In the world of hotel packages, free Wi-Fi and breakfast are so last week. All over the world, hotels large and small are upping the art of the deal, throwing in sweeteners like Michelin-star dinners for two or the use of a sports car. But one London hotel—the St. Giles, right around the corner from the British Museum—has upped the package game in a rather literal way. The new Room with a View package—available only on December 19—includes the usual basic perks, including 25 percent off the best available rate (singles start at £81, or about $110), a fancy-schmancy buffet breakfast, and complimentary Wi-Fi, but it also includes one truly uncommon goodie: a guided abseil down the side of the 164-foot-tall building.
Abseiling, for those whose leisure activities don’t generally include the submission of death-risk waivers, is a mountaineering term—also known as rappelling—referring to a controlled descent down a vertical face using a rope and a mechanical friction device or, for the truly old school, a rope looped around your body. At the St. Giles, the feat will involve hopping off the hotel’s slab-sided 12-story central tower. The hotel plans to conduct its guided abseil, which will be led by Bristol-based adventure-tour guide Dave Talbot, on Tuesday, December 19, starting at 11 a.m.
With the Room with a View package, the St. Giles promises to make a £30 donation (about $40), per person, per booking, to its pet charity, Hotels with Heart, a wintertime fund set up to provide urgent assistance to Londoners in need.
Courtesy of St. Giles London
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