What we know today as Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino Las Vegas was for many years the site of the Aladdin Hotel. Sometime during the previous ownership, the Panorama Suite on the 7th floor became synonymous with hauntings in Las Vegas. Although the Aladdin is gone, the Panorama Suite continues to exist at Planet Hollywood, the apparently ghost(s) remain as well.
Located at 3667 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, Nevada, the site began in 1963 as a small establishment deemed Tally-Ho. The following year, it was sold and renamed King’s Crown, but the new owner’s application for a gaming license was denied, resulting in closure of the complex after just six months. The property was then purchased by Milton Prell who spent millions in renovations, expanding the hotel and casino, adding a 500-seat theatrical showroom and spending an additional $75k on a 15-story sign replicating Aladdin’s lamp.
The Aladdin Hotel officially opened its doors on the 31st of March, 1966. The location hosted a plethora of celebrities and was even the setting for Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s wedding in 1967. The hotel was closed and reopened on several occasions over the years, some due to further renovations, others for unlawful activity within the shareholders, and, towards the end, several more closures due to bankruptcy.
In 1998, the entire complex, minus the theater, was brought to the ground and rebuilt anew. It took two years to complete the new Aladdin Hotel, opening its doors on August 17, 2000. However, guests were sorely disappointed when the hotel did not pass its fire safety test and the surveillance system in the casino was not working properly. Guests were begrudgingly displaced to nearby hotels, some unable to even gather their luggage first as the Clark County building inspector had evacuated and locked down the building for testing. Many questioned why guests were allowed to enter before the testing took place, but regardless of the fact, the hotel was reopened at 7:45am the following morning.
Some time between that point and June 30, 2003, when the Aladdin Hotel closed its doors for the final time, something mysterious must have taken place in the 7th floor Panorama Suite, if we are to believe the widespread reports of it being haunted. Aladdin Hotel is no more, but Planet Hollywood took over, renovating the hotel and casino but keeping the same layout and structure when it re-opened in 2007 under the new name. The very same Panorama Suite still draws the curiosity of paranormal believers and claims of the room being haunted continue to flow in.
The most common claim from guests of the haunted Panorama Suite is that they are awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of someone putting a key into the keyhole of the entrance and wiggling the door knob. It’s almost as if the ghost is surprised to find his or her key does not work. The sound of quiet, whispering voices is often heard in the hallway and sometimes the door buzzer rings several times, yet no one is ever there.
Guests have also reported the eerie feeling of an unnatural, unseen presence in the room. Items have a tendency to disappear from one location of the room and turn up later in a different location.