From Amsterdam to New York, travelers seeking refuge from soaring hotel rates have an alternative: pods with little space and, sometimes, no windows. What it's like to spend a night in 84 square feet.
Forget a room with a view -- or even much room. The latest development in the hotel industry has travelers bunking in tiny, sometimes windowless, quarters.
In London, there's a new hotel that books rooms by the hour, has an entryway that looks like a spaceship and windows that open into an indoor hallway. In the Netherlands, the new Qbic hotel rents "cubis" the size of a walk-in closet. Opening soon is an Amsterdam hotel made entirely of small, prefabricated pods, built off-site.
Rapidly rising hotel-room rates and growing travel delays are creating a new niche: so-called pod hotels, small spaces where travelers can spend the night -- or a few hours -- for relatively cheap. The concept has been in Japan for decades but is new in Europe and spreading to the U.S.
These pod hotels are following the lead of low-frills, low-cost airlines. Most don't have grand lobbies, gyms or meeting rooms, areas that can be considered dead space for generating revenue at a regular hotel. With limited services and amenities, they also save on labor -- one of the biggest expenses for hotel operators. There is as few as one full-time employee for every 12 rooms at a pod hotel, compared with an employee for every two rooms at a typical budget hotel.
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Source - Wall Street Journal
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