Capsule Hotels: Ready for Export?

The capsule hotel concept has been around for some thirty years in Japan, mostly taken advantage of by business travelers in transit. The purpose is simple: to provide a place to sleep and shower, nothing more. Of course, there is the obvious caveat is that those beds are found in individual stacked capsules, which has makes Westerners, well, a little uncomfortable. Up to this point, the focus of capsule hotels has been purely functional. Enter The 9 Hours Hotel, which recently opened its doors in Kyoto, Japan. Its purpose-driven architecture blends function and style for the modern savvy traveler. Designed in an open, minimal aesthetic, the hotel has absolutely no clutter and only four colors found in the entire hotel. Each capsule, tucked with same linens as luxury hotels, includes Panasonic's advanced system for good sleeping by computerized control lighting. It still may take a while for Westerners to warm up to this idea, but can you imagine the collective sigh of relief if this concept were launched in airports...during the holidays? Oh and why 9 hours? It is based on a simple calculation: 1 hour to shower, 7 hours to sleep, 1 hour to rest. Check out this video report from Monocle Magazine.