Airbnb Offers Chance To Stay In Dracula’s Bran Castle On Halloween

by Hillary Luehring-JonesOctober 18, 2016, 6:06 pmNews, News Feed >

While the novel Dracula is fictional, there really is a real old castle in Transylvania which it is based on, and you really can sleep there on Halloween night thanks to an Airbnb promotion.

WIN A TRIP TO SLEEP IN DRACULA’S BRAN CASTLE

Bram Stoker‘s notorious character lived in a spooky castle in Transylvania, based on the real-life Bran Castle in Romania. The castle is one of Romania’s top tourist attractions. Originally a military fortress, the castle became connected to Vlad the Impaler, a 15th century prince famous for killing his victims by impaling them with stakes. In fact, it was Vlad who inspired the story of Dracula in the first place.

The castle was seized by the Communists in 1948, and no one has slept over in Bran Castle since the castle was returned to the rightful owners, the Hapsburgs, who had been exiled from Romania.

Spearheaded by Bram Stoker’s descendent Dacre Stoker, the Airbnb event will fly a pair to Romania, wine and dine them at the castle, and have them sleep in velvet-lined coffins, just as the vampire would have done. (Don’t worry, beds will also be available.) Interested parties must apply using their “vampiric wit” by writing in what they would say to Dracula if given the chance.

“I want to make it both realistic and show the legend in the wonderful country that birthed the whole thing,” Stoker said in an interview. The contest winners will be brought to the castle in a horse-drawn carriage and greeted by Stoker himself, in character as Jonathan Harker, who in the novel who encounters Dracula at his castle. Stoker plans to voice the words Dracula said in the novel: “Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring!”

Beware, as it seems Dracula himself may show up on Halloween night. “Did he really die at end of the novel when he was stabbed with knife? Bram leaves the question ambiguous,” Stoker hinted. “But if he’s still floating around, he would make an appearance.”

Watch this clip from the 1931 classic movie based on the book Dracula to get you in the mood for Halloween.