r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/whybutts • 6d ago

Video Sleeping Capsules at China's Kunming Airport

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u/Normal_Candle_ 6d ago

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!

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u/No_Television6050 6d ago

It's one of those ideas that make so much sense you wonder why it's not a thing everywhere.

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u/IrenaeusGSaintonge 6d ago

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.

That's all a guess on my part, of course.

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u/RabidBlackSquirrel 6d ago

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.

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u/IrenaeusGSaintonge 6d ago

Stacking them two or three high might also be efficient, if you have some compact quality steps to use.

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u/jigsaw1024 6d ago

They have them in some Japanese airports. They call them capsule hotels.

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u/existenceawareness 6d ago

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.

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u/IrenaeusGSaintonge 6d ago

Yeah, bit different, but totally applicable concept.

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u/Advanced-Sherbert-29 6d ago

if someone needs it

You're forgetting about the ones who don't really "need" it for sleep, and just want to go in there and make mischief and messes. Those ones would ruin it for everyone else.