The fifth season focuses on the downtown-Los Angeles Hotel Cortez which has been purchased by New York-based fashion designer Will Drake. The 90 year-old hotel is haunted by mysterious ghosts, including those of its twisted founder James Patrick March and a drug-addicted prostitute Hypodermic Sally, as well as evil creatures, such as the deformed, strap-on-wielding "The Addiction Demon". Staff and residents of the hotel include its 115-year old "warden," "The Countess", her drug addict-turned-vampire lover Donovan and his mother Iris, the eccentric transgender bartender Liz Taylor, and the Countess' vengeful ex-lover Ramona Royale.