The first hotel chain aimed at extreme sports enthusiasts launched yesterday with the opening of the first Extreme Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa.
The 130-room hotel, which features a five-storey climbing wall on the exterior of the hotel, a hanging chair in the reception, a contemporary design and includes many other quirky ideas…
The hotel’s swimming pool has been designed to look like an aquarium from the restaurant with the water coming right up to the 30mm thick glass windows of the restaurant, giving diners an underwater view of swimmers. The men’s urinals appear to be suspended on scaffolding at the edge of the building while the entering the lift feels like being in a shark cage thanks to floor to ceiling life-size photography.
The hotels are the brainchild of Al Gosling, extreme sports lover and founder of the Extreme Sports Channel, and will be managed by South African hotel firm Protea. Gosling and Protea have secured £200 million in initial funding for the project from hotel investment firm Istithmar Hotels.
There are an estimated 156 million participants in extreme sports worldwide and different types of hotel will be developed within the chain to target them, with urban hotels in cities like Sydney, London and Rio; snow hotels for resorts such as Verbier, Val d’Isère and Courchevel and surf hotels near to the best breaks and beaches. The company is also in talks about building a hotel on a motor racing circuit.
Gosling says the Cape Town hotel will: “Feel like a five-star hotel but at three-star prices”. Rooms at the hotel will cost a standard £45 a night and include free broadband internet access. The hotels will work with local extreme sports operators to provide guests with extreme activities. The Cape Town hotel, for example, offers guests the chance to fly in British fighter jets!
