Speaking of airports, how about this idea?

Most of you have heard of the capsule hotel concept in Japan. I have always wondered if this could work in the USA? One guy in Japan has cleaned up the concept and really made a nice looking one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRT4dU6r-KQ&feature=related

My thought is, could one of these work in one of the USA's busier airports? Say you have a 7 hour layover in O'Hare, instead of sitting at the bar, would you pay $50 to be able to shower and lie down and watch TV? If your flight is canceled, would you stay the night in one for half the price of a hotel? I would think you could rent them twice a day, once for overnights and once for "long layovers."

Thoughts?

Sorry, I hit "save" before the poll was complete.

There used to be an hourly rental room area at LAX. It was a tiny room with a shower and a bed. I had a long layover on an assignment to Japan so I used it while waiting for my flight at LAX.

They were very strict about usage...only one person was allowed in the room at a time (controlled at the entrance). A couple that was living out that way came to see me and they would not let them go back to the room together when she had to feed their baby.

I voted yes because I think I would use something like this again.

I know the hotel at IAH does "daily" rentals...or at least they did when I needed one. The cost of something like a capsule would have to be less than the cost of the hotel for the comfort compromises you'd make in something that small. Plus the hotel has a pool, etc.

Quote: AZDuffman

My thought is, could one of these work in one of the USA's busier airports?

There has been a lot of talk about this idea, but people seem to think that it won't work here. In Osaka it seemed to me that the capsule hotel had a relatively few number of rooms. The concept works better in busy Tokyo where men often get too drunk to make the torturous commute home, and spend the night without breaking the family budget.

They have successfully expanded it to include women in Japan.

Some very simple ideas seem to get killed. I remember a perfectly sensible self cleaning toilet was killed in New York simply because people were so concerned about prostitutes that they would not let them be installed anywhere.

I saw one recently, I believe it was in Atlanta, but not sure. It was also way more expensive than $50 for a long layover, I think it was $30 per hour. I am sure someone can fact check this.

Quote: SOOPOO

I saw one recently, I believe it was in Atlanta, but not sure. It was also way more expensive than $50 for a long layover, I think it was $30 per hour. I am sure someone can fact check this.

At that price it doesn't seem worth it. The Motel 6 at Atlanta Airport advertises rooms for $42.50 per night.

Yotel, which builds capsule hotels in London airports is opening a hotel in NYC this year. The capsule hotel at Gatwick Airport outside of London was about $40 for four hours, and $90 for overnight. The location 42nd and 10th avenue is right next to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, but also features some off price experimental theater.

There is a Travel Inn (160 rooms) built 1963 with rooms that are often $99 a night across the street (only free hotel parking garage in Manhattan), so I presume that the YOTEL capsule rooms will be a similar price.

Quote: YOTEL

Yotel- the iPOD of the hotel industry brings affordable luxury to New York
The largest hotel opening in Manhattan in 2011

London, UK: 1 March 2010 - YOTEL, the revolutionary hotel concept, is today announcing that it will open for business in New York City with a property featuring 669 stylish cabins. This will mark the first YOTEL opening outside of its current international airport locations and make it the largest hotel opening in New York in 2011.

YO! Founder Simon Woodroffe OBE and YOTEL CEO Gerard Greene conceived the innovative YOTEL cabins to provide a flexible and convenient ‘first class’ hotel experience at affordable prices. Inspired by first-class airline cabins YOTEL Times Square, located at 42nd Street and 10th Avenue will be part of Related Company’s 1.2 million square foot, 60 storey LEED-Silver complex which will include residential units and the Frank Gehry designed Signature Theatre. The flagship YOTEL property is being designed by Rockwell Group in collaboration with Softroom and will feature a Club Lounge and the largest hotel outside terrace space of any hotel in New York.

Might be a good sideline for cemeteries. Not many near airpots, though.

A popular Japanese Capsule Hotel is $53 for a night's stay (up to 19 hours) near one of the largest train stations in Tokyo. Men Only!

This hotel, called Ace Inn is only $38 a night.

I think that it would make spending the night in Manhattan much more affordable. I've seen the EconoLodge charge as much as $300. Even if you take a bus back through the Lincoln Tunnel and stay in a cheap budget hotel in NJ, they are a minimum of $83 and usually a lot more.

But I doubt they will try to keep it that inexpensive in Manhattan. Like I said in an earlier post, if they keep rates to $99 a night I will be surprised.

Here is a photo of the pod hotel being constructed.

I don't think it's such a great idea, not at that price. And generally for airports or anywhere that isn't as struggling for space as Japan or Manhattan.
Once you get past the novelty of capsules, a 5x6 feet cabin with a folding cot, luggage storage under it, space to hang your clothes, a chair and a table (perhaps still with a TV) offers considerably more utility, while taking only marginally more space. In the expanses of airport buildings, such rooms make more sense for a Western traveler.

If going for just places to get some sleep and showers, such a service could and should be offered for free altogether on long layover flights. Communal gender-separate showers alongside restrooms, simple partitioned rooms with rows of bunk beds, that's all it takes. Beats the benches by far, with minimal expense.

The Jayneoverlooking the Hudson in the far West Village, the six-floor, red-brick Jane Hotel has rooms about 50 square feet. In the early twentieth century, the claustrophobically tiny rooms housed sailors, and in 1912, they were used by Titanic survivors. Now, they serve as podlike quarters for guests, with single twin beds and limited, but modern, amenities like free Wi-Fi and iPod docks. The first of these 150 standard rooms, inspired by luxury train cabins, opened in fall 2008, and 40 captain's cabins—with waterfront views, private bathrooms, and five times as much space—are scheduled to follow. Bohemian décor now pervades the landmarked building, which—in its most recent iteration—was the dilapidated, residential Hotel Riverview.

The Yotel rooms will be 170 sq feet in midtown. From my recollection this is comparable to a single in a train station hotel in Japan, but not to a capsule hotel.

The Pod hotel in midtown is about 70 sq ft and $100.


There are over 100 Japanese capsule hotels where rooms are usually 22 square ft, and can be as low as 18 sq. ft. A coffin is about 16 sq. ft. Standard price is about $38.

THe bowery Whitehouse has the cheapest rooms in NYC for $33.

Any city where space is so much at a premium that to rent a coffin to sleep in costs $38 is not worth visiting, let alone worth living in. This is one of the most horrible things I've seen in my life. And a bigger coffin in NYC for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS? I'll stay home, thank you, and get mugged right here.

We used to go to Yokohama for the US Navy, and the state department per diem was $175 maximum for the hotel room and $170 for meals and incidental expenses. Since it was convenient to stay at the train station, the Japanese hotel rate for their smallest room was $183 for a 159 square foot room. It's hard to squeeze an American body into those little rooms. Beds are just over 3' wide.

The Yotel in Manhattan will open this June in the new MiMA building that just opened near the Port authority on 42nd street. This mixed-use building includes 500 rentals, 151 condos, a Yotel cabin-style hotel and off-Broadway theaters designed by Frank Gehry.

While the rooms will be tiny, they will not be capsules, but more like 200 square feet.



It will be next door to the apartment building that inspired the Seinfeld TV series.

Quote: pacomartin

It will be next door to the apartment building that inspired the Seinfeld TV series.

In that case, I hope they took the Kenny Rodgers Roasters sign down so the guests can get some sleep.

Quote: cellardoor

In that case, I hope they took the Kenny Rodgers Roasters sign down so the guests can get some sleep.

Kenny Kramer's (inspired Kramer on Seinfeld) Reality Tour used to leave from across the street, but they moved two street south.

I think all of the Kenny Rodgers in America have closed, and the only ones left are in the Philippines.