Rest Easy: Travellers find repose in miniature airport hotels

A few months ago, a friend of mine called me in a slight panic. She was stuck at London Heathrow after an unplanned and extended layover. She really isn’t the adventurous type; all she wanted was a place to do some work and relax. Because she isn’t a premium member of any airline, lounges weren’t an option. Instead, I told her to go straight to Terminal 4 and check into the Yotel pod hotel.

For travellers who do not have access to airline lounges, pod hotels like Yotel offer another alternative for getting away from the hustle and bustle of an airport. And they are gaining in popularity.

Yotel was created in 2007 by Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe, who, having flown First Class on British Airways, got the inspiration to combine that experience with the convenience and price of Japanese capsule hotels.

Woodroffe tapped UK-based design group Priestmangoode to work on the concept. The company was the perfect partner, having designed first-class cabins for several airlines and handled revamps of low-cost hotel chains Motel 6 and Accor’s Etap.

The Yotel rooms feature a bed with luxury sheets, a Monsoon power shower, a pull-down desk with power outlets, free Wi-Fi and a flat-screen TV.

Yotel prices are based on a minimum four-hour booking from as low as £40 for a premium or twin cabin and £25 for a standard cabin at Heathrow and London Gatwick. Yotel also has an outlets at Amsterdam Schiphol.

Yotel gets a mix of business and leisure travellers, says company spokeswoman Jennifer Lowings, noting that Yotel is “great for business travellers who arrive early and don’t have access to an airline lounge”. Leisure travellers tend to stay at Yotel overnight before an early morning flight or during longer layovers.

In the United States, another company, Minute Suites, offers private rooms at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson and Philadelphia International airports.

The suites contain a daybed sofa, pillows and blankets, as well as a sound-masking system and a special audio programme that facilitates sleep.

The suites include HD TVs with DirecTV satellite programming, Wi-Fi and flight information display systems. Travellers pay USD 30 for an hour, then USD 7.50 for each 15 minutes after that, or USD 120 overnight. There’s a 15 per cent rate discount for stays of four hours or more, and a 25 per cent discount for stays over eight hours.

Minute Suites co-founder and CEO Daniel Solomon was also inspired by pod hotels in Asia. “Our market research gave us an inkling that it would work, and our actual experience bears that out,” he says. “Customers are mostly business travellers, but we do have some leisure travellers too.

More than 60 per cent of customers are using it to take a nap, and it’s perfect place to do it.” Minute Suites was recently awarded two locations at Dallas/Fort Worth, in Terminals D and A, due to open in 2012 and 2014, respectively, he adds.