Fans of the Haunted Mansion who have always dreamed of sleeping inside the Disneyland attraction will be left wondering only one thing after bolting awake in the middle of the night in the Ghostly Retreat Airbnb: Is this place really haunted?
“We heard the voices again last night,” an Airbnb guest named Ellie wrote in the guestbook after spending a frightful night in the Ghostly Retreat. “First the crying. Then the young girl’s voice calling for Miranda. It was very clear at first, then it got distant and muffled.”
The delightfully creepy and spooky Ghostly Retreat Airbnb vacation rental in nearby Fullerton, California, that pays tribute to the Disneyland classic will set you back $450 to $750 a night, whether you leave with lifelong memories or recurring nightmares.
The Ghostly Retreat is a passion project of Jeff Schiefelbein, who has worked in the Halloween and haunted attractions industry for more than 20 years. His Sinister Pointe Productions builds haunted mazes, props and special effects for Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, SeaWorld and the Queen Mary.
“The Haunted Mansion is the reason I do what I do today,” Schiefelbein said during a phone interview. “I always had a dream of one day I would love to live in the Haunted Mansion.”
It took two months and $200,000 to transform the run-of-the-mill subdivision home into the Ghostly Retreat worthy of comparisons to the venerable Disneyland haunted house.
Schiefelbein has spent long hours in the Ghostly Retreat, but he has never spent the night in the house that he says is not truly inhabited by 999 happy haunts or any other types of spectral spirits.
“I’ve haunted it myself, but there’s nothing supernatural,” Schiefelbein said. “I’ve never had anybody say that they’ve seen any apparitions or anything like that. Nobody has ever told me that they have felt anything and I have never felt anything.”
Schiefelbein expects to see a boost in Ghostly Retreat rentals with Disney’s new “Haunted Mansion” now in theaters — and he plans to sprinkle a few nods to the movie into the Airbnb to boost interest.
Is the Ghostly Retreat scary? It depends on what you’re afraid of and your tolerance for fright. You are paying to sleep in a haunted house, so a little bit of spookiness should be expected.
Speakers in the attic play spine-tingling sounds in the middle of the night of kids giggling or fingernails scratching the walls.
“It’s fairly subtle,” Schiefelbein said. “Some people miss them. Some people are completely awakened by them.”
The Ghostly Retreat opened two years ago with rumblers under the beds that went off in the middle of the night. That didn’t last long.
“It was a little violent. It shook the bed and made a lot of noise,” Schiefelbein said. “It was just too much. People did not like it.”
Since then, Schiefelbein has dialed back many of nighttime special effects after receiving complaints.
“If people do come and say, ‘I’d like to experience everything,’ then we’ll turn it on,” Schiefelbein said. “But by default, we keep it off. We don’t want to ruin people’s vacations.”
Because of Schiefelbein’s professional background, the Ghostly Retreat website warns in ALL CAPS the Airbnb vacation rental is not a haunted attraction, escape room or special event and that “scareactors” won’t pop out of any doors.
I toured the Ghostly Retreat while the Airbnb was being prepared for the next guests with a cleaning crew that had one important instruction: Don’t remove any of the cobwebs.
From the outside, the plain white house looked like virtually any other post-war suburban home in Southern California. But there were subtle hints of what lay inside: The Haunted Mansion-colored mint green paint trim, the wrought iron around the front door and the pet cemetery in the planters.
On the inside, the ordinary four-bedroom, two-bathroom house had been transformed into a replica of the Haunted Mansion ride at the Anaheim theme park complete with authentic décor and realistic special effects.
The fun started just inside the front door.
“We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat,” intoned the familiar voice of the Ghost Host.
The ghostly blue image in the foyer mirror changed every time the front door opened — rotating between the Hatbox Ghost, a Hitchhiking Ghost and Constance Hatchaway. The cleaning crew triggered the audio recording every time they went out to get supplies from their car.
“Get your video rolling before you enter the home as I promise you will want to capture the moment of walking inside,” Margaret from Chula Vista wrote in the Ghostly Retreat’s Airbnb comments. “We were in awe of the details and time spent on perfecting this house. It’s truly amazing and matches the ride to a T.”
Can’t get enough of the foyer welcome? Don’t worry. Plenty of guests have opened the front door more often than they need to just to hear the Haunted Mansion recording play over and over again.
“The magic mirror is so, so fun,” wrote Shallako from Carlsbad in the Airbnb comments. “We kept opening and closing the front door to trigger that part.”
Artificial candles on the wall-mounted sconces flickered endlessly, adding an eerie glow to the Ghostly Retreat living room. Heavy drapes on the windows and over the sliding glass door helped keep the house dimly lit despite the temperatures in the 90s under sunny skies outside.
Four digital portraits on the living room walls transformed before your eyes just like the paintings in the Haunted Mansion’s portrait corridor. Tattered sails appeared on the sailing ship, a lounging lady on a chaise became a black panther, an armored knight on horseback turned into the headless horseman and a bejeweled lady became Medusa.
On another living room wall, a pair of watchful busts stared at guests as they walked past — just like in the Haunted Mansion’s endless hallway.
The house was lushly appointed throughout with wallpaper, carpets, bedding and curtains that evoked the Haunted Mansion mystique.
“To say we were gobsmacked the moment we walked in and the familiar Haunted Mansion script began to play is just the beginning,” wrote Beatriz from Redlands in the Airbnb comments. “The attention to detail was immaculate. It felt like we were in a special members-only section of the ride.”
The highlight of the Ghostly Retreat was tucked into the converted two-car garage — which was turned into a game room version of the Haunted Mansion stretching room complete with the four signature portraits and the attraction’s elevator spiel.
The game room was stocked with Sorry, Jenga, Yahtzee and, of course, the Haunted Mansion board game. A Ouija board was available just in case the Ghostly Retreat needed a little extra haunting.
A switch by the game room door allowed visitors to turn off the looping audio of the elevator spiel whenever it got too repetitive.
Just outside the octagon-shaped game room stood a life-size version of Constance Hatchway, the Black Widow Bride in the attic scene of the Disneyland attraction. Her glowing heart pulsated red through her wedding dress as an ax swung from the rafters above her head. A statue of a happily married couple dancing on the steamer trunk below was missing one thing — the groom’s head.
A whispered audio reminder in the dining room cautioned visitors about the Airbnb checkout time: “Leave this place by 10 a.m. or incur the penalty of death.”
The kitchen looked fit for a killer with a heart of coal —with black appliances, black marble countertops and a butcher block of knives with one missing. A death certificate commemorating each guest’s stay sat on the kitchen counter.
Schiefelbein was inspired to build the Ghostly Retreat by his childhood memories of riding the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and wondering what was behind the dark and gloomy corridor of doors. Schiefelbein used a little creative license to expand upon the story of the ride and create a backstory that explained what was behind each of the rattling and breathing doors in the famed attraction.
“It was fun to take these stories that Disney has created and create our own elements,” Schiefelbein said. “We did create little stories that are on the back of all the doors in the bedrooms where we’ve taken a little bit of the Disney lore that people know and put our own little twist to it.”
Hidden Mickeys adorned the lighting sconces that lined the Ghostly Retreat’s corridor of doors leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The hallway walls were covered in the signature Haunted Mansion wallpaper decorated with creepy eyes. At the end of the hallway, a corpse swayed from a noose tied to the rafters in a complex visual effect you might miss if you don’t look up.
A push button in the Raven Room made an animatronic bird tucked in the corner spring to life with terrifying red eyes.
Another button in the Madame Leota Room triggered a crystal ball and a seance soundtrack as a tambourine and horn hovered in a corner.
Hats hung on the bedposts while potions and elixirs sat on a shelf in the Hatbox Ghost Room.
A portrait of the family patriarch that owns the Haunted Mansion hung on the wall of the Master Gracey Room.
Jars of bat wings, raven claws and toadstool clippings lined the shelves of the bathrooms.
In the backyard that backed to the 57 Freeway, the artificial turf yard had a putting green and a hot tub.
The cornhole boards were adorned with a pair of dueling mustachioed marksmen in top hats preparing to face off with each other.
A guestbook signed by previous Ghostly Retreat guests offered tips for surviving the night and stark warnings for incoming guests.
“Little did we know the horrors that awaited us,” Ghostly Retreat guest Mike Pearson wrote in the guestbook. “Throughout the night clangs of horror and cries of the trapped souls within haunted our dreams.”
“There are visitors in the attic, behind the mirror in the bathroom and in the Raven Room,” read another guestbook entry.
No two visits are ever the same in part because the Ghostly Retreat is constantly undergoing upgrades.
Later this year, Schiefelbein plans to add a life-size Hitchhiking Ghost inside the house and a Hatbox Ghost illusion in the backyard. The popular Nightmare Holidays overlay that pays tribute to the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay of the real Haunted Mansion will return in September.
About 95% of the Ghostly Retreat guests are Haunted Mansion enthusiasts. The remainder of the rentals go to the occasional goth girl lingerie photo shoot or a social media influencer looking to make a viral splash.
