Guests and employees have been experiencing supernatural occurrences almost since the day the hotel opened. Many attribute their encounters to Kate Morgan, one of the The Del’s former guests, who committed suicide on the beach in 1892. One guest reported her initials appeared to be drawn in a steamy bathroom mirror. While filming footage for Dead Famous, a long-running English television show, one skeptical staff member was overtaken with a powerful sense of Kate’s final moments and became sickly, too shaken to stand up or even remain in the room. Christine Donovan, director of heritage programs and author of Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel Del Coronado, sums up the experiences by saying, “If you have to spend eternity somewhere, what better place than The Del.”

If you check into room 3327 at The Del, you might share a room with Kate Morgan. In 1892, the young Mrs. Morgan checked into the hotel to meet her estranged husband. To her dismay, he never showed. Several days later, Kate's body was found on the hotel steps leading to the ocean. Since her tragic death, witnesses have been puzzled by odd noises, spirited breezes, strange faces and the ghostly figure of a young lady dressed in a black lace dress. Could it be that she is still waiting for her husband in room 3327?

Donovan has researched the phenomena of ghosts extensively, but not all of The Del's paranormal activity can be attributed to Kate nor are all the occurrences grand. Donovan claims, "It is the decidedly non-dramatic aspects of most of the stories that has made a believer out of me."

"For instance, a doctor emailed me that during his stay, his shoes and socks (which he always carefully placed by his bed at night) would end up all over the room by the time he woke up. In my mind, that's not enough of a story to have made up. In addition, it fits very well with other paranormal accounts I've heard about objects being tossed about a room for no apparent reason," says Donovan.

Donovan, who has yet to encounter Kate or any other kind of paranormal activity at The Del, says that suits her just fine. "I always say there are two kinds of people in the world-those that would like to see a ghost, and those who wouldn't. I'm definitely in the second group."