Haunted Hotels: How Halloween 2026 Becomes a Revenue Play

Halloween 2026 falls on Saturday, Oct. 31. Last year, when the holiday hit a Friday, U.S. hotels still sold a lot of rooms — and still lost weekend RevPAR. Owners who treat Halloween as a costume night leave money on the table. Owners who sell haunted history, ticketed tours and packages can turn a soft leisure weekend into ancillary revenue and rate.

Research Analyst, Hotelier Times

Historic Hotels of America released its 2026 Top 25 Most Haunted Hotels list on Oct. 5, picking properties from more than 300 members on ghost lore and the Halloween experiences they are offering this year. Two San Antonio hotels made the cut: The Gunter Hotel San Antonio Riverwalk and The Emily Morgan San Antonio. Texas already has a live Halloween product set — the Driskill, the Menger, the Emily Morgan, Galveston’s Grand Galvez — that shows how to monetize the house ghost before someone else sells tickets in your lobby. That is the same ancillary-revenue logic boutique hotels use the rest of the year.

Pricing for a Saturday Halloween

Start with what Halloween week did to hotels last year. For the week of Oct. 26–Nov. 1, 2025, when Halloween fell on a Friday, STR/CoStar data reported by Hotel News Resource and Hotel Business (both Nov. 7, 2025) showed:

• U.S. RevPAR: down 2.3% year over year, to $92.54.
• Occupancy: down 1.6 percentage points (Hotel News Resource); Hotel Business listed occupancy at 59.3%.
• ADR: $156.09, up 0.4%.
• Weekend RevPAR: down 13.9%, with Friday down 18.2%.
• Weekday RevPAR (Sunday–Thursday): up 4.0%.

Hotel News Resource, summarizing STR, also noted a record number of rooms sold on that weekend, but weaker per-capita demand than prior Friday/Saturday Halloweens. Absolute volume can look fine while weekend RevPAR still falls. That is the cautionary story for owners: stay-at-home celebrating softens leisure hotel demand unless you give travelers a reason to book you.

This year’s calendar is different. October 2026 gains an extra Saturday versus 2025, and that Saturday is Halloween. Michelle Westbrook, vice president of revenue management at Island Hospitality Management, told DSH Hotel Advisors / CoStar News that midweek Halloweens historically disrupt business travel and group activity. A weekend Halloween, she said, should let hotels “capture that leisure demand without negatively impacting midweek corporate and group business.” Price the Friday–Sunday block, protect midweek corporate, and sell packages that raise total spend per occupied room — not a one-night discount for Oct. 31.

Consumers are still spending on the holiday itself. The National Retail Federation’s Sept. 22, 2026 survey expects $13.5 billion in Halloween retail spending this year, or $115.14 per person, with 74% of consumers planning to celebrate, up from $13.1 billion and 73% in 2025. That is retail candy, costumes and decorations — not hotel nights. Treat it as proof that Halloween remains a high-engagement seasonal spend you can tap with F&B, events and packages, not as a proxy for occupancy.

Island Hospitality typically sees holiday bookings start about 45 days out, with the biggest spikes in the final two to four weeks, Westbrook told DSH. If your Halloween weekend is still soft midweek, the short booking window is why. If it is already tight, raise rate and attach tour or F&B inventory before you open discounted OTA allotments.

Packages that sell the stay

The cleanest Halloween hotel revenue play is a room package that bundles something guests cannot get from a chain rate alone. Texas already has live examples.

• The Menger Hotel (San Antonio): The hotel’s Room With A Boo package (year-round, blackouts apply) includes a stay, two Sisters Grimm walking-tour tickets on arrival night, a signed copy of Haunted History of Old San Antonio, a $15 food credit per night and book-direct benefits. The hotel does not publish a fixed package dollar amount; the rate is the room plus those inclusions.
• The Emily Morgan San Antonio – a DoubleTree by Hilton: The hotel’s Room with a Boo package, available Oct. 1–31, includes a standard guestroom (upgrades available), a Halloween gift, a welcome cocktail (21+), breakfast in bed with “boo-berry” pancakes, and complimentary valet parking. The same hotel is on Historic Hotels of America’s 2026 haunted list.
• 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa (Eureka Springs, Ark.): The Ghostly Getaway–Midweek package bundles one night, two tickets to the Crescent Ghost Tour (booked 24 hours ahead), and a ghostly welcome basket. The deals page does not publish a fixed room rate for the package. Midweek packaging is the point: it fills shoulder nights while weekend tour inventory sells on its own.
• The Queen Mary (Long Beach, Calif.): For Dark Harbor season (select nights Sept. 18–Nov. 1, 2026), the ship’s Dark Harbor VIP / room package includes an overnight stay, a limited-edition Lady in White collector’s print, exclusive access to the No.3 speakeasy on select nights, and a check-in promo code for up to four VIP Dark Harbor tickets at 20% off. Event tickets are sold separately.
• Francis Marion Hotel (Charleston, S.C.): The Wicked Good Fun package (Sept. 22–Dec. 1, 2026) includes overnight accommodations, two Bulldog Tours tickets per night, the hotel’s ghost story and spooky cookies at turndown, and continental breakfast for two.

None of these packages require a full haunted-attraction buildout. They attach a story, a ticket and an amenity to a room night. Owners who want a permanent themed experience on unused square footage have a different path, closer to what we covered on hotel escape rooms as ancillary revenue.

Events and ghost-tour hotel packages

Ghost tours and ticketed parties are not decoration. They are inventory with hard capacity, and the best-known haunted hotels sell them like F&B covers.

• The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colo.): The hotel’s Halloween Ghost Tour runs Oct. 31 only at $45 per person, 60 minutes, capped at 20 guests, ages 8+. The year-round Stanley Ghost Tour is priced at $35. That is a clear holiday premium on the same product shape.
• 1886 Crescent Hotel: Official FAQ prices put the walking ghost tour at $29.50 plus tax, the Expert & Expanded tour at $35 plus tax, and the midnight paranormal investigation at $39.50 plus tax. Northwest Arkansas Today reported on Oct. 26 that Crescent had no tours left posted for Halloween weekend (Oct. 30–Nov. 1).
• Hotel del Coronado: The resort’s official Paranormal Tour was listed at $75 for Oct. 17 and 23 (both dates now past as of Oct. 28); the fall slate still includes Haunted Happenings Tours, a Room 502 Tour (incl. Oct. 30), and Ghost Roast on the hotel’s fall page.
• Emily Morgan / Bad Wolf Ghost Tours (San Antonio): The San Antonio Ghost Walk checks in at the Emily Morgan lobby every night at 8 p.m. for $25 adults / $20 children 12 and under. The Haunted Dinner Tour runs Friday–Sunday at $75 and includes a three-course meal inside the hotel plus the walking tour.
• The Queen Mary Dark Harbor: Visit Long Beach lists 2026 standard ticket tiers of GA $67.99, Fast Fright $100.99 and Evil Express $153.99 (confirm live pricing on Zentix; rates vary by date). The Grey Ghost Galley buffet is $55 per person on Friday–Sunday, with early ship access before gates open.

Premium event nights clear when the hotel is the story. On the Texas Gulf Coast, Grand Galvez is selling The Last Ball at Versailles masquerade for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, with Eventbrite listing a low price of $117.51. In Austin, A Séance at the Driskill on Friday, Oct. 30, lists general admission at $250 and VIP at $500 (a benefit event; the hotel is the venue). Omni Grove Park Inn’s Pink Lady Party on Oct. 29 listed about $103.22 on Eventbrite (check live availability).

For a select-service owner without a haunted brand, the San Antonio model is the transferable one: partner with a local tour operator, put the meeting point in your lobby or restaurant, and sell a package that keeps the room and dinner on your books.

Marketing haunted heritage

Historic Hotels of America staff said they chose the 2026 list on “the quality and quantity of their ghost lore, their openness to sharing these accounts with guests, and the Halloween-themed experiences they are offering in 2026.” The marketing lesson is not that every hotel should claim a ghost. It is that credible local history, told clearly and sold as an experience, can become a demand driver in October — especially when last year’s weekend RevPAR showed what happens if you do nothing.

Texas hotels already sit in that lane:

• The Emily Morgan and The Gunter are both on the 2026 HHA haunted list. The Gunter’s lore centers on Room 636; the hotel has put the room on local ghost tours and city Halloween programming in past years, according to HHA.
• The Menger packages Sisters Grimm tickets into Room With A Boo and remains a stop on Sisters Grimm’s Ghost Bus Tour ($55, 2.5 hours, ages 8+), which advertises exclusive access inside the hotel. The walking tour alone is listed from $25 (adults $30; kids $25).
• The Driskill in Austin: General manager Markus Puereschitz told Cowboys & Indians the hotel does not deny its haunted reputation and that “we certainly see an uptick around October, leading up to Halloween,” with paranormal enthusiasts asking for the historic fifth floor. This year’s séance listing puts a hard ticket price on that interest.
• Grand Galvez (Galveston): Beyond the masquerade ball, Historic Galveston Ghost Tours sells Galvez-focused tours at $35 (history) and $39 (Ghostess experience). Separately, the hotel’s 2025 Beyond the Veil overnight was marketed at $501 per guest — a past-year price, useful as proof that premium haunted overnights have cleared in Texas, not as a 2026 rate.
• Jefferson, Texas: The Historic Jefferson Ghost Walk runs Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. from the Kahn Hotel at $20 adults / $10 ages 6–11, another small-market example of selling the story on foot.
• Hotel del Coronado: HHA notes that Kate Morgan’s Room 3327 is the resort’s most requested guestroom, and a 12-month investigation of Room 3519 documented more than 400 anomalous phenomena. A “most requested room” is a revenue-management fact, not just a ghost story.

Heritage also compounds beyond Halloween. Saving and selling a building’s story is the same owner instinct we tracked when Savannah’s Recess hotel brought the old Hotel Savannah back as keys: history is a product feature when you price and package it.

What it means for hotel owners