It’s summertime, which means vacations, and unless you’re staying with relatives or camping, you’ll probably stay in a hotel at some point. You might want to take care, though, because hotels are not always the safest or most relaxing places to stay; Lizzie Borden’s former house is now a bed-and-breakfast, and a boutique hotel, The Blackburn Inn, now stands where DeJarnette Sanitarium, the setting for David Simms’ Fear the Reaper, used to be. Below you’ll find a list of titles that take place in haunted hotels.

 The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

The Sun Down Motel alternates between two points of view. Viv, in 1982, is a runaway headed to New York to become an actress who ends up unexpectedly left in the town of Fell, New York. With almost no money and nowhere to go, Viv takes a job as the night clerk at a seedy hotel on the highway, The Sun Down Motel, that she quickly discovers is haunted. Carly is taking a break from college to cope with her grief over her mother’s death and explore the mystery of her aunt Vivian’s disappearance, at age 20, thirty-five years earlier, in Fell. Following in Viv’s footsteps, Carly visits her apartment and befriends the current resident, Heather, who invites her to become her roommate. The two of them then visit the Sun Down Motel, where Carly takes the same night shift job Viv had.  Carly learns from Heather that Viv was not the only girl at the center of a mystery during the time she was in Fell; several girls and women of varying ages were murdered in the time just before Viv arrived in town. With hauntings, psychological disturbances, and a serial killer on the loose, the Sun Down Motel is a dangerous place to stay.

The Shining by Stephen King  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

I probably don’t have to go into detail about the horrifying events at the Overlook Hotel, which is based on a real hotel, The Stanley Hotel. Jack Torrance is hired to be the off-season caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel, where he will live in with his wife, Wendy, and his son Danny, who has psychic abilities, referred to as the Shining. As the hotel gets more and more cut off, Jack’s behavior becomes more and more erratic as the hotel reveals its secrets.

 The Silent Land by Graham Joyce  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

A couple on vacation at a ski resort surrounded by deep snow,  dig themselves out of a flash avalanche and discover they are completely alone and cut off from civilization. More than the characters, the atmosphere of complete isolation is what creates the suspense and creepiness of this book. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a lot about the characters, but the world Joyce creates is one I haven’t forgotten.

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

This collection contains two short stories that involve haunted hotels, “Number 13” and “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad”. The second one has been adapted for radio and television. “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad” is the story of a college professor who takes a room at a hotel for a golfing holiday, and while walking along the beach discovers a bronze whistle in the midst of a ruin. That night, when he blows on the whistle, he has a disturbing vision, and possibly supernatural events start to occur.

Jacaranda (The Clockwork Century #6) by Cherie Priest  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

The Jacaranda Hotel, on the island of Galveston, in southeast Texas, has seen two dozen deaths since it opened a year ago. A local nun, a disgraced priest, and a Texas Ranger, along with a handful of guests and hotel employees, are trapped at the hotel during a hurricane, with a hostile supernatural force inhabiting the building.  Gothic, creepy, and violent, Jacaranda is a gripping ghost story. When I read it, I didn’t realize it was part of a series, or part of a steampunk universe, and you really don’t have to have read any of the other books to visit this haunted hotel.

All The Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Maybe you’re looking for a book you can share with your kids? You can’t go wrong with Mary Downing Hahn.  Travis and Corey are visiting their grandmother for the summer. She runs a small Vermont inn that has a reputation for being haunted. The boys decide to pull some pranks to fool the guests into thinking there are ghosts in the inn, only to awaken actual ghosts. Travis and Corey must discover the story behind the hauntings in order to put the spirits to rest.