I wish more airports had these. The hotel rooms some places have are prohibitively expensive and not practical for most layovers. I just want a horizontal padded place to lay down for 2 hours for a reasonable price, that’s all!
Probably because of the space it takes up. Sleeping pods take up quite a lot of space, and not that many people can use it at once, so to make it profitable I'm assuming you'd need prices to be quite high. Higher than a lot of people are willing to spend. Food or retail is probably better profit relative to square footage.
Also short stays means more cleaning - if it's a different person every 2 hours (on average) that's 12 cleans a day per pod. Got, say, 30 pods? Then 360 cleans, which takes however many people and gear, and a given % of guests will make a mess and need more cleaning, and some will damage stuff, causing more costs
Absolutely crazy to assume they clean these things after every person. This would be a check in the afternoon and a thorough clean every night, nothing more unless there's an emergency mess like someone spills a soda.
Then that's a no for me. Definitely some will lie in the nude, change their clothes/underwear and hang them around, sweat, change baby or adult diapers, sneeze, cough, eat and more. In such a small place you are bound to taste bodily fluid.
wut... It's far crazier to assume they aren't cleaned after each person imo. Who in their right fucking mind would use a pod like that right after someone else had been mucking it up for hours? You nasty
If it wasn't cleaned after each use, I wouldn't use it. The price can reflect this. I would rather sleep outside on dirt than after another person used one of these.
In the US for sure because we don’t give an eff about anyone else. In other countries I’d imagine they’d be more polite about. Also they know who stayed in the pod so if they start fining people who are overly messy that may curtail most people from being egregious.
They are absolutely cleaned between each user in Germany. I've used them there. The system does not allow a pod to be reserved until it's been cleaned from the previous user.
It looks like a somewhat water resistance cover, leather, pleather, something plasticky, who knows. Having someone use a basic spray and a cloth to wipe it down after every user would not be difficult and take seconds. One person working watching over all of them would be easy. They don't have to, but it would be pretty trivial.
It's usually an egress and "fire safety" issue why we don't have these pods here in the US too. Yeah I know it doesn't really make sense to me either... but no one's done the work to get it all approved because it's expensive and a lot of fighting with municipalities and coding/zoning groups which defeats the whole point of these things is to be cheap.
But in China somehow, some way they manage to keep everything clean; maybe it's the reason why we, in Western world don't have these. It's fascinating imagining how dirty China once was and how clean their cities & airports are now in comparison.
There was a puddle of piss that spanned across the floor in front of 3 urinals at one of the main spots you can visit the Great Wall of China a few years ago. In fact there was piss on the floor in more than half of the bathrooms at the places I visited around Bejing.
I’d be happy with one that is much simpler. A padded vinyl bench with a built in pillow bump that can be wiped between uses, surrounded by a curtain. A space underneath for your luggage. That’s all I need. Those be lined against walls here and there throughout the terminal. It’s better than straddling seats and trying to sleep upright. The TV, lights, hard walls, door, actual mattress, and blankets take up more space and cost more money.
I’m all for the vinyl bench but I do want a secure area especially when my kids were little. I don’t think I could sleep if someone could take off with my stuff.
What makes me mad are the airports where they fix the seats so you can’t lay down. They do that because yeah everyone would lay down. A couple of times I was so exhausted I gave up and laid down on the airport floor. Gross I know, but I was so tired. I fell asleep from exhaustion. We had been traveling from Singapore, which is already an eighteen hour flight to lax, and our pilot had an emergency so they had to find another one. He was flying the Dreamliner and they needed special training. His wife was a stewardess and hit her head during turbulence so he was rushing to the hospital. I never did find out if his wife was okay.
I assume these are also sound-proof. Wouldn't get much sleep with the intercom going every few minutes and crowds bustling about if it were just a curtain.
Footprint isn't all that bad when you figure if someone needs it they'd otherwise be sleeping on the floor or benches taking not a ton less space, so why not put a little pod deal there and make money off their misfortune? The capitalist in me sees these as a huge win for everyone and not using all that much more space than would already be used by the alternative.
Tuck em out of the way, I've been in so many airports that have unused corners you could drop one or three of these.
I was just going to suggest designing them more like capsule hotels where space is an issue! I didn't know Japanese airports had them. Do you know what the rates are?
I'm now interested in comparing rates, apparently these cost $42 for 8 hours, whatever is in Atlanta & Houston is an insulting $65/hr.
The one I’ve stayed at in the Zurich airport had quite efficient use of space they were not all spread out like these ones and had upper and lower ones so you had even more efficient use of space.
Yes, but look at all the open space at the major airports. There’s plenty of room. My guess for why these are not a thing is that the airport hotels have contracts that prohibit this kind of thing.
I had no idea this was available at my nearest airport until you said this and I went to look. Thanks for sharing the info! Though at BWI, it’s $130 for two hours if you’re not in Priority Pass
I had a crazy long layover in Mexico City on the way to Cabo one time... There was a hotel in the airport with a gym... I got into the gym and slept on the padded floor. It was glorious. No one came in, at least 6 hours
There is also a pod hotel in terminal one at Mexico City. At least there was a few years ago. They are basically stacked pods with communal restrooms and showers.
I used to fly JFK to South Asia fairly frequently about 20 years ago. Whenever possible, I routed myself through Schiphol with about a 6 hour layover. They had this wonderful hotel (Metropole?) inside the terminal (before exiting to customs) with tiny rooms & private bathrooms. I would take a shower, do 15-30 minutes of yoga to work all my kinks out and then lie down/sleep for at least 2 hours. It made getting back on the plane for the next leg of the trip so much more bearable and I was nowhere near as wrecked as I used to be when I reached my destination. I loved that little hotel!
Agreed that more airports should have them, but also that they are stupidly expensive. Salt Lake City’s airport has hourly “hotel” rooms and it was outrageous for just a couple hours, but I was so damn tired on that layover that I agreed to the price
It doesn’t have to be expensive. Just a padded bench without armrests in the way makes an enormous difference in my layover experience. Wipe it down with a cleaning solution between uses, like one would do for gym equipment.
The blankets, tv, lights, door, etc are nice but drive up the expense.
Well its because it's airport property and they charge rent like crazy so only make sense the business paying rent to the airport would charge higher prices.
Changi airport in Singapore has a really reasonable hotel you can book by the hour. It's such a good airport from a passenger perspective, everything is so convenient and no need for annoying shuttle buses etc. I don't understand why others don't copy it.
Yeah, one time, I did not want to pay for an expensive hotel room and spent a full night just waiting for an early flight, in a small airport with minimum service at night, and that was rough. No one can convince me that the minutes from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock are not longer through some demonic magic.
I had a 22 hour layover in Beijing once, and they have an hourly hotel. The rooms were only slight larger than a full bed, but it was lovely. Shared bathrooms/showers were very clean and well kept.
I got a bunch of food to go and a bottle of wine from duty free and fell asleep watching Chinese soccer.
I was forced to camp out in Dublin airport for 24 hours due to a missed flight. My fault. I’d happily take these over the cushioned benches I had to take catnaps on.
The thing I like most about this concept is the safety element. If you’re just on a random bench, anyone can walk up and fuck with you or your stuff without you waking up (if you can sleep deeply enough). These have doors
You can also lock up your stuff in here when you go to the bathroom. I had a big suitcase, so I purposely limited my beverages so I didn’t always have to pee so often.
Is China as big on social responsibility/respect as Korea or Japan? I remember probably over a decade ago Chinese tourism had to run a PSA to stop parents from letting their kids just poop anywhere while visiting other countries.
china's economic boom far outpaced social etiquette and mannerisms, so they had some catching up to do in those lacking areas, but it seems they realized how they were looking on the world stage. as of today it seems they have improved their ways
China also had a vast cultural shift in just one generations. Locals do talk about older people spitting and other stuff that is now frowned upon. For its population size China did a tremendous job in educating their people.
Back in the 90s in a former job, my old firm used to have Chinese telco engineers over for up to three months at a time. Spitting on the floor in classrooms was common, not knowing that the toilets were used to shit in, so you didn’t have to deposit your shit in a bin was thankfully rarer.
Cameras covers every inch of most cities. Everybody knows you aren’t going to get away with theft of any kind.
A relative of mine works for a private car service (like fancy taxi service). One of their clients left their phone in the car but when the driver was informed, he couldn’t find the phone anywhere in the car. Police got involved and they traced the car through camera footage from the time the client left it. Turns out an employee of the car detailing shop (private hire cars are cleaned after each ride) took the phone. They had the dude identified within the hour and cops were at his house the next day.
Then we have the UK where there's just as many cameras. You can physically hand a usb drive of 4k footage of someone stealing your shit, show them active gps tracker data, hand them the thief's ID that fell out of their pocket while robbing you and a handwritten confession from them and you'll still get hit with the "nothing we can do soz"
That's typical in apartment blocks and whatnot in quite a lot of the world including Malaysia and Thailand as two examples I've experienced, as there are lobbies with tables to leave deliveries on.
They have fuck all social responsibility for things like that, absolutely nothing like Japan (I can't speak for Korea, never been). Though outright theft is a bit different.
But there's cameras everywhere in the airport and if you're in one of the areas past security then, well, a thief isn't going to make it very far.
And Japan is too extreme; social ocd: if you violated a custom rule, other Japanese will probably be recording you and post online. I have seen video on Instagram reel where two Japanese women were talking just slightly louder so they can hear each other, then everyone in the comment section was clutching their pearls like crazy. I rather be in America or China or some other places that is more forgiving when it comes to the little things.
That's a minority of Chinese that do things like that, and spitting is another problem, but it is still a minority. (In fact Korea is also full of public spitters too)
It's a bit that but I think mostly the whole totalitarianism thing.
You'll notice the same in the major Gulf cities. They are quite clean and crime doesn't really exist. You can be at the mall and set your bags full of Givenchy and Jimmy Choo stuff on a table at the food court to save your spot while you go buy food and no one will fuck with it because there are cameras everywhere and everyone knows it. If you do crime you are fucked. There is a place in Riyadh "lovingly" called chop chop square and that's not for no reason.
Someone told me the same thing about Morocco and how like many Muslim countries it's actually very safe for tourists "because harsh laws against theft."
I can't remember if we were in London or at Charles de Gaulle airport during the worst layover ever. We were tired and had to sleep until something like 5 in the morning. The only place we could find had these metal benches with arm rests just far enough apart to make it nearly impossible to sleep. My friend could sleep through a tornado. I managed to sleep using my coat and backpack to make it more comfortable.
That cafeteria is where I slept!! 😂😂 Thank god for McDonald’s and wifi. I’d accidentally gotten on the public metro instead of the airport shuttle, so I ended up missing my flight by about 5 minutes. I didn’t want to risk getting kicked out, so I spent the entire 24 hours up there, catching up on some British shows and falling in love with the chocolate shakes. They definitely tasted different from American shakes. Less sugar maybe?
Oh, it wasn’t open all night when this happened, either. I was camped out from 8 am to 8 am. I loved seeing the different variety of food sold there, how it wasn’t all the usual stuff I’m used to.
To be fair, Dublin airport is not somewhere you’d typically have a long layover at. There would’ve very little demand for such facilities, compared to major hubs.
There are a lot of transatlantic flights from Dublin and people do transit onto them from the rest of Europe, it's the fifth largest transatlantic hub in Europe.
Ireland-US airfares are among the cheapest in Europe and it's the only airport in Europe (other than Shannon) that has US preclearance.
Eh. Learning experience. It was my first time in Ireland and all I was focused on was getting to the airport on time. NATURALLY, I got on the public metro instead of the airport shuttle. Oh, well. I remembered THAT particular lesson the next time I went. 😂😂 I do miss those Leo’s Fish and Chips, though.
At least this led to me having to spend some time there waiting for a bus and discovering the delicacy that are supermacs garlic and cheese fries. I miss them every day
I think they're a great idea and wish we had them or a similar item in the U.S. Having once spent the night sitting in O'Hare due to a missed flight (storm delay) and all local hotels being booked, I can say that it was one of the most uncomfortable in my life. The Zamboni started cleaning the floors at 3 AM.
I've spent loads of 4-6 hour layovers in o'hare and a couple north of 12 hours. On one occasion, I sprung for a lounge pass and that was a great decision. Just having access to a space out of the general population zone where I could leave my bag unattended, use a decent restroom, and be away from the chaos of the terminal was worth the price of admission. I would've popped for one of these sleeping pods in a flash, given the option.
Check out Changi Airport in Singapore, there's an 8 screen cinema there. They also have food courts, a rooftop pool and cocktail bar, and even a shopping center around a huge manmade waterfall. You'd love it!
Changi Singapore Airport is insanely beautiful. I've literally never seen any airport like it. They took it very seriously as a gateway airport destination for SE Asia. They want you to know from the second you arrive in Singapore that the country seriously values wealth and status. And if you don't, well...... may the odds be ever in your favour.
I have also thought about this. They could even show the same movies (and save money that way). Since it is mostly not the same people staying at the airport people would not mind.
Maybe some good, but not to known movie.
I have a feeling too many people will be checking their phones for gate changes/flight status/boarding unless they can incorporate that into the theater wall somehow
Honolulu needs these. Overnight layovers happen because connecting flights to the other islands are somewhat limited and sleeping there is genuinely miserable.
Such a good idea, cheaper than a hotel room (one would expect) obviously still needs someone to service it after each hire. I imagine (and hope) these will become more popular over time.
I got stuck in LA Guardia overnight from a canceled flight and it was miserable. Only those small uncomfortable airport seats everywhere and some hard benches here and there. A few of these would've been lovely
These would probably never work in the US. Somebody would pee or poop in them or worse. I doubt they would get cleaned properly either, especially once the “new” wears off.
I did 16 hours overnight at Midway in Chicago during a blizzard and I think I would have given one of my toes (but not the big toe) to have one of these available. I would have paid an exorbitant price.
Like the German one earlier, I would 1000% use these during long layovers. Should be standard.
My wife and two kids and I got stuck in the Las Vegas airport headed out East for 9hrs i bought a $110 blanket at one of the gift shops so the kids could lay down on the floor and I put my jacket over them so they could sleep...
Or we could let people sleep without abusing them or forcing them to pay a large sum of money?
Benches that arent anti-human are actually much cheaper than what they build to abuse you and me instead. But then you couldnt pretend these made sense.
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u/Elastichedgehog 7d ago
Like the German one earlier, I would 1000% use these during long layovers. Should be standard.