The Next Small ThingNY Magazine, 4-Apr-2010
By Christine Whitney
The Yotel chain—purveyors of tiny, chic hotel rooms inspired by Tokyo’s famous “Kapseru Hoteru” capsule lodgings—recently announced plans to open an outpost in Times Square. Inexpensive “Kapseru Hoteru” are the SROs of Japan—some capsule-hotel “rooms” are simply three-foot-high sleeping units stacked on top of one another. But the Yotel is a higher-end version, part of a larger city trend toward smaller accommodations.
Yotel Amenities
Large single bed, foldout desk and stool, private bathroom with shower, flat-screen TV, free wi-fi. “We use the language of first-class airline travel,” says Yotel founder Simon Woodroffe. The company’s three existing hotels are all near European airports—London’s Gatwick and Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol.
Not Yet Turning Japanese
The Japanese capsule trend began with the 1972 opening of a Tokyo apartment building, Nakagin Capsule Tower, that catered to businessmen with 140 rooms the size of shipping containers (104 square feet). The first capsule hotel opened in 1979. Most are equipped with only a radio and a small TV that hangs down from the ceiling like the screens on buses and airplanes.
Mini-Rooms
A traditional hotel room at the Hilton New York in midtown is 320 square feet and rents for $309. But cool new hotels are going smaller:
The Standard
meatpacking district
245 square feet
$195
Yotel
midtown (planned)
170 square feet
$150
The Ace
Flatiron
140 square feet
$209
The Pod
midtown
70 square feet
$99
The Jane
West Village
50 square feet
$99
Whitehouse
Bowery SRO turned hotel
24 square feet
$33.50
Capsule facts
109
Number of capsule hotels currently in Tokyo
21.5 square feet
Average size of Japanese capsule-hotel unit (cost: $38)
18 square feet
Size of smallest available Japanese unit
16 square feet
Size of an average casket
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