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| Pod Hotel New York, bunk bed |
WE ALL LOVE PODS. From the iPod and Dopod to the blundering but sadly extinct Sauropod, pods have been and will remain an obsession. We are mutating into a master race. The signs are everywhere.
Wherever you turn, people are plugged into some snazzy POD or the other, nodding, staring blankly into the middle distance, mouth open, drool spilling out.
So if pods are hot, why not take things to their logical conclusion – and live in one. Live in a pod? That’s right.
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Pods are now storming the hospitality business. Drawing their inspiration from the toaster-size Japanese capsule hotels – where sozzled salarymen, having missed the last train home and forgotten their wife’s name, crash for the night for Y4,000 (US$34) – pod hotels are the next big, or small, thing in accommodation.
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| easyHotel Standard Room |
Most people just get back to their rooms for a brief kip before that dawn departure on the next red-eye. So does space really matter? And should we be getting mugged in broad daylight for it? While it may not appeal to all, The Pod Hotel (www.thepodhotel.com), New York, offers stylish centrally located digs at 230 E 51st St. Just don’t attempt to swing a cat by the tail. If you’re sharing the bath and toilet, your Single Pod Room could start from as little as US$149 (or less) a night. There’s a flat-screen TV, an iPOD dock and free Wireless Internet. For a more real sense of space head up to the rooftop garden with bar, or opt for a larger room with queen-size bed. There are bunk bed configurations too.
Pod hotels are aimed at hip travellers with slim hips and slimmer budgets who want all the convenience of location and the odd bit of chic design chicanery without shelling out for it. Step out of The Pod Hotel New York and it’s a short stroll to Times Square, Radio City or Rockefeller Centre.
In London, budget airline easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has taken his signature cheery orange into the compact, futuristic first-class cabin shapes of his easyHotel (www.easyhotel.com) franchise that offers truth in travel. The range starts with the Small Room (with or without a window). And that pretty much says it all. There are Special Needs Rooms and Standard Rooms.
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| Yotel at Heathrow Terminal 4 |
Check out London South Kensington at 14 Lexham Gardens; London Earls Court at 44-48 West Cromwell Rd; or London Victoria at 36-40 Belgrave Rd. At the easyHotel South Kensington a 6sq m Small Room with no window starts at around US$84.
In Basel, you can get a foot in the door from US$69. The hotel claims, the earlier you book, the less you pay. The easyHotel franchise is extending into Hungary, Dubai, North Africa and India.
London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 and Gatwick South Terminal are the launch locations for the Yotel (www.yotel.com) where “cabins” can be booked from 40 pounds a night (about US$76). A Premium Cabin will set you back 70 pounds.
Cabins can also be booked in four-hour blocks. Simon Woodroffe, the evil genius behind this butt-squeezing brand, took a pinch of British Airways First Class, a hint of Airbus, and a dash of Japanese capsule hotel to create the Yotel. Premium Cabins feature a “techno wall” with an iPod or MP3 player port, a workstation, flat screen LCD TV with surround sound, free WiFi or plug-in Internet, mood lighting and bespoke toiletries.
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| Qbic Amsterdam: mod interior |
Unlike an easyHotel, the Yotels will be crammed with amenities. It looks like a plane, feels like a plane, but will it fly? Time will tell.
In Europe, check out Qbic Hotels (www.qbichotels.com) where bright “cube” rooms beckon mod bods and their PODS featuring a Hästens four-poster bed, LCD TV, in-room safe, high-speed Internet and those obligatory Philippe Starck design touches that can be enjoyed in Amsterdam and Antwerp from just 39 Euros a night (about US$50).
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Tony Fernandes who gave us the shocking vaginal Virgin reds and mad cut-price scrambles of AirAsia, comes a budget lodging concept that will be music to any budget traveller’s ears – Tune Hotels (www.tunehotels.com). The flagship Tune Hotel at No. 316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman is reasonably central with introductory rates priced at just RM9.99 (less than US$3, or the cab fare from Wanchai to Central in Hong Kong).
The no-frills hotel group hopes to emulate the success of high-flying AirAsia, pushing its marketing – and bookings – online.
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| Tune Hotels KL, virgin red |
For the real thing you’ll have to head to Tokyo, Japan, get chased by Godzilla, end up legless on sake, miss the last train, and stagger to the Asakusa Riverside Capsule Hotel (www.asakusa-capsule.jp/english) where a capsule room starts as low as Y3,000 (US$25.30). There is a ladies floor too. There are separate baths and changing rooms for men and women.
Bathe, soak, slip into something comfortable and then squeeze into your room to watch TV or suffer a panic attack. Most TV channels are in Japanese. You may find a beckoning large red button next to the television. Don’t press this. It’s not room service. It’s the porn pay-movie channel.
The Capsule Inn Akihabara (www.capsuleinn.com) has rooms for Y4,000 a night with occasional specials. The ground floor lounge offers high-speed Internet, WiFi, and a couple of computers to check e-mail free of charge. Women travelling in a group of two or four can try the Group Capsule that offers the added convenience of a small common space with table and chairs next to the slide-in capsules.
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| Japan capsule hotel: merry morgue |
Listen up space cadets. Get your bod to a POD. NOW.
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