The Hotel del Coronado is haunted, by its own account, by Kate Morgan, a 24-year-old who checked in alone on Thanksgiving Day 1892 under a false name and was found dead 5 days later. Which number her third-floor room carries, no official page says; the web offers at least 5.
You want the ghost story told where it happened, by the hotel’s own guides, and in October the rare chance to stand inside Kate Morgan’s room with ghost-hunting equipment.
The toursYou want to sleep in her room for certain, or to see it outside October: the hotel guarantees no room number, and this year only 2 October evenings take visitors inside.
5 ghost eveningsThe Del tells the story itself, in a press page, a timeline, a blog post and a book it publishes, Beautiful Stranger. Its version runs like this.
She arrived alone on Thanksgiving Day 1892, aged 24, and checked in as Lottie A. Bernard of Detroit, the hotel’s timeline says. Each day she asked at the front desk about someone she was expecting, went several times to the hotel pharmacy and declined outside care; in her room she burned her papers, its blog adds.
On 29 November she was found dead on an exterior staircase leading to the beach, shot in the head. The San Diego County coroner ruled the wound self-inflicted, and the hotel concedes that some scepticism remains. With nothing to identify her, the newspapers called her the Beautiful Stranger; weeks later she was named as Kate Morgan, a domestic in a wealthy Los Angeles household, married and estranged from her husband (press page).
What guests and staff report centres on her third-floor room: flickering lights, a television that switches itself on and off, breezes from nowhere, doors, footsteps and voices, as the hotel’s book records them. The other place the hotel names is its gift shop, where stock leaves the shelves and lands upright and unbroken (press page); the sighting described most often, its blog says, is a woman in black.
We read the hotel’s pages on its ghost, every tour listing and its policies, the 4 blogs and guides that give her room a number, the answers Google’s AI Overview and ChatGPT gave on 30 September 2026, and the 2,000 newest Google reviews with text, out of 21,059. 29 of those reviews mention the ghost. 10 come from guests who went on a ghost tour, and all 10 liked it. 3 describe a night of their own, with flickering lights, knocking at the door and no sleep, and one, in October 2025, still gives her room as 502.
On 17 October every ghost evening runs except the Room 502 Tour: the bonfire, the nightly tour and both tours that enter Kate Morgan’s room. Those 2 overlap, so choose one.
The Ice House Museum, free from 10am to 5pm, is where every tour of the hotel begins, with the Del’s history in objects and photographs. The hotel’s own account of Kate Morgan, the book Beautiful Stranger, is sold in its online store.
The Ghost Roast gives you a fire pit on the beach for an hour, for up to 10 people, with s’mores, ghost marshmallows, witch hats and printed ghost stories. Check in with the host on Main Beach 10 minutes early; the colour-changing flames come in the last quarter of an hour.
Haunted Happenings leaves the Ice House for 60 minutes in Kate’s footsteps, with the hotel’s other spirits and its guests’ encounters, the hotel says. It costs $36.05, is recommended from age 12 and involves stairs; check in a quarter of an hour before.
The Paranormal Tour, 70 minutes for $77.25, retells her 1892 visit, then steps inside her guestroom with modern ghost-hunting equipment. On 30 September 6 places were left for the 17th. On 9, 16 and 30 October the same hour belongs to the Room 502 Tour, in another room.
An Evening With The Spirits, only on the 17th, spends 70 minutes on séances, spirit communication and Ouija boards and ends inside Kate Morgan’s guestroom, for $128.75. It starts while the Paranormal Tour is still under way.
The rooms are for registered guests only, the reservation policy says, so for everyone else the tours are the way in. A night in a Victorian room puts you in the building where she stayed.
Every ghost tour checks in at the Ice House Museum, on Wagers Row beside the Power Plant; the Ghost Roast fire pits are on the sand in front of the hotel.
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What the hotel’s experiences planner and its autumn page showed on 30 September 2026, for this October.
From the tour pages, the FAQ and the reservation policy, read on 30 September 2026.
| Where | Every tour checks in at the Ice House Museum, next to the Power Plant on Wagers Row |
|---|---|
| Check-in | 15 minutes before Haunted Happenings; 10 minutes before a Ghost Roast, with the host on Main Beach |
| Age | Haunted Happenings is recommended from 12; the October tours give no age |
| Access | Walking and stairs, and some areas are not ADA accessible |
| Cancelling | Up to 24 hours ahead for a full refund, on An Evening With The Spirits and the Ghost Roast |
| Groups | Private Legendary and Haunted Happenings tours from 20 people, booked in advance |
| Day visitors | Welcome at the activities; guest-room areas are for overnight guests, who get priority at popular seasonal activities |
| Other tours | Only the tours the hotel lists are allowed on the property |
The hotel names a third-floor guestroom and no number. Everyone else names one, and they disagree.
The hotel’s press page speaks only of Kate’s original third-floor guestroom, the most requested at the hotel. The numbers come from elsewhere: 3327, formerly 302, for Ghosts & Gravestones, and for Google’s AI Overview, which cites that same press page for it; 33036 for La Jolla Mom, a San Diego blog whose author was given it by a bellman; 3312, 3502 and 502 in the accounts gathered by Ghosts & History; 3319 in a YouTube short that also moves her stay to the 1920s. The file names of the hotel’s own photographs of Victorian rooms carry 5-digit numbers, 33025 and 33108 among them (The Victorian), which fits the renumbering the blog reports. To sleep near her, book a Victorian room and ask: the hotel notes a specific room number without guaranteeing it.
The Victorian rooms, with photosDates, times and prices from each one’s own page, read on 30 September 2026, and whether it takes you into Kate Morgan’s room.
2 of the 5 open her door, and both only in October. Haunted Happenings is the one that runs all year and the cheapest way to hear the story; the Room 502 Tour, whose number some accounts give as hers, visits another room. 2 answers that people read before booking get this wrong. On 30 September 2026 Google’s AI Overview told searchers they can actually book her room, and ChatGPT, asked which tours go inside, named only the Paranormal Tour. The Ghost Roast appears at 2 prices: the hotel’s planner lists it from $285, while the fire pit’s own booking page asked $235 for 1 October.
| Experience | When | From its page | Into Kate’s room? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel del Coronado, a night in the Victorian | Any night, check-in from 4pm | A request for her room is noted, not guaranteed | Only if the request is honoured |
| Haunted Happenings | Nightly at 7pm | 60 minutes from the Ice House, $36.05, recommended from 12 | Not on its page |
| The Paranormal Tour | 17 and 23 October | 70 minutes, $77.25, with ghost-hunting equipment | Yes |
| An Evening With The Spirits | 17 October, 8pm | 70 minutes, $128.75, séances and Ouija boards | Yes, at the end |
| Room 502 Tour | 9, 16 and 30 October | 70 minutes, $77.25, footage from the 1992 investigation | No: another room |
| Ghost Roast | Nightly in October, 6pm and 8pm | A beach fire pit for up to 10, $235 on 1 October | No: on the beach |
Prices are per person, the Ghost Roast’s per fire pit; dates, times and prices as the hotel’s experiences planner showed them on 30 September 2026.
10 Google reviews since September 2023 describe a ghost tour, the latest in July 2026: “fabulous”, “so interesting”, a guide who stayed after the end to answer questions. Anyone who wants to stand in Kate Morgan’s room books one of the 2 October tours: the nightly tour tells the story without entering a room. In August 2025 a guest joined a ghost tour at 9pm, where the planner now shows 7pm.
Her room, the tours, who can join, and what the web gets wrong.
The hotel says so itself. Its press page and timeline tell of Kate Morgan, who died there in November 1892, and of what guests and staff have reported since, in her third-floor room and in the gift shop. Its book, Beautiful Stranger, calls her a relatively harmless ghost. Among 2,000 recent Google reviews, 3 guests describe something odd in their own room.
A third-floor guestroom of the 1888 Victorian: the hotel’s pages go no further. The numbers belong to others: 3327, formerly 302, for Ghosts & Gravestones; 33036 for La Jolla Mom, in its July 2026 version; 3312, 3502 or 502 in older accounts, as Ghosts & History notes. On 30 September 2026 Google’s AI Overview gave 3327 and credited the hotel’s press page, which prints no number at all.
You can ask for it, with no guarantee. The reservation policy says a specific room number is noted on the booking but cannot be guaranteed, and no official page gives her room’s number or any surcharge. On 30 September 2026 Google’s AI Overview said visitors can actually book the room, on the strength of a BBC Travel post on Facebook; ChatGPT called it a request, which is what the policy says.
2, both in October: the Paranormal Tour on 17 and 23 October, $77.25, and An Evening With The Spirits on 17 October, $128.75, which ends in her guestroom. Asked the same question on 30 September 2026, ChatGPT named only the first. The nightly Haunted Happenings tour tells the story, and its page mentions no room.
No. The hotel’s autumn page sells the Room 502 Tour and the Paranormal Tour separately, and only the second enters Kate Morgan’s guestroom. Room 502 is where a 1992 investigation logged more than 400 unexplained occurrences, its tour page says. The confusion is old: some accounts gave her room as 502 (Ghosts & History), and a guest repeated it in a Google review in October 2025.
Very probably, although no page says it in those words. The tours are sold on the public experiences planner and start at the Ice House Museum, and the FAQ welcomes day visitors to the hotel’s activities, keeping the Cabana Pool, the gym and the guest-room areas for overnight guests, who also get priority at popular seasonal activities. Whether that priority reaches the October tours into the rooms, it does not say; ChatGPT’s “yes, generally” goes further than the hotel.
Haunted Happenings leaves the Ice House Museum at 7pm every night and lasts 60 minutes; check in 15 minutes before. The Paranormal Tour on 17 October and the Room 502 Tour on 9 October start at 7.30pm, An Evening With The Spirits at 8pm, and each lasts 70 minutes. The hour can move with the season: in August 2025 a guest joined a ghost tour at 9pm (Google reviews).
Google Hotels’ calendar for 2 adults, read on 29 September 2026, showed $693 for 9 October, $603 for the 16th, $646 for both the 17th and the 23rd and $582 for the 30th; for comparison, $498 for 29 November (Google Hotels). It does not say for which room, and a $50 mandatory charge a night and 11.80% tax go on top (reservation policy).
Haunted Happenings is recommended from age 12, its page says; the October tours give no age. For younger children the Ghost Roast is a fire on the beach with s’mores and printed ghost stories the hotel calls mildly spooky, and on October weekends it runs Halloween pumpkin carving, from $35 (planner).
On 29 November 1892, 5 days after she checked in: she was found with a gunshot wound to the head, and the coroner ruled it self-inflicted (timeline). A YouTube short high on Google’s first page on 30 September 2026 puts her stay in the 1920s (YouTube); every page of the hotel dates it 1892.
Written and checked by Lumina, independently of Hotel del Coronado. Lumina sells no rooms or tickets: every link leads to its source.
This guide is written with Lumina, the marketing system for hotels.
