Capsule hotel

Capsules in Tokyo
Capsule hotel in Warsaw, Poland. The lockers are on the left of the image, while the sleeping capsules are on the right.

A capsule hotel (Japanese: カプセルホテル, romanized: kapuseru hoteru), also known in the Western world as a pod hotel,[1] is a type of hotel developed in Japan that features many small, bed-sized rooms known as capsules. Capsule hotels provide cheap, basic overnight accommodation for guests who do not require or who cannot afford larger, more expensive rooms offered by more conventional hotels.

The first capsule hotel in the world opened in 1979 and was the Capsule Inn Osaka, located in the Umeda district of Osaka, Japan and designed by Kisho Kurokawa.[2][3] From there, it spread to other cities within Japan. Since then, the concept has further spread to various other territories, including Belgium,[4] China,[5] Hong Kong,[6] Iceland,[7] India,[8] Indonesia,[9] Israel,[10] Poland, South Korea and Canada.

  1. ^ "Pod Hotels: Small, Stylish, and Cheap". Fodors.com. December 31, 2007. Archived from the original on December 7, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
  2. ^ "Capsule Inn Osaka" (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  3. ^ "Kotobuki Corporation History" (in Japanese). Kotobuki Corporation. Archived from the original on 2010-07-24. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  4. ^ "Trend alert: Belgium opens Europe's first capsule hotel". CTV News. 2014-09-26. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  5. ^ "China's first capsule hotel opens in Xi'an". Cnngo.com. CNN Travel. 2012-05-14. Archived from the original on 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
  6. ^ "Sleep – Hong Kong's first capsule hotel". Perspective Global. 2017-01-27. Archived from the original on 2020-02-16. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  7. ^ "Svefnhylki komin á hótelmarkaðinn". Retrieved 2016-06-25.
  8. ^ "With 50 sq ft, India's first pod hotel opens in Mumbai". dna. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  9. ^ "Kamar Kapsul TAB Hotel Kini Hadir di Kayoon Surabaya, Cukup Bayar Segini Sudah Dekat Pusat Kota!". Tribun Jatim. 17 September 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  10. ^ "רשת המלונות החדשה שמציעה חדרים ב-99 שקלים ללילה". Israel Hayom. 28 November 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022.