Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The Fairmont Hotel is an impressive building located in downtown Vancouver. Built in 1939, it would seem a bit, well, new to have a ghost, but it does.

A woman in a red dress wanders the corridors of the 14th floor. At times, the elevator will stop at that floor when nobody has pushed the button - on either side.

A more startling apparition is that of a former employee, a banquet porter who hanged himself in the stairwell of the 19th floor. When he appears, he isn't ... all there. Only the upper half of his body appears; not his legs. The meeting rooms are located on this floor, and on one occasion, an overnight chef went upstairs to get a few things from the kitchen.

The chef is no longer working at the Fairmont; the ghost of the porter appeared to him - looking straight at him - and then disappeared.

The Algonquin Hotel, New York City, United States

The Algonquin has a rich literary history. Famous wits of the post-World War I era used it as their stomping grounds - Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Harpo Marx, George S. Kaufman, Charles MacArthur, and more.

The hotel has another claim to fame in the fact that it is haunted. The Vicious Circle, as they called themselves, have been seen on more than one occasion in their favorite watering hole. Guests have experienced strange phenomena in the elevator, when the doors open at floors to reveal no one waiting for it. A photo of Dorothy Parker once fell to the floor, breaking the glass.

Non-guests can try their luck at ghost-spotting by taking one of the hotel's "Round Table" tours.

Kyteler's Inn, Kilkenny, Ireland

Kyteler's Inn is the former property of Alice de Kyteler, who was born in the house in 1280.

It seems that Alice was extremely unlucky in her choice of husbands. Her first was a banker with the interesting name of William Outlawe. They had a son named for his father. William Senior died a few years later; not long after this, Alice married Adam de Blund, also wealthy - and also to die suddenly, of unknown causes, within a few years of their marriage. Alice now had two fortunes at her disposal, so what did she do?

She married again. Her third husband, Richard de Valle, followed in the footsteps of his predecessors. She then married a fourth time, to Sir John de Poer. It seems that de Poer must have known of the tendency of Alice's husbands to die suddenly and unexpectedly; if he did, it didn't put him off. He became sick a few years after their marriage, with his hair and nails falling out. He held on long enough to change his will so that Alice and William, Jr. would receive his full estate, however. It was this act - not his death, evidently - that caused his other relatives to bring charges against Alice. She was accused of witchcraft, especially using this power to get Richard to change his will. According to them, Alice also headed a witches' coven and had sexual relations with a demon.

Richard de Lederer, the Bishop of Ossory, heard the charges against Alice, and tried in vain to have her arrested. Instead, he himself was arrested and incarcerated. Upon his release, he continued his campaign. Alice headed for England, but traveled to Dublin the following year, where she asked the Archbishop to take action against de Lederer for her excommunication. The two men had a confrontation in Dublin, ending in de Lederer's return to Kilkenny, still demanding the arrest of Alice. She then left for England again, this time for good (the year was 1324).

The Bishop got his pound of flesh and more, however; William Outlawe, Jr., was arrested and sentenced to give to the poor and attend three masses every day. Alice's maid, Petronella, on the other hand, was tortured and, finally, burned at the stake.

History does not record what happened to Alice after she fled to England the second time; she disappears from the records. She hasn't left her one-time home, however; the staff at Kyteler's Inn are ready to vouch for that.

Ben Lomond Suites, Ogden, Utah, USA

Ben Lomond Suites, the largest hotel in Ogden, is a lovely building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a hotel where pets of the four-legged variety are welcome, with an additional fee. What the pets think of the resident ghost, is open to speculation.

A guest at the hotel in the 1940s was a woman whose son was fighting in World War II. She had received word that he had been injured, and awaited further news of his condition. Upon hearing that he had died, she left the hotel for her home. It seems, though, that she can't stay away from the hotel. Room 1106 will call the front desk, even though the room is unoccupied. The elevator will stop at (for example) the fourth floor when nobody has pushed the button for that floor.

Harmless, certainly, though eerie for the desk staff to receive a call from an empty room.

Phineas Swann Inn, near Jay Peak, Vermont, USA

The Phineas Swann (named for an early settler to the area) is pet-friendly, going so far as to provide "doggie spa"services. It offers a very tempting menu - and it is haunted.

The ghost is a playful child named Geraldine, who died of pneumonia in the house in 1937. She haunts the Red Room, which was used by her parents, and guests have reported having their feet tickled in the middle of the night.

No battlefields nearby, no sense of heaviness and oppression; just a fun-loving, giggling little spirit who entertains guests in her own merry way.

The Kennebunk Inn, Kennebunk, Maine, USA

As with some of the other lodging places listed here, the Kennebunk Inn is haunted by the ghost of a former employee.

Silas Perkins worked at the Inn as a clerk. Perkins lived alone and his only friends were the people at the Inn. When he died, he remained in the place that had provided his only social life when he was alive. After his death, a table full of guests were almost as shocked as their waiter when, as the waiter carried a tray of drinks to them, a glass of wine was lifted off the tray and hurled violently to the floor.

Rumor has it, Perkins is still there.

Eureka Springs Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, USA

The Eureka Springs Hotel advertises itself as "America's Most Haunted Hotel", with a website that is all about the hotel's hauntings and history. The hotel has a ghost tour every night; "ghost packages"; and an ESP weekend, among other ghost-related activities.

As for the hotel's history, in the 1930s it was a hospital for cancer patients. Norman Baker, the owner at that time, claimed to be able to cure cancer, and countless people believed in his "tonic" containing watermelon seeds, corn silk, and other ineffective ingredients. This substance was not harmful to ingest, but it had no effect on cancer.

Baker had to flee the state of Iowa for his practices, which had netted him a huge amount of money. He moved to Arkansas and renovated a Victorian-era hotel in Eureka Springs, his "Castle in the Air", where he continued accepting cancer patients. One estimate claims that Baker made $500,000 in a single year - which would be more than 5 million dollars in modern times. In 1940, Baker was sentenced to prison in Leavenworth; upon his release, he moved to Florida, where he died in the 1950s.

Many of the patients died at the hotel. Some of them still roam the halls, joined by an Irish stonemason known as Michael, who was killed in building the hotel in 1885; a cat named Morris; and Norman Baker himself. The hotel still contains a basement morgue, a holdover of the days when it was run by Baker (and was very necessary). The morgue is the final stop on the nightly ghost tour.

Apart from the supernatural activity, the hotel offers a spa with massage, scrubs, body wraps, infrared sauna, and teeth whitening, plus a salon with manicures, pedicures, and the usual hair cutting/styling/coloring services. There are three dining locations on the premises, and a wide variety of activities in and around Eureka Springs.