5 Haunted Hotels in Australia for Spooky Sleepovers

Australia is certainly a place full of mystery and the unexpected. Across the country, you can easily find places so unusual, eerie, and sometimes even supernatural that you could have never imagined. While such strange encounters are often associated with lonely roads or abandoned streets, some of Australia’s most spooky stories come from places where people are supposed to feel safe: hotels.

The thrill of experiencing something otherworldly can be found outdoors, but often the real haunting adventure happens indoors. There are certain hotels in Australia that are rumored to be haunted, and some people visit the country just to spend a night in these hotels. 

If you also like the idea of having the spookiest sleepovers and interacting with mysterious spirits, here are 5 of the most haunted hotels in Australia you can start from. 

1. The Russell Hotel, Sydney

The Russell Hotel is located in The Rocks, which is one of Australia’s oldest and most historic neighborhoods. It was built in 1788 on the site of a hospital that functioned during the bubonic plague, and the place has witnessed a lot of suffering. It is also known that the building was used for sailors to spend nights, who would often drink, get into trouble, and make bets for money.

While gambling was a common activity back then, in those days, people couldn’t really test their luck in simple and convenient ways, such as trying the best online pokies Australia that players often turn to now. Instead, the risks were far messier and the sailors would often lose their fortune. 

Legends say that one of these events caused a sailor to get himself killed. This room is now the famous Room Number 8 in the hotel, which is rumored to be the most haunted. The ghost of this sailor has been noticed at the top of the bed many times. He mostly lurks around if women decide to stay in that room. You might also notice the spirit of a woman in white, who was most likely a nurse during the hospital’s time.

2. Q Station, Sydney

The Q Station Hotel in Sydney hides a pretty sad and dark past. This place used to be a quarantine station from the 1830s to 1984. Those who would arrive in Sydney by ship would be held here for being sick with various diseases. These included smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague, Spanish flu, and many more. Since they were highly contagious and dangerous at the time, people would be held for some time, but most of them died before the quarantine ended.

Once the hotel was constructed, the guests and the staff started to report seeing strange, visibly sick ghosts around. The most famous ones are The Grieving Mother and a child who is playing with toys but disappears when approached. In the rooms, people also hear eerie voices, footsteps, and crying.

3. Hotel Windsor, Melbourne

The Hotel Windsor was opened in 1884. It is Australia’s last surviving 19th-century hotel. This place has hosted famous people like Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Margaret Thatcher, and others. However, the story that it is mostly known for is about Nellie Melba, whose ghost apparently still lingers around the walls.

She was a popular singer from the late Victorian era. It is said that she used to bring her lovers to this hotel and paid the staff not to talk about it. After Nellie passed away, seemingly her spirit decided to move to the Hotel Windsor. She is often seen around the room where she stayed, and those who spend the night there might hear her singing sometimes. There is also the ghost of some teenage boy who reportedly “protects” Nellie’s room. 

4. Royal Hotel Seymour, Melbourne

This hotel is one of the first buildings in Seymore, which makes it pretty much historic. Although now it is a hotel, the place has functioned as a courthouse, a police lock-up, a post office, and a fire station, and at one point it even turned into a morgue. The hotel staff has reported several paranormal occurrences, and there are still ongoing investigations about them.

These events include seeing a flying pot glass and then for it to fall over, footstep sounds that don’t really have a source where they’re coming from, yet they’re constant, and even an eerie, unsettling sound of a crying baby. The most haunted is known to be Room Number 5, where you never know what kind of mystery you will face. 

5. The North Kapunda Hotel, Kapunda

You can find this hotel in Kapunda, near the Barossa region, which is known as Australia’s wine region. This town used to operate on copper mining, and a lot of violent crimes have been happening for a long time. Some of these events took place at this hotel, and this is why you might spot the ghosts of those who were murdered there.

The most reported ghost sightings are of a woman and a little girl holding hands and walking around in corridors. The woman is thought to be a sex worker who was brutally murdered, and the little girl is her daughter, who died after her mother’s passing. You might hear her crying from a few hotel rooms.

Bottom Line

As you can see, haunted hotels bring a very specific kind of thrill. If you’re visiting Australia and would like to have some spooky fun after seeing all the wonderful sights, sleepovers in these 5 hotels could be exactly what you’re looking for. Even though interacting with strange spirits can be frightening, for travelers who enjoy the paranormal, that is exactly the appeal.