A promotion from a hotel chain asking people to pay with bizarre personal items instead of money is attracting some peculiar offerings, including a preserved uterus, a placenta and a patch of skin currently still attached to a living woman's body.
The campaign is entitled Curious Currencies and is being run by QT Hotels, which is giving away a year's worth of free stays in exchange for the prized possessions.
"Cash or card won't cut it, but a stash of old love letters, your favourite pair of well-worn Levi's or that rare Pink Floyd vinyl, just might. If the curious currency has value to its owner, it's a perfectly reasonable form of payment. Rest assured, nothing is too strange," said the hotel chain in a media release.
The uterus has been offered up by a transgender man who had it removed in a hysterectomy and is said to be happy to part with it in exchange for a year's hotel stay. However, the promotion only offers up to one week's complimentary stay per Curious Currency payment.
As for the patch of skin, that has been offered by 'Kirsty' (not her real name), who describes herself as a collector of tattoos.
She said she will get a QT-themed tattoo anywhere on her body from the waist down, suggesting a size similar to that of a 20c piece, but adding she's open to a larger design.
"I've got more spare skin from the waist down than I do from the waist up and hopefully they choose somewhere I can cover with clothing, if I need to," Kirsty told Newshub.
"I saw the competition and wanted to enter, but I don't really collect anything strange or have any strange belongings. Then it popped into my head, actually I do collect things - tattoos - and that made me go, 'Oh, OK, I'll just offer up a bit of skin'."
She said she has around a dozen tattoos already, including large designs such as one that goes from her ankle, up her leg to her hip.
Other notable entries in the competition that QT Hotels have disclosed include a Chernobyl-themed novelty condom, a set of three preserved plaited ponytails, various stuffed dead animals and a man willing to renounce his Lordship title.
Among the various discarded body parts up for offer, Kirsty is confident her offer will win her a free stay at the hotel.
"I think the tagline 'spare skin' captured them straight away," she said.
QT Hotels describes itself as a "leader in quirky luxury", with unusual features such as a 'Director of Chaos' employed at their locations. It is them who will decide on the winners of the Curious Currencies competition.
The winners can redeem their complimentary stays at any of the QT Hotels in Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, Sydney, Bondi, Newcastle, Canberra, Melbourne, Gold Coast or Perth.
The final day to submit a Curious Currency item is October 31. Details on how to do so can be found on the QT Hotels website.
Some of the items exchanged for free hotel stays will be made into lamps by New Zealand designer Destroy All Monsters. Those will then be displayed at QT Auckland and QT Sydney before being auctioned for charity, with proceeds going to the New Zealand Arts Foundation and Australian Cultural Fund.
