This hotel and spa in Excelsior Springs has a haunted history.
If you need a little self-care, The Elms Hotel & Spa, a historic luxury hotel in the heart of Excelsior Springs, might be the place for you. But be forewarned, it is more than a relaxing spa oasis; it is also said to be haunted.
The hotel, which has been featured on Ghost Hunters, has many amenities: three dining eateries on-site; a vast amount of spa services, including massages, facials, and nail care; 16 acres of grounds and gardens; an indoor and outdoor pool and hot tubs; a fitness area; and nightly paranormal tours. But it didn’t start as an extravagant vacation destination.
In the late 1800s, the Fishing River, fed by Siloam Spring, ran through the property. People who didn’t have access to modern medicine began to flock not only to the property but the larger area of Excelsior Springs to bathe in the mineral water of Siloam Spring, which was thought to be healing. To accommodate all the visitors, the original Elms Hotel was built in 1888. However, like most buildings at the time, it was made of wood, and in 1898, a fire burned the hotel to the ground. Fortunately, no one was killed in the disaster.
Then, in 1909, a second hotel was built of wood where the current hotel is located. The following year, it also burned down, again with no fatalities. To make it more fireproof, the new hotel, built in 1912, was made of limestone. Since then, it has been remodeled and updated to The Elms Hotel & Spa. While no one died during the fires, people claim to have had experiences with paranormal spirits ever since then.
Jay Fanning, a guide for the hotel’s nightly tours, describes one of his ghost experiences. When he entered the grand ballroom, all the lights were off, but a crack in the lobby doors gave him enough light to see a figure six feet ahead of him.
“It made me jump back, throw my hands up, and use language I don’t usually use here,” Jay says.
He then noticed it was a female with long blonde hair. “Scared me worse than I had been when I was a kid,” Jay says. “I had my hands up all the way through the ballroom to the front desk.”
I wasn’t worried during my visit, because my husband was along. We snuggled into our comfortable bed and quickly fell asleep. At around 6 am, I awoke to the sound of an alarm clock beeping in my ear—a clock I knew I hadn’t set. Half awake, I turned it off and went back to sleep.
About a half an hour later, we were both jolted awake, this time by the sound of a fire alarm alerting us to get out of the building.
We hurried downstairs to exit the hotel. After some time, we were told by the hotel staff that they weren’t sure why the alarm went off because the room they traced the initial alert to was perfectly fine. Hand in hand, my husband and I went back upstairs to enjoy the last bit of darkness before the sun rose.
This experience in itself was a bit creepy but could be chalked up to coincidence. When I shared this story with a friend after I returned, she listened in horror. Come to find out, she has also stayed at the hotel, and at 3 am, what do you know, the fire alarm had gone off. What truly raised the hair on my arms was knowing that the hotel previously burned down twice.
Even with eerie interruptions, the hotel’s charm and comfort shines through. Between spa services, delicious dining, and the occasional ghost-led fire drill, the Elms Hotel & Spa truly is a full-service hotel.
ElmsHotelAndSpa.com • 401 Regent Street, Excelsior Springs
All photo are by Andrea Kaneko.
The article was originally published in the October 2025 issue of Missouri Life.
