I do a fair bit of traveling around the world and my husband and I enjoy staying in tiny inns, hotels, B&B’s and other minuscule accommodations. Some of these rooms have been a little unusual: we had a fun time staying in a fairy chimney cave in Cappadocia, Turkey and at a capsule inn in Tokyo, Japan both of which were tiny spaces.
The latest issue of AARP Magazine recently profiled several chain hotels that are going small. In London, Amsterdam and New York City, micro-hotels are becoming a popular place to stay for travelers on a budget who don’t mind a small space. Some rooms in the Pod Hotel start at $89 a night for a 60 to 170 square foot room. At the Yotel in midtown Manhattan, the tiny, Japanese-inspired rooms include everything you need: flat-screen TVs, media hubs, free Wi-Fi and custom modular furniture. Some of the rooms also have a galley kitchen rather than a mini-bar. In London and Amsterdam, the Yotel rooms are located inside the terminal buildings of Heathrow, Gatwick and Schiphol airports. Both Pod and Yotel plan to open locations in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. in the next few years.
Photos by Christina Nellemann, Pod and Yotel
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]
That first image is SO wild!! It seems like it’d be like being in a kennel!! 🙂
That first one is way too small, it is like a dress rehearsal for a coffin. No way….
i totally agree about the first one — way tooooo small. i have claustrophobia
but many many thanks for sharing your experiences.
I see the “less is more” concept happening with articles, also. A little more info would have been nice rather than just one paragraph. There’s more ads than article here.
Pod and Yotel are way overpriced! But don’t tell that to a 23-year-old hedge fund manager who wants to chillax in a pod.
I hope they have a really good fire escape system.
I’ve never had a burning desire to travel to Turkey, but the “fairy chimney cave” room (the entire hotel, actually!) is adorable. Be sure to check it out!
I’ve been pondering how to modify a UPS van into a 21st century vardo. The two photos, after the Japanese sleeping pod, are great ideas to me.
Did anyone else think of the Alice Garden Pods from Deus Ex 3 when they read this?
To Ben Brown ~
I had an old International brand Milk Truck back in my Hippie Days, and modded it some. Put in a Couch and/or a Futon Bed, and a lil Camping Stove [used safely, of course]. I kept it multi-purpose. We also hauled around P.A. Sound Equipment, so I avoided permanently-installed features. Thinking this might be fun to do again someday, I checked into UPS Vans, included asking a UPS Driver last week about what I’d heard prior. Used UPS Vans don’t exist. They strip off usable parts and crush and recycle the Vans. I guess they don’t want the brown profile of the Van out in Public. They are not to be had. What one can readily see are former U-Haul Trucks and Penske Box Trucks; both canary yellow. I haven’t dug into this, but I’m guessing that FedEx does the same thing. You just don’t see their used Vans out and about.
I think the “Sprinter Vans” used by Fed Ex are readily available used. Branded by Mercedes and Dodge, even the Dodge sports a Mercedes Diesel for the bio-fuel enthusiast. 144″ and 172″ wheelbase & half ton to one ton, some with dually rear wheels.
I just wish the photos had captions.
I stayed at some of these in Japan. They are called capsule hotels. There are separate rooms (bathroom, shower room, and bathing room) for other things you might want to do while you are there. These things are very nice because they are inexpensive (much cheaper than regular hotels). A lot of the time, when you’re traveling all you want is a place to get some sleep. These are sufficient for that.
These are ideal !Would be great if the photos were pinable to Pinterest
Chris…they are “PINABLE”. download the PINTREST PIN> or find them on my board
https://pinterest.com/crystalllaws/no-mortgage/
hope that helps!
This is extremely beneficial for folks wanting to just simply get a good night’s sleep, and wake up to travel the next day. They should get this available asap on the family plan.
Oh no no no, I cannot breathe looking at that first one! Am I the only one having a major claustrophobic reaction to that? The fire exits would also be a concern to me. Is there a window anywhere? The others are gorgeous, probably because of the lighting and restful ambiance, but I could not handle that morgue cabinet hotel.
me too!!
How cool! Thanks for sharing your experience.
I don’t think I could sleep in those capsule rooms. I get claustrophobia, sometimes! Now those rooms in Yotel in NY or London? I could do!
I’m not sure why the Manhattan Yotel is considered for people on a budget. The least expensive room is $335 a night. It seems to me that it’s on a par with Manhattan lodging in general.