This Georgia Hotel With Otherworldly Amenities Is One Of The 'Most Haunted' Spots In America

Welcome to the spooky southern city of Savannah — so haunted, there are gravestones on the airport runway. Here, you'll find one of the most haunted hotels in America, the Marshall House. This gorgeous boutique hotel offers free hot breakfast with every booking, plus a side dish of possible ghost sightings. Haunting child-like voices can be heard through the walls, and ghostly apparitions have been spotted roaming the hallways. The hotel was used as a Union hospital during the Civil War, making it a place of tragedy and death for several years. Throughout the decades, reports of paranormal activity have consistently aroused the curiosity of tourists who visit.

Despite the hotel's dark history and spooky vibes, Marshall House has received its share of accolades. It was one of the featured properties on "The Travel Channel's Great Hotels" in 2003, and "Travel Channel's Haunted Hotels" in 2005. It also received the honor of being "Best of Savannah" in 2004, 2005, and 2014, as well as "Coastal Living's Top 20 Places to Stay" in 2006. Just because it's a haunted hotel doesn't mean it can't have a dose of southern charm. 

Housing a mix of vintage luxury and quaint comfort, this delightful oasis makes you feel like you've stepped into another era. Rooms are styled with beautiful antique furnishings, and delicate chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Its exquisite décor creates the perfect backdrop for a supernatural encounter. It's not difficult to see why folks keep flocking to this charming and luxurious hotel. Even if you don't stay overnight, it should still be a must-see on your Savannah to-do list. Its iconic red brick facade and intricate wrought iron veranda provide a wondrous sight for any visitor. Ghost enthusiasts can book The Restless Souls with Afterlife Tours to learn about its supernatural history.

Autumn is an excellent time to visit Marshall House, since Savannah is one of the best spooky cities for a Halloween vacation. It's home to hauntingly beautiful cemeteries, like Bonaventure, and the historic Colonial Park Cemetery within the city. There are charming shops and restaurants along its cobblestone streets, and its riverfront district is full of lively bars and live music. You can even have a scary dining experience at The Pirates' House, a historic tavern rumored to be haunted, on one of the city's ghost tours. The Marshall House is a popular stop on a lot of these tours, due to the various paranormal incidents reported at the hotel. It's not surprising, considering the hotel's dark history since it first opened in 1851.

This antebellum hotel played an important role during the Civil War, becoming a hospital for Union soldiers. It is rumored that the reason Marshall House is so haunted is that, when it was being used as a hospital during the war, bodies of the deceased were buried on the hotel grounds. By 1895, the hotel closed, only to reopen again in 1899 after renovations. These renovations revealed the bones of some of these soldiers, adding to the hotel's creepy history. To make things even more interesting, there have been sightings of dismembered ghostly soldiers roaming around the hotel throughout the decades. 

Several changes and renovations to the property have taken place since its Civil War days, but some things still remain unchanged — the ghostly activity surrounding it. There have been reports of faucets operating on their own, lights and electronics going haywire, as well as ghostly voices heard in the hallways. Guests have even reported seeing the ghost of Mary Marshall, the original owner, roaming the corridors.

Some rooms have more supernatural activity than others, with phantom scents and strange noises. While reports of jiggling doorknobs and overflowing toilets might allow room for more natural explanations, the consistent reports of guests smelling rotting flesh from the same rooms at odd hours leave more to the imagination. Room 414 seems to have a heavy supernatural presence, with rotting smells, the sound of bootsteps circling the bed, and ankle-grabbing ghosts. Rooms 214 and 314 are also infamous for the smell of decaying flesh. Many speculate the odor is the lingering effect of injured wartime soldiers or from the yellow fever epidemic that struck shortly after.

Guests have heard sounds of children laughing and playing around the hotel, particularly around 3 a.m.; some have heard loud adult voices in the next room, only to look and find nothing there. Perhaps the most chilling is the story of a mother whose child came out of the bathroom with a bite mark on their arm, claiming the little boy they were playing with bit them. Curiously enough, they weren't the only guests reporting child-like bite marks. 

All these ghostly happenings make Marshall House very attractive to paranormal enthusiasts, as one can imagine. Savannah Ghost Tours, Afterlife Tours, and Ghost City Tours regularly feature this hotel among their haunted spots around town. Amateur ghost hunters stay in their charming rooms to perform their own ghostly investigations, armed with cat toys and audio recorders. Ghosts are exciting because they give us a glimpse of the unknown, especially around spooky season. What better way to get hauntingly acquainted with these ghostly apparitions than by staying at this beautiful boutique hotel full of southern charm, spirits, and hospitality?