Ghost in a haunted Orlando hotel

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The Most Haunted Hotels in Orlando

Orlando, Florida, is a jewel in the national tourism crown. Over 73 million people flocked to this South Florida tourist oasis last year to enjoy attractions and soak up the sun. From Mickey Mouse to the Millennium Falcon, Donald Duck to Dumbledore, Orlando and its famed theme parks offer an abundance of worlds to explore and plenty of haunted hotels to accompany them.

When Orlando and ghostly goings-on are mentioned in the same breath, one could be forgiven for conjuring images of a hilltop castle school and a certain bespectacled young wizard. However, spooky spectacles and poltergeists are not merely the privy of the wizarding world in Orlando. 

Let Orlando cast a spell on you. Book an Orlando ghost tour with Orlando Haunts. 

WHAT ARE THE MOST HAUNTED HOTELS IN ORLANDO?

Some of the hotels that visitors have called home through the years have had their share of unearthly and rather unnerving encounters, with not a single little wizard in sight. The city’s top three haunted hotels offer a glimpse into Orlando’s shadowy spooks. 

  • ANGEBILT HOTEL
  • SAN JUAN HOTEL
  • SUPER EIGHT, INTERNATIONAL DRIVE

THE ANGEBILT HOTEL

Joseph F. Ange’s vision of a luxurious downtown Orlando hotel was very much in keeping with the time. Construction began in 1921, and the hotel opened its glittering doors in March 1923. The roaring 20s changed the face of the nation, particularly where commercial expansion, opulence, and finance were swirled together.

In the case of the Angebilt Hotel, all elements of that desirable recipe were found in the mix. In a time of wealth and opportunity, Ange turned to Florida’s first-ever registered architect, Murray S. King, to bring his vision to life and design the $1M hotel. 

For this sizable project, King would draw inspiration from the famed Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City, seeing the lauded building as a fitting starting point for the grandeur in mind. The Angebilt struggled on through time after its glory years.  A 1983 fire permanently shuttered two floors before the struggling and tired old structure was briefly converted into a courthouse in 1990. 

ANGEBILT GHOSTS

Employees have spoken of terrifying encounters while on bathroom breaks at the downtown icon. A violent shaking of the bathroom stall had one woman fear for her wellbeing. 

She was so shaken she crawled out from under the mysteriously locked stall door and made a panicked dash for the exit. As the terrified woman made her escape, she could hear a cacophonous banging behind her.

Ghosts in tunnel
Copyright US Ghost Adventures

Beneath the hotel, a tunnel connects to the old Beacham Theatre. Workers claim to have seen apparitions lingering in the half-light while disembodied voices swirl around them, making trips into the tunnel an unwelcome prospect. 

Even in more modern times, office workers in the former hotel have experienced the feeling of a presence while the sound of glasses clinking and party chatter could be heard behind closed doors. When the doors are opened, mere silence and an empty space await the confused onlooker. It seems the Angebilt has remained popular in the spirit world. 

SAN JUAN HOTEL

When it opened in 1885, San Juan was the tallest building in the city—a whopping three stories—and Orlando’s first permanent hotel. 

The hotel’s construction, at the princely sum of $150k, was a source of much consternation for worried onlookers. American philosopher, scientist, and engineer Captain C. E. Pierce was entrusted with bringing the hotel into existence.

Pierce chose to forego the usual foundation construction, merely leveling and clearing the land before beginning construction. This led many locals to believe the hotel’s stint as the tallest building was a temporary arrangement. 

However, Pierce found a method in the madness, and the hotel grew taller with later additions, surviving until the 1970s. Name changes were promptly followed by two mysterious murders and a fire in 1979 while awaiting demolition.

SPOOKY SAN JUAN

Scandal enveloped the San Juan Hotel in 1938 with the death by poisoning of a 19-year-old woman. By the time the mystery was unraveled, the head-spinning tale would shock the city and make headlines across the country. 

A former policeman with secret ambitions of building a criminal network had inadvertently killed the girl when cyanide-laced whisky, intended to kill his criminal cohort, was passed on first to a stranger in a bar and finally to young Dolores Myerly. 

The whisky was so laden with the deadly poison that she merely had time to utter the words “What in the world did you put in this stuff?” before collapsing dead. Former Police Lieutenant George Coston was sentenced to death for the dark deed but died in prison in 1942. 

It is said that the ghost of Dolores Myerly still occupies Room 208, where she met her awful fate. Myely isn’t the only death to stain the San Juan. Like the Angebilt nearby, the San Juan has an old underground tunnel to the Beacham Theatre. 

At the entrance to this tunnel, the body of a dead performer was found against the wall, furthering the belief that the tunnels are home to spectral residents. 

SUPER EIGHT HOTEL, INTERNATIONAL DRIVE

With the annual influx of tens of millions of visitors to Orlando’s various attractions, one thing is as abundant as palm trees and sand: chain hotels. Super Eight hotels, with their basic amenities and low nightly cost, are as common as pictures of Mickey Mouse in the Orlando area.

However, one particular Super Eight merits much closer inspection. Its relatively unremarkable location on International Drive may be the most haunted hotel in Orlando—or at least the most haunted room.

Erected in 1986, the passively recognizable beige exterior and modest basic interior speaks to the need for quick, cheap, easy locations where visitors can rest before dashing off to the theme parks and beaches. Many guests, however, have had a far less restful experience than they intended.

THE GHOST OF ROOM 206

Ghost on bed
Copyright US Ghost Adventures

Guests at the hotel have been left uneasy and dealing with the unexplained in this otherwise unremarkable room. Numerous guests and cleaning staff have reported making their beds in the morning only to almost immediately find a clear and visible indentation of someone lying on top of the bed. 

If that spine-chilling sight is not enough to have you running for the door, the fact that the room often turns ice cold, regardless of searing outside temperatures, and the AC is turned off may start you running. 

Furthering the idea that this room may be a no-go zone, some guests have gone as far as to report waking to the sensation of a cold body lying next to them in bed. This has even been accompanied by the feeling of a negative presence or energy, leaving guests scared and uneasy. 

Many have speculated as to why this particular room would hold such special spectral significance, with paranormal investigators even exploring the room and recording odd sounds and readings. No single event or death has been attributed to this suspected haunting, but the continued spectral activity in Room 206 has made believers of many skeptics and naysayers. 

Until the presence reveals itself further or more is known about the origins of this out-of-the-ordinary activity in a very ordinary hotel room, visitors and ghost hunters alike are left pondering the strange activity of Room 206.

HAUNTED ORLANDO

Orlando is surrounded by billion-dollar tourist attractions and millions of annual visitors in search of thrills and entertainment. For many visitors, chilling encounters can be added to the list of experiences. 

You can drink Butter Beer with Harry Potter, pilot a starship across the Galaxy, and even go in search of a far more elusive and shadowy unknown. 

Whether your taste is for Disney castles or thrilling roller coasters, you may find the biggest surprise is the room where you lay your head for the night. You can search in the shadows on your own Orlando ghost tour with Orlando Haunts.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for haunted stories from around the nation, and keep reading our blog for the best-haunted history in America.

Sources:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVt6T1cXqcc
  1. https://citydistrictorlando.com/the-angebilt-hotel/
  1. https://orlandomemory.info/places/san-juan-hotel/#:~:text=Early%20History%20of%20the%20San%20Juan%20Hotel&text=Kedney%2C%20originally%20from%20Minnesota%2C%20moved,and%20was%20three%20stories%20high.
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2scAspZL0DM&t=2s
  1. https://bungalower.com/2024/07/21/sunday-read-cyanide-at-the-san-juan/
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_x8wAt3XCc

Book A Orlando Haunts Tour And See For Yourself

You may think of Orlando as the theme park capital of the world, but this magic kingdom has a hidden history filled with tragedy, murder, suicide, and mystery.

Join us for a night of frights and fun as we recount O-Town’s stories of rumrunners, vaudeville performers, and conflict that have led to a series of hauntings still experienced by visitors and locals to this day.

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