The Stanley Hotel has ghost tours. The Lizzie Borden House has a murder story. But according to USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards 2026, neither takes the crown for America's best haunted hotel. That honour goes to a five-room inn on a river island in Nichols, New York, where the resident animals are as memorable as the ghosts: it's called the Fainting Goat Island Inn.

The property sits on the Susquehanna River near the Pennsylvania border, in the wider Finger Lakes Region. The building dates to the 1800s and has an appropriately checkered past — it reportedly served as both a morgue and a brothel at different points. From the outside it looks more farmhouse than haunted house, with a veranda, a gabled roof and trees all around. The fainting goats are real, and so are the other farm animals wandering the grounds.

The inn has featured on the 10Best haunted hotels list since 2019, and owner Marnie Streit — who opened it in 2017 — has said she's heard unexplained footsteps and voices herself. Guests go further. Reports include sheets being pulled off in the blue-painted Angora Room, furniture shifting overnight in the Nubian Room, and one Tripadvisor reviewer describing something repeatedly rapping on the door, walls and headboard. Each of the five rooms is furnished with 19th-century decor, so the vibe (and the alleged paranormal activity) differs depending on where you sleep. Streit even permits ghost hunting on the property — though, inevitably, a brush with the beyond isn't guaranteed.

The ranking itself is worth a word: an expert panel of journalists and travel writers nominates candidates, editors trim the list to finalists, and the public votes. The Stanley came 10th and the Lizzie Borden House 6th, so the upset is genuine.

Even sceptics get a decent trip out of it. The inn makes a handy base for the southern Finger Lakes: Robert H. Treman State Park, under an hour away, has 12 waterfalls and a swimming beach, while the nearby town of Owego has been called "America's coolest small town." If you want to lean fully into the spooky theme, Pure Terror Scream Park in New York bills itself as the country's longest haunted house, with 10 attractions.

Practicalities: rooms start at $115 a night, bookings are online, and a two-night minimum applies. The inn closes from roughly late February to early May, so plan around that window. Whether you leave convinced by the ghosts or just charmed by the goats, it's a cheap and unusual detour for anyone road-tripping through upstate New York.