By Peter Lawrence Kane
Valentine’s Day is like Bay to Breakers. Some people really love it, while others vacillate between “just make it go away” and ignoring it altogether. To tempt both camps, Personality Hotels — which operates three hotels around Union Square, including, of course, the Hotel Diva — is running a light BDSM-themed Valentine’s promotion tied in with the February 13 release of Fifty Shades of Grey.
For a $150 add-on, a “discreet black box” is sent to your room upon check-in that includes everything you could want for the most romantic dom-sub experience imaginable: a vibrator, a fringe whip with soft tassels, faux-fur handcuffs, “Madame’s Mystique Paddle” (which is pretty fab, actually), a silk restraint, a tickler, condoms, water-based lube, and a $10 donation to the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund.
If this sounds like stuff no actual BDSM practitioner would pack for a weekend getaway, well, we need only consult the source material to know that Anastasia Steele and Christian Gray are more hardcore than that, too. They played with a riding crop, after all, and even their elevator make-out sesh involved him pinning her hands above her head with his “viselike grip.” And I definitely don’t mean to shame anyone’s vanilla passions, but I do know from experience that it’s rewarding to push your limits beyond satin. Also, the safety word is “Ghirardelli.”
Unlike the Fifty Shades of Grey wine, which is sanctioned by E. L. James and whose label evokes the corrugated metal not often found in sexy boudoirs, there’s a disclaimer at the bottom saying that this promotion is unaffiliated with the book. Ruh-roh. Better book your stay now, before a henchman disguised as room service delivers a cease-and-desist, duct-tapes your mouths shut, and steals all the vodka from the mini-fridge.
[Via SF Business Times; Image courtesy of ThinkStock]
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