] Who knows how many specters haunt the historic Hotel
] Union Square. Concierge Tom Steele says guests like their
] accommodations so much that some never check out.
]
] Most recently, a young Scot traveling with his
] grandmother confided to Steele that a female ghost
] appeared to him in Room 207.
 . . .
] On the other hand, guests often request 207. Some at the
] hotel connect the mischievous ghost to Lillian Hellman. A
] boozer, a lover, a fighter, the volatile playwright was
] not one to go quietly into the night. (She's said to have
] propositioned a young dinner companion the night before
] she died at age 79.)
]
] It is said that much of Hellman's glamorous and
] celebrated affair with mystery writer Dashiell Hammett
] played out at the hotel when they visited. Hellman is
] thought to have inspired Nora Charles in his book "The
] Thin Man." Before Prohibition, guests entered the hotel's
] bar by means of a slide on Powell Street. Lively days --
] so lively that present-day guests report bodies sleeping
] it off in hotel hallways. Of course, on closer
] inspection ... no one's there.

Heh, I found out about this ghost story *after* I'd checked out. I'd been in room 207 of this hotel all last week, while in San Francisco for the GDC. Alas, no ghosts, though I did have some unusual dreams on a couple nights (a very specific but unknown-to-me male character kept showing up).

Then again, I was sick with the flu for much of my time in SF, so even if any ghosts would have been trying to wake me up, I might well have slept through it! ;)