Haunted hotel / Seeing unfamiliar faces in the mirror, ghostly figures drifting past

Reporter You T-Ru / Special Report

Ghost Month is here—ready to experience a month of chilling and thrilling supernatural events? ETtoday EBC News has compiled a list of America’s top three “haunted hotels.” If you have the chance to visit the U.S. and are brave enough, why not try staying in one of these still-operating haunted hotels to experience the rare occasion of “seeing a ghost”?

In San Diego, USA, the most famous female ghost is a girl named Kate Morgan. According to rumors, the "Hotel del Coronado" in San Diego has repeatedly had guests reporting seeing unfamiliar faces in their room mirrors, or sightings of Kate Morgan appearing on the TV, with ghostly voices coming from the screen. These various supernatural occurrences have made the hotel and the ghost of Kate Morgan a legendary part of San Diego’s haunted lore.

▲ San Diego’s “haunted legend,” Hotel del Coronado. (Photo / from www.hoteldel.com)

On November 25, 1892—over a hundred years ago—a 24-year-old Kate Morgan checked into Room 302 of the “Hotel del Coronado” under a fake name. There are many rumors about why Kate chose to stay under an alias at the time. Some say she was there to spend Thanksgiving with her husband, while another theory suggests she was seeking treatment for a terminal illness. However, no matter what her reason for staying at the hotel was, one certain fact is that four days after checking in, Kate was found dead on the beach near the hotel, shot in the temple.

This news, which caused a sensation across the United States at the time, still has no definitive answer as to how Kate died. What the world does know is that the hotel has been plagued with endless ghost stories ever since. According to many guests who have stayed there, strange things often happen in Room 302—the room where Kate once stayed—such as bed sheets being pulled onto the floor, unexplained phone ringing, flickering lights, and even seeing ghostly figures in reflective surfaces.

In an attempt to dispel the rumors about Kate, the hotel has undergone multiple renovations and even changed room numbers to ease guests’ fears, but strange incidents continue to occur, even spreading beyond Room 302. The continuous firsthand accounts of ghost encounters have made the “Hotel del Coronado” synonymous with “haunted,” and have also unexpectedly turned “Kate Morgan” into a local ghost legend.