Arlington Resort Hotel

My Arlington Hotel Encounter – Hot Springs, Arkansas - January 21, 1997

I’ve felt connected to Hot Springs, Arkansas for as long as I can remember. My dad grew up there, and every fall during school break he would take our family. I still remember the leaves covering the hills, the beauty of Bathhouse Row, and the feeling the whole town carried in autumn. It always felt special to me.

Years later, when I was on my honeymoon, I suggested to my husband at the time (we’re no longer married) that we go to Hot Springs and stay one night at the Arlington Hotel. My parents had never been able to afford staying there when I was growing up, so it felt meaningful to finally experience it.

When we arrived, they happened to have the honeymoon suite available. I believe it was called the Magnolia Room, on the fourth floor. It was beautiful, red bedding with magnolia flowers, elegant and romantic. At the time I knew nothing about the Arlington’s ghost stories. I wasn’t looking for paranormal experiences and had never researched the hotel.

That night I had one of the most vivid dreams of my life.

In the dream I was suddenly in a dining room inside the hotel. The room was filled with white chairs and tables. It felt old-fashioned and quiet. I was seated alone at one of the tables when a woman approached me.

She was strikingly beautiful, very pale skin, black raven hair, and bright red lipstick. She looked to be maybe in her 50s, elegant, wearing a black dress. She sat down with me like we already knew each other.

She looked at me with so much understanding and said, “The man you’re married to is a very mean man. I understand. He’s not kind to you, and I’m so sorry.”

Then she told me the man she had been with had not been kind to her either.

We sat there together, just talking and comforting each other. There was sadness there, but also warmth. I remember telling her how beautiful she was. The whole experience felt incredibly real, more like being with someone than dreaming.

What made it even stranger was that, at that point in my life, I hadn’t really admitted to myself that my husband could be cruel. But she somehow named it immediately. Years later I did end up divorcing him because his behavior only got worse.

The next morning I woke up still feeling dazed from how real the dream had felt. I opened our room door and saw we were staying across the hall from the Aqua Suite.

And instantly I had this overwhelming feeling of recognition—that somehow the woman from my dream had once been connected to that room, maybe as a companion or mistress to someone who had treated her badly, and we had met in that strange in-between place simply to recognize each other’s pain.

I went downstairs and asked the staff if I could peek into the dining room area. It had been closed for renovations while we were there.

They let me look.

It was exactly as I had seen it in the dream.

That moment has stayed with me for the rest of my life.

I still think about her. I hope she found peace.

I know I eventually did.

And I hope one day I can return to the Arlington, stay there again, and quietly say hello.

May 2026

I would definitely recommend not staying there

April 2025

I did not stay at this hotel but went on a ghost tour before coming into the hotel and the hotel called to me for some reason, (I was about 11), I asked my family to go in we sat down in the beautiful lobby and I was entranced by this one dark spot on the ceiling by one of the chandeliers and was instantly sucked into my head just thinking and all of the sudden a black and white photo from the 50’s-60’s with a man, a woman, and little girl who looked similar to Shirley temple probably about 6 or 7 in a very fluffy dress; not long after thoughts that were not my own started wondering where their mommy was. As a little girl myself I didn’t understand and that interaction had me balling for 30 minutes with no reason to my emotion. I went back to the stand where the ghost tour started right before they were about to close for the night and asked if anybody had seen the little girl exactly as I described above and he goes on to tell me about a man who the saw the exact same description of the little girl in the parking garage, but she disappeared into thin air before him so he shared his experience. Our descriptions were the exact same. Such a terrifying but cool experience and I have not been to hot springs since!

March 2025

My girlfriend heard something playing with her open suitcase in the middle of the night

September 2024

I stayed down the hall from Al capone's room about 15 years ago. The first night ,I woke up in the middle of the night. I had a horrible feelingI couldn't stop shaking .Something was terrifying me on the inside. I turned the Christian channel on and after awhile the feeling left

September 2023

I stayed in this suite alone and all night was seeing movement in the corners with nothing there. The later the night got the more paranormal the experiences. I began to hear whispers beside me and breathing from what sounded like a person standing right in front of me. When I tried to go to sleep I was taunted by pitch-black apparitions floating by my peripheral. Throughout the entire duration of my stay, I did not feel welcome in the room. There was a very negative weight that you could feel as soon as you walked into the room. I have no plans on returning here.

February 2021