Hotel Monteleone
Where the Quarter's ghosts check in
★★★★★📍 French Quarter, New Orleans$$$
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The history explains the aura: Antonio Monteleone, a Sicilian cobbler turned hotelier, bought a small Royal Street hotel in 1886 and built it — through expansions, the 1908 tower, and the family's unbroken ownership — into the Quarter's defining address, the rare American grand hotel never sold out of the founding line. The literary registry is earned, not marketed: Williams set characters here, Capote spun the born-in-the-hotel story his whole life (his mother waited out her labor here, close enough), Faulkner and Welty and Hemingway all left traces, and the Literary Landmark plaque by the door keeps the roll. The ghost registry grew alongside: Maurice Begere, a child who died in the hotel in the nineteenth century while his parents attended the opera, reportedly appears to children on the fourteenth floor (his grieving mother returned for years and claimed he met her there); a restaurant door opens nightly despite its locks; the paranormal societies that investigated in the 2000s left endorsing the inventory, and the staff trade stories with the ease of long cohabitation.
Staying well: the fourteenth floor books deliberately by this market's readers (ask — the desk is used to it), the Carousel Bar's rotating seats go early evening (one drink per revolution is the civilized pace), and the rooftop pool runs one of the Quarter's few. Rooms run classic-grand in the tower and renovated-boutique in the newer floors; the lobby's clocks and chandeliers reward the lingering; and the Royal Street address puts antique row at the door and Bourbon's noise one parallel block away — close enough to visit, far enough to sleep.
The market fit is definitional: New Orleans is the category's capital city, and the Monteleone is where the haunted itinerary should sleep — vampire and ghost tours stage within three blocks, the LaLaurie Mansion walk passes nearby, the St. Louis No. 1 cemetery tours run mornings, and the hotel's own fourteenth floor means the tour never fully ends. October books the city solid (reserve with the tour tickets); the Quarter's December dress and spring festival seasons run close behind; and the Carousel nightcap after a late ghost walk — the bar revolving, the clocks tolling, Maurice upstairs — is this market's single most recommended evening in America.
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Check rates →Frequently Asked Questions
Who haunts the Monteleone?
The house counts more than a dozen — led by Maurice Begere, the child of the fourteenth floor, plus a self-opening restaurant door and assorted elevator mischief. The staff discuss it like weather.
Why is there no thirteenth floor?
Old hotel custom — the elevator skips from twelve to fourteen, which means the famous fourteenth floor is the thirteenth by count. The ghosts appear unbothered by the arithmetic.
Is the Carousel Bar worth the wait?
Yes — twenty-five seats on a bar revolving once per fifteen minutes since 1949. Go at opening or late; one drink per revolution is the house pace.
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