Lizzie Borden House Overnight: Murder Room Booking, Rates, and Guest Guide
Sleeping inches away from the exact floorboards where a double hatchet murder happened sounds completely unhinged. Yet thousands of true crime fans fight for a Lizzie Borden House overnight stay at 230 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. Before you hand over your credit card, you need the hard truths about the lizzie borden bed and breakfast rates, hidden daytime rules, and which room actually holds the darkest history.
90-minute gap: House layout
On the morning of August 4, 1892, someone walked into this locked Victorian home and slaughtered Andrew and Abby Borden with a hatchet. The nursery rhyme says Lizzie took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. It lied.
Forensic evidence from the 1893 trial records shows Abby Borden took 18 or 19 blows to the back of the head inside the second-floor guest bedroom around 9:30 AM. Andrew Borden came home from his morning walk later, lay down on the first-floor sitting room sofa, and took 10 or 11 strikes to the face around 11:00 AM.
Why does that timeline matter when you book a bed here? Because when police examined the bodies at 11:40 AM, Andrew’s blood was still warm and liquid, while Abby’s blood was dark, cold, and congealed. That medical fact proved the killer hid inside this cramped, railroad-style house for ninety minutes between the murders while Lizzie and the maid, Bridget Sullivan, moved around the property.
When you walk the second floor at 2:00 AM, you realize how insane that is. The house was built without hallways upstairs to save space. The bedrooms connect directly to one another through shared interior doors. You cannot sneeze in this house without someone hearing you, let alone hide a bloody hatchet for an hour and a half. Lizzie was acquitted in June 1893 by a jury after District Attorney Hosea Knowlton failed to overcome defense attorney Andrew Jennings’ strategy, leaving the case officially unsolved.
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Lizzie borden house rooms: which bed are you picking?
Since US Ghost Adventures took over the property in May 2021, they updated the sleeping quarters with 1800-thread-count linens, GhostBed mattresses, and Phillips Hue smart lighting. The main house features two multi-room suites and four standard bedrooms across the second and third floors, plus two newer budget spaces down in the cellar.
If you want a lizzie borden murder room booking, pay attention to the floor plan. People constantly book the wrong room thinking Andrew died in his bed. He died downstairs on the couch; nobody sleeps there unless you rent the entire house and camp out on the parlor floor.
| Room or Suite Name | Floor & Entry Route | Bed Setup & Capacity | Bathroom Access | Historical Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John V. Morse Room | 2nd Floor (Front Stairs) | 1 Full Bed + Roll-out Cot (Max 3) | Shared (2nd Floor) | The Murder Room. Abby Borden was killed on the floor between the bed and dressing table. |
| Lizzie & Emma Suite | 2nd Floor (Front Stairs) | 1 Queen + 1 Full in two rooms (Max 4) | Shared with Morse Room | The sisters’ actual bedrooms. Connects via a locked door to the elder Bordens’ suite. |
| Andrew & Abby Suite | 2nd Floor (Side Door Stairs) | 1 Queen + 1 Full in two rooms (Max 4) | Private Bathroom | Andrew and Abby’s bedroom plus Abby’s old 1890s sewing room. |
| Bridget Sullivan Room | 3rd Floor (Back Stairs) | 1 Full Bed + Roll-out Cot (Max 3) | Shared (3rd Floor) | The attic room where maid Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan was napping when Andrew was killed. |
| Andrew Jennings Room | 3rd Floor (Back Stairs) | 1 Full Bed + Roll-out Cot (Max 3) | Shared (3rd Floor) | Former storage room named after Lizzie’s family lawyer. |
| Hosea Knowlton Room | 3rd Floor (Back Stairs) | 1 Full Bed + Roll-out Cot (Max 3) | Shared (3rd Floor) | Former attic room dedicated to the trial’s lead prosecutor. |
| Under the Hatchet & Washroom | Basement (Rear Exterior Door) | Encased Wall Bed (1–2 Guests) | Basement Facilities | Located in the cellar where police found the handleless, ash-covered hatchet head. |
1. The John Morse Room Stay (The Actual Murder Room)
If you want bragging rights, the John Morse room stay is the #1 ticket in the building. Uncle John V. Morse slept in this front guest room on the night of August 3, ate a heavy breakfast of mutton and johnnycakes with the family the next morning, and left at 8:45 AM. Less than an hour later, Abby Borden went upstairs to put fresh pillowcases on this exact bed and never walked out. Guests report dizziness, sudden nausea, and shadows moving near the dresser. You enter through the front door and climb the main staircase; the room sits immediately to your left.
2. The Lizzie & Emma Suite
Right at the top of the front landing sits Lizzie’s large bedroom, which flows directly into her older sister Emma’s smaller bedroom. If two people book this space, you still get the entire two-room suite to yourselves. Look closely at the heavy wooden door behind the bed — that connects straight into Andrew and Abby’s suite. In 1892, the family kept that door double-bolted from both sides because the daughters despised their stepmother. Today, you can shut it for privacy, though you will share a hallway bathroom with whoever booked the John Morse room next door.
3. The Andrew & Abby Suite
Hate sharing a toilet with strangers at midnight? Book the Andrew & Abby Suite. It is the only suite in the house with a private bathroom. Because of the historic bolt on Lizzie’s door, you cannot reach this room from the front staircase. You must enter through the side kitchen door and take the narrow back stairs up to the second floor. It pairs Andrew’s master bedroom with Abby’s adjoining sewing room.
4. The Third-Floor Attic Rooms & Basement Quarters
The third floor houses the Bridget Sullivan, Andrew Jennings, and Hosea Knowlton rooms. All three use the side entrance and back staircase, sharing a single bathroom at the top of the third-floor landing. These rooms are quieter, slightly cheaper, and less claustrophobic than the second floor. Meanwhile, the basement rooms (Under the Hatchet and The Washroom) are accessed strictly through the exterior cellar door at the back of the house. The interior basement stairs stay locked at night unless a guided tour is running.
Lizzie borden bed and breakfast rates (and what’s not included)
Back before the 2021 ownership transfer, this property operated as a traditional inn where your room rate covered a massive morning meal and an afternoon house tour. That is no longer how it works.
Today, the house uses dynamic pricing — much like airlines or major hotel chains. The official website hides flat rate cards because prices swing wildly depending on the day of the week and season. However, verified booking data and current visitor breakdowns give you a clear baseline of what your wallet will take:
- Standard Nightly Room Rates: Expect to pay between $200 and $260 per night for single rooms (like the third-floor rooms or John Morse room) on off-peak weeknights. Multi-room second-floor suites and peak October or early August anniversary weekends surge past $300 to $400+ per night.
- Extra Guest Fees: Base rates cover two guests. Adding a third or fourth person to a suite or roll-out cot triggers an extra per-person nightly fee.
- The “Bed & Breakfast” Catch: Despite the famous nickname, breakfast is not included in standard room bookings. You must pay $20 per person to add morning dining. Thankfully, they ditched the Bordens’ 1892 menu of cold mutton broth and stale johnnycakes; the kitchen serves normal modern food like eggs, bacon, pancakes, oatmeal, and fruit.
- House Tours Are Extra: Booking a bed does not include the daytime guided house tour or evening ghost hunt. You must buy tour tickets separately on the website.
- Creepy Add-Ons: Want an official rubber hatchet or a creepy Victorian “Lily” doll waiting on your pillow when you unlock your door? That costs an extra $30.
- Renting the Whole House: If your group wants to lock out the public, you can book all six rooms plus pay an Exclusive Use fee of $1,500 ($2,000 during October). That package cancels all public evening tours, gives your group a private two-hour guided ghost hunt, includes continental breakfast, and throws in the rubber hatchet and doll.
Check-In, Night Tours, and the Daytime Kick-Out
Do not treat this place like a Marriott. It is a working museum that lets you sleep inside the exhibits after the tourists leave. If you fail to read the operational rules on the Lizzie Borden House FAQ page, you will end up stranded on the sidewalk with your luggage.
- Automated Check-In: There is no traditional hotel front desk clerk waiting for you at midnight. The property uses an automated check-in and check-out system via digital codes sent to your email prior to arrival. Standard room check-in opens in the afternoon (typically 4:00 PM once daytime tour crowds thin out), and check-out is at 9:00 AM sharp before morning tours start. (Note: Special late-night investigation pass holders have a separate 12:15 AM to 8:00 AM window).
- The 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Multi-Night Kick-Out Rule: This is the biggest trap for uninformed travelers. If you book two or more nights in a row, you must vacate your bedroom between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM every day. Why? Because daytime tourists pay to walk through the John Morse room, Lizzie’s bedroom, and the attic. You have to pack your bags neatly to the side — or have staff lock them up — while housekeeping resets the room for public display. Plan a day trip to Battleship Cove down the street, Newport (40 minutes south), or Salem (an hour north).
- Late-Night Schedule & Common Areas: Public daytime and evening tours run from 10:00 AM until midnight. An extended ghost tour segment runs from 9:00 PM to 9:30 PM, followed by a staff-guided late-night ghost hunt from 10:00 PM to 12:00 AM using EMF meters and spirit boxes. That 10:00 PM hunt is strictly capped at eight guests, so book it the exact second you reserve your room. Once the clock strikes midnight and the tour guides leave, overnight guests get full run of the first-floor common areas (the parlor, dining room, and sitting room where Andrew died) and the basement to watch horror movies, do case research, or run their own investigations until dawn.
- Strict House Bans: Open flames are banned — no candles, no incense, no smoking, and no vaping inside the 1845 wooden structure. Pets are strictly prohibited. Also, do not wander into unbooked bedrooms or the employee laundry area in the basement, or security cameras will flag you.
Cancellation rules and refund traps
Suppose your travel plans fall apart. Can you get your money back? According to the official Lizzie Borden House Refund Policy, the cancellation clock is brutal, and the company enforces strict paperwork hurdles.
First, you cannot cancel by calling a tour guide or sending a casual email. You must download the official Cancellation Request Form from their site, sign it physically or digitally, state your reason for canceling, and email the completed document to [email protected].
Second, look at how fast your refund shrinks for overnight room reservations:
- 90+ days before check-in: 70% to 90% refund (depending on booking tier).
- 60 to 89 days before check-in: 50% refund.
- 30 to 59 days before check-in: 30% refund.
- 7 to 21 days before check-in: Up to 50% refund on select flexible tiers, or subject to a 25% rescheduling fee if moved within two weeks.
- 6 days or fewer before check-in: 100% Non-Refundable.
If you need to change a guest’s name, shift your tour time, or modify a date more than seven days out, expect a $20 amendment fee for overnight stays and a $10 fee for tour tickets. Private house buyouts, filming reservations, and special events are completely final sale the moment you pay.
How to book without getting burned
Ready to lock in your night at 230 Second Street? Skip third-party travel aggregators like Expedia if you want a specific historical room; aggregators often lump rooms into generic “Standard Double” categories, and you might think you booked the John Morse murder room only to end up in the third-floor attic.
Go directly to lizzie-borden.com or call the reservation desk at (508) 675-7333 with your exact dates in hand. If you want October or the first week of August, book at least six to nine months ahead. Bring a flashlight, leave the candles at home, and maybe keep one eye on the sitting room sofa when you walk down to the kitchen for a midnight glass of water.
