Crescent Hotel Ghost Tours — Attraction in Eureka Springs

I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with The 1886 Cresent Hotel Ghost Tour. My husband and I went to Eureka Springs for our 16th Anniversary and thought the Ghost Tour would be something fun and a little different. We were prepared to hear a lot of history about the Hotel and its guests, I actually looked forward to that because I love history. But, basically, all you got was the history of Norman Baker trying to use the Hotel as a fake hospital, how he was arrested, etc. The tour started off with everyone sitting in a room with our “Tour Guide,” named Andromeda, telling us to keep our masks completely on the entire tour and “take lots of pictures!” She started off giving some information and I had a question so I asked the question (there were only 12-15 people in our group). She said, “I really want you to hold all your questions until the end because I have a lot of information to go through in a very short amount of time, so just wait until I ask for questions.” I thought it was rather rude considering that’s the point of any tour I’ve ever been on...EVER. Also, if you have that much information to go through, allot for more time on the tour and tell participants at the beginning to hold questions until the end so they don’t feel like an idiot for asking a question. And boy did she talk. Some things were relevant, some not. But, the kicker was, at the end of the tour she said, “Now, you’ll see that I have put a tip cup right here at the end of the tour. You see, I am a struggling college student and I have a LOT of student loans that I’m really need to pay off. I really need those tips to help me pay off my student loans.” First off, I wanted to say, “Andromeda, most people in this room have student loans, myself included. I’m 41 and I’m still paying off my student loans. It’s part of life when you can’t pay for college.” Second, she gets paid (probably very little, but paid nonetheless) to give these tours. I mean my husband and I paid $55ish/couple to take this tour...which included nothing but walking around the hotel. If she doesn’t get paid much, I can understand a tip cup. But, she could just say, “We have a tip cup here for tips if you feel so inclined.” She doesn’t have to give us her sad story of having student loans and being a struggling college student. I just felt it wasn’t appropriate. Nothing happens on the tour except her talking AT you. And her not talking if you are to get you to be quiet (like a teacher). It was noting spectacular. Not even special. You could spend $55 at a really nice restaurant (not at the Cresent) and have had a...

Though it was decently educational, I felt this tour wasn’t worth the money. There were 4 of us so that was over $100 after tax for the tour. We assumed we would go into some of the rooms and/or explore the infamous grounds. But in reality, you just visit about 2 rooms per floor and by “visit 2 rooms” I mean you stand in the hallway and the guide tells you what happened in the room. Then the guide takes you to the morgue which was just pretty gross and not scary. They had definitely staged the heck out of it and had a halloween-themed Rat in the corner of one of the rooms from a cheap Party Store, which I thought was cheesey. I already did a ton of research before arriving so I was excited to learn more stories, but honestly it was the “less thrilling” stories that were told on the tour. And being a college graduate I guess I expect my educator to give dates and times when telling us about events, which did not happen, so a lot of the stories were from 50 years ago, then 100 years ago, and then back to the 1990’s, which made it really hard to follow. I feel like that information is wildly relevant and typically disclosed when delivering a “historical fact” (at least it has been on other tours I’ve experienced). Regardless, our guide was very sweet and you could tell she felt passionate about the hotel and respectful of the people who once endured the tragedies there. It was interesting, nonetheless, and I’m glad I got to check it off the bucket list of haunted places, but I probably won’t go back unless I stay in the hotel. That’s really the best advice I can give if you decide to purchase the tour in search of getting the heebeejeebees. Take the tour then stay the night in the hotel. If you’re staying out of town like we were then it’s pretty average of...

I had no preconceived notions about this hotel being haunted. I had picked it out of a brochure and drive up with my parents and two young kids. The first thing that happened was they placed my parents in a room that looked like a funeral parlor in the floor above the kids and I. My 7 and 8 year old kept asking me to cover the pictures because they felt they were "staring at me". There were almost NO guests at the hotel. That night, the kids dozed off and I was watching television. I turned off the lamp and as I was about to fall asleep, the chain on the INSIDE of my room began to slide back and forth. I was absolutely terrified. There was a feeling of dread and evil about the entire place. I called my parents and begged them to sleep in our room. I slept restlessly with the feeling of being smothered.

The next morning we took a carriage ride through the town and that's when we found out The Crescents history and that it had been featured in "Americas Most Haunted". I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The feeling of evil and dread stayed with me until we got to Hot Springs. I will NEVER stay there again!!

My silly extended family didn't believe me, so they took a trip to the Crescent only to hear of the suicides, murders, cancer deaths and other atrocities that had happened there. Cameras went off flashing in the middle of the night. Not one picture was salvageable. The hotel clerk said maids refused to clean certain rooms and that their carts moved down the hall on their own accord. Many felt the same sense of dread that I did.

I'm a scientist. I don't believe in this stuff. But it happened to me and to us. Visit but do not...