An Independent Hotel Index

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Four kinds of hotel, described plainly.

Chapter Two

Capsule Hotels

The bedroom reduced to a berth — and everything it used to hold moved downstairs.

The capsule hotel is the most rigorously argued idea in this index. It begins with an observation — that a sleeping guest uses almost none of a hotel room — and follows it to its conclusion: give each guest a well-made berth, and move bathing, dressing, storage and sitting into shared floors that everyone uses in turn.

Done badly, the result is a dormitory with a lid. Done well, as in the five houses below, it is quiet, orderly and surprisingly restful, and it buys a good address in an expensive city for the price of a bed. The etiquette is consistent everywhere: shoes off at the entrance, valuables in the locker, phone conversations taken outside, and no talking on the sleeping floor after the house goes quiet.

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  1. No. I

    Nine Hours Shinjuku-North

    Tokyo, Japan

    Nine hours is the premise stated as arithmetic: one hour to wash, seven to sleep, one to dress. The Shinjuku-North house executes it with the chain's usual clinical elegance — white moulded sleeping pods stacked in twos, a soft controlled light that fades you into and out of sleep, lockers and showers on separate floors, and almost nothing else.

    The design discipline is what separates this from a cheap bed. Every surface is legible, every step of the routine has an obvious place, and the silence is enforced rather than hoped for. Luggage goes into lockers rather than into the pod, so travelling light — or at least packing an overnight bag within a bag — makes the stay considerably smoother.

    It suits a night between flights, a night after a late show, or anyone curious about how little a room actually needs to contain.

  2. No. II

    The Millennials Kyoto

    Kyoto, Japan

    A capsule hotel that has quietly turned itself into a workspace. Each unit — a “smart pod” — has a bed that rises and tilts into a sofa at the touch of a control, a projector aimed at the ceiling, and enough width to sit up in comfortably, which is not true of most capsules.

    Downstairs there is a long shared lounge with desks, free coffee in the morning and a short beer hour in the evening, and the whole operation is pitched at people who are in Kyoto for a week rather than a night. The location, just off Kawaramachi, puts the covered shopping arcades and the river within a couple of minutes' walk.

    Call it a capsule hotel with the volume turned up: the berth is still small, but the building gives you somewhere to be awake.

  3. No. III

    First Cabin Haneda Terminal 1

    Tokyo, Japan

    First Cabin borrows the vocabulary of an aircraft — first class and business class cabins rather than pods — and the Haneda house takes the metaphor literally by sitting inside the airport terminal itself. A cabin is larger than a standard capsule, tall enough to stand in, with a proper mattress and a curtain or door rather than a hatch.

    For an early departure or a late arrival it is difficult to beat: you walk from the check-in hall to your cabin in minutes, use a large communal bath, and walk back. Security is handled the way it is in every capsule hotel — valuables in a locker, the cabin itself treated as a place to sleep rather than a safe.

    The compromise is acoustic. Cabins are divided by panels, not walls, so the earplugs provided are not a courtesy but part of the equipment.

  4. No. IV

    Capsule Hotel Anshin Oyado Shinjuku

    Tokyo, Japan

    Anshin Oyado is the traditional Japanese capsule hotel improved rather than reinvented, and its selling point is the bathing floor: a proper communal bath with a sauna, generous washing stations and a relaxation area where guests sit around in house robes long after they have finished bathing.

    The capsules themselves are conventional but well maintained and notably quiet, and the house runs on the old rhythm — bathe first, eat something small, sleep, leave early. Free drinks and a light breakfast are folded into the rate, and staff enforce the quiet hours properly.

    It is the entry in this chapter that best explains why capsule hotels took hold in Japan in the first place: the room is small because everything worth doing happens on the shared floors.

  5. No. V

    CUBE Boutique Capsule Hotel @ Kampong Glam

    Singapore

    Set in a restored shophouse in the Kampong Glam quarter, CUBE shows what the capsule format looks like outside Japan. Berths are timber-lined and warmer in tone than the moulded Japanese pods, arranged in mixed and female-only dormitories, with curtains, reading lights and power at each bed.

    The location does a lot of work. Sultan Mosque, the fabric shops of Arab Street and the bars and murals of Haji Lane are all within a short walk, so the hotel functions as a base rather than a berth — there is a small lounge and a simple breakfast, and the front desk is used to guests who keep irregular hours.

    For solo travellers who want the price and sociability of a hostel with a proper closed sleeping space, this is the shape the compromise takes.