Halloween enthusiasts who are bored with haunted houses and horror-movie marathons may want to step up their game this year and take a vacation underground – way underground.
Airbnb is offering thrillseekers the Halloween night of their life: accommodations for two inside the Paris Catacombs, 20 metres below ground, enclosed by walls laced with the skulls and bones of the dead.
To enter, participants must write 100 words (in English or French) about why they are brave enough to sleep in the catacombs, and submit it to Airbnb's website.
The prize includes a bed, a tour of the Catacombs, dinner accompanied by a violinist, and breakfast in the morning – if the winners make it through the night.
"Before bedtime, a storyteller will have you spellbound with fascinating tales from the Catacombs, guaranteed to produce nightmares. Finally, enjoy dawn with the dead, as you become the only living person ever to wake up in the Paris Catacombs," Airbnb's website states.
"It's the first time people can actually sleep there," said Airbnb spokeswoman Carmen Hernandez.
The catacombs contain the remains of approximately six-million Parisians, who were transported there between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, during a time when cemeteries were closing down due to public health risks.
Hernandez says this contest is a part of several others the company has done, including a night in a transformed cable car in the French Alps – suspended 2,300 metres in the air.
The tour is not for everyone, said Sarah Roy, communications manager for Airbnb France: The temperature is a steady 14 C, which can be cold during the night, and the catacombs can be claustrophobic at times.
Then there's the grim graffitti carved into the walls. Translated, one on display reads, "Think in the morning that you perhaps will not go until the evening, and in the evening that you perhaps will not go until the morning."
Roy, who says the engravings are her favourite part of the tour, adds that these markings include the locations where the bones originally came from, which helps to make the tour a historical experience.
"It's a once in a lifetime experience, to experience a historical place in very privileged conditions," she said, adding the Catacombs will not become part of Airbnb's regular inventory.
Participants have until 11.59 p.m. CET (that's 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT) on Oct. 20 to submit their applications online: airbnb.com/night-at/paris-catacombs.