Salem sells out, and it sells out early
Haunted Happenings runs the whole of October, and it brings well over a million visitors into a city of roughly forty-five thousand people. The arithmetic does not work. Salem simply does not have the rooms.
The Hawthorne Hotel, the best-known place in town, starts around $250 a night in October and had its Halloween Ball and Halloween Night packages sold out back in January. Rooms, tours and restaurant tables all fill months in advance, and the vacation rentals near Salem Common go within hours of listing.
So most people going to Salem in October are not staying in Salem. They are staying somewhere in the Boston area and travelling up.
Being straight about where we are
We are south of Boston, and Salem is north of it. Our Dorchester apartments are about eighteen miles from Salem and our Hyde Park apartments about twenty-two, which in practice is a thirty-five to forty-five minute drive depending on the day and the traffic.
A downtown Boston hotel is closer to Salem than we are. We are not going to pretend otherwise. What we offer instead is a whole apartment rather than a room, free parking for every car, and an October rate that has not been rewritten because of Halloween.
Parking in Salem is the real problem
The thing that catches people out is not the drive up, it is what happens at the other end. Downtown Salem in October is closed streets, full garages and long queues, and the closer it gets to Halloween the worse it becomes.
Plenty of our guests drive up early and pay for a garage, and plenty leave the car at the apartment and take the commuter rail or the seasonal ferry in from Boston instead - the train is roughly forty minutes and a few dollars. Either way, the car sits free where you are staying rather than costing you a nightly hotel garage rate on top of everything else.
October is a group month
Salem trips are rarely solo. They are groups of friends, families with teenagers, or several couples travelling together for a long weekend - and that is precisely the booking a hotel handles worst and an apartment handles best.
Three and four bedroom apartments, real beds for everyone, a full kitchen for the morning after a late night, in-unit laundry, and one booking covering the whole group. If you are coming for a weekend in October, book it well ahead. Our own October rates run higher than late summer for the same reason Salem's do, and the larger apartments go first.
Apartments that suit this trip
9 Warner Street, Apt 9W2View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
7 Warner Street, Apt 7W2View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
7 Bernard Street, Apt 7B2View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
9 Bernard Street, Apt 9B2View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
42 Glenway StreetView ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
17 Ellis Street, Apt 2View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
17 Ellis Street, Apt 3View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
19 Ellis Street, Apt 3View ApartmentFree cancellation — 100% refund any time before check-in
Common questions
- Is there parking for driving out to Salem?
- Yes. Every apartment has its own free off-street parking, so you are not paying a garage on top of the stay and you are not circling for a space when you arrive.
- How long can we stay?
- Anything from a single night up to 27 nights. Longer stays are common for medical treatment and work placements, and the nightly rate drops as the stay gets longer.
- Is it a whole apartment?
- The whole apartment, to yourself. Your own front door, your own kitchen, your own laundry - no shared hallways, no front desk, nobody else in the property.
Coming to Boston for something else?
- All 19 apartmentsEvery whole apartment we let, across Dorchester and Hyde Park
- Red Sox & Fenway Park
- Gillette Stadium events
- Coming to Boston for treatment
- Boston hospital stays
- Graduation weekend
- Concerts & arena shows
- Where to stay in Boston
- Near Boston Medical Center
- Harvard & MIT visits
- Wedding weekends
- Conventions & trade shows
- Marathon weekend
- Visiting family
- Hyde Park
- Holidays in Boston