unexplained phenomena.

Can You Visit?

Open to the Public? Yes, the Casa Monica is a fully operational luxury hotel where anyone can book a room.

Entry Fee: Room rates vary by season, typically ranging from $200-$500 per night, though you don’t need to be a guest to visit the public areas.

Tour Availability: The hotel occasionally partners with local ghost tour companies for special paranormal tours, though these must be arranged in advance. St. Augustine’s various ghost tour groups often stop outside to share the hotel’s haunted history.

Photography Allowed? Yes, photography is permitted in public areas and in your own room.

Visiting Hours: The hotel is open 24/7 for guests, while non-guests can visit the lobby, restaurant, and bar during regular business hours.

Best Time to Visit

October through December is considered the peak time for paranormal activity, particularly around Halloween when the spiritual energy in St. Augustine seems especially active. Many paranormal investigators recommend staying midweek when the hotel is less crowded, giving spirits more “room” to make their presence known.

First-Hand Accounts & Eyewitness Reports

A guest from Ohio reported in 2019 that she woke at 2 AM to find a transparent woman standing by her window, staring out at the city before fading away. Another visitor documented on social media that the bathroom faucet in his room turned on by itself multiple times during his stay, and he captured EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recordings of whispered voices.

Hotel staff members have shared numerous experiences off the record, including housekeepers who refuse to clean certain rooms alone and front desk workers who’ve witnessed elevators operating on their own. A maintenance worker reported seeing a full-bodied apparition of a man in 1920s attire walking through a locked storage room.

Paranormal Investigations & Findings

The hotel has been featured on several paranormal investigation shows and attracts ghost hunters from around the country. Independent investigators using EMF detectors and thermal cameras have documented unusual energy spikes and temperature drops, particularly on the fourth floor and in the basement areas.

One paranormal research team captured footage of what appears to be a figure moving across a hallway when no one was present. Their audio recordings included unexplained voices and what sounded like period-appropriate music playing faintly in empty rooms.