Fairmont Hotel San Francisco

The Fairmont's paranormal reputation, as documented by ghost tour operators and travel writers, clusters around three categories of apparition.

The most widely circulated story involves Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, the sisters who built the hotel. They are described as benevolent presences — caretakers who watch over guests, occasionally touching sleeping visitors. A persistent version of the story claims the sisters were killed in the 1906 earthquake; this is not accurate. The Fairmont's own historical record shows Virginia Fair Vanderbilt reacquired the property in 1908, two years after the quake. Both sisters died years later of natural causes. Their ghost narrative is folklore built on the dramatic coincidence of the earthquake damaging their project, not on documented deaths at the site.

A second figure — a woman in red, described variously as a murder victim and as a prostitute killed in her room — is reported roaming the public areas and guest rooms. She is portrayed as sociable, lounging on beds and engaging with guests, consistent with ghost-tour framing that emphasizes colorful rather than threatening spirits. No contemporaneous news account of a murder victim at the hotel matching this description has been cited by investigators.

The seventh floor carries accounts of WWII-era soldiers observed after dark, lingering in corridors but not interacting with living guests. The Fairmont served as a gathering point for military personnel passing through San Francisco during the war, and the seventh-floor accounts may reflect that institutional memory.

The hotel itself has acknowledged its paranormal reputation in general terms while not commercializing it. Its Facebook page noted in 2021 that 'there is certainly beauty in the history' — a characteristic hedge that neither confirms nor denies.