Those of a nervous disposition will be best off skipping Airbnb’s latest offer. However, if you’re a fearless type who can get excited about the idea of spending a night underground with six million dead people, then read on.
The room-rental startup this week posted details of a special Halloween contest where the prize is an overnight stay in Paris’s famous catacombs, dubbed “the world’s largest grave.”
Open to couples and friends, the contest’s two winners will be given a “real bed” for the night and, well, very little else.
“On Halloween night….satisfy your thirst for adventure in the sprawling network of skulls and bones,” the company, doing its best to sell the contest, says on its website.
Besides being scared witless, the two winners will also be treated to “a dazzling culinary experience while enjoying a private concert in the most incredible acoustics under the earth.”
And finally, before hitting the hay, a storyteller will drop by to regale you with spooky catacomb-inspired tales, ensuring that any sleep you do manage to get will be full of terrifying nightmares. Enjoy.
Make it through the night and you’ll become “the only living person ever to wake up in the Paris catacombs,” Airbnb says.
Presented on its site in the form of a typical Airbnb listing, amenities for your unique accommodation include the aforementioned bed, a first aid kit, and a fire extinguisher, presumably for hosing down the spirits should they rise in the small hours and cause a commotion. No, there’s no wireless Internet, no air conditioning (or heating, more importantly), no gym, and no free parking on the premises.
To have a chance of staying in the catacombs, you’ll need to tell the host in up to 100 words “why you think you’re brave enough to sleep in the catacombs.” The closing date is October 20.
Between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, human remains were moved from Parisian cemeteries to the tunnels – former stone quarries – in response to public health concerns as local cemeteries became full.
Located deep beneath the city’s streets and with the entire network covering an incredible 200 miles, the catacombs of Paris are today one of the French capital’s most popular tourist attractions.
