{"id":198466,"date":"2017-09-13T10:21:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T08:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=198466"},"modified":"2017-09-13T10:21:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T08:21:51","slug":"delayed-at-the-airport-sleep-pods-have-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/198466\/delayed-at-the-airport-sleep-pods-have-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"Delayed at the airport? Sleep pods have arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, a thunderstorm or missed connection meant\u00a0you might have to sleep in the airport, leaving frustrated travelers with a truly tired\u00a0dilemma: Is the boarding gate chair-curl worth a try, or is it better just to grab some floor?<\/p>\n

Some airports are considering a better way to accommodate unlucky passengers\u00a0while making some money in the process. At least four companies are angling for\u00a0space inside terminals for a new generation of sleeping spaces\u00a0dubbed cabins, capsules, and\u00a0even pods.<\/p>\n

One of them, Minute Suites has retail sleep locations at airports in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Philadelphia, with a Charlotte, NC, location opening in December. Washington Dulles airport is exploring the concept as well, and aims to have a sleep amenity next year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a company dubbed izZzleep opened a sleep capsule warren\u00a0in the Mexico City airport this summer, with rates from $8 per hour to $34 per night.<\/p>\n

Yotel, the London-based mini-hotel operator, operates YotelAir in four European airports, with a Singapore Changi project coming in early 2019. Yotel also hopes to expand into US airports at some point, as does NapCity Americas, which has acquired US rights to Napcabs, a German-based sleep pod company that operates at the Munich airport.<\/p>\n

As airports are growing and expanding, a lot of them are definitely exploring\u00a0passenger amenities, said Stephen Rosenfeld, a Florida entrepreneur who formed NapCity Americas in 2014 to operate a version of the \u201cnapcabs\u201d found sprinkled across Europe.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re becoming more open to the idea. Yet \u201crest\u201d as retail has been slow to migrate to airports, despite their decades-old role as\u00a0host to exhausted air travelers whose\u00a0plans were derailed by weather, missing flight crews, or malfunctions.<\/p>\n

Scour some of the world\u2019s key hubs\u2014New York City, Los Angeles, Madrid, Toronto, Zurich\u2014and you\u2019ll find nary a bed available by the hour.<\/p>\n

The reasons vary, but revenue considerations generally play a large role when it comes to space allotment at major airports. A bar, sit-down restaurant, or McDonald\u2019s will always bring in far more revenue at a busy terminal than an amenity such as a gym or napping pod\u2014and airports generally command a cut of sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne seat in an airport restaurant can generate $20,000 in revenue in a single year,\u201d said Peter Chambers, co-founder of Sleepbox, a Boston-based startup that sells a 45-square-foot cabin for airports, offices, and other locations.<\/p>\n

The retail sleep sellers also want to be located inside security checkpoints to help minimize customer hassle. No one wants to deal with long lines or TSA staff more than necessary.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But there are obstacles to the blossoming of this new, personalized hotel industry. Historically, airports have had a symbiotic relationship\u00a0with nearby\u00a0lodging that supports crew layovers, convention business\u2014and stranded passengers.<\/p>\n

Airports may be reluctant to be seen as competing with this ecosystem of accommodations both on the airport grounds and in surrounding areas, many of which have an airport shuttle as a standard feature, said Scott Humphrey, deputy director of the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport.<\/p>\n

Most retail sleep operators would also want a longer-term lease commitment from airports to realize a proper return, said Jo Berrington, a vice president at Yotel, where the average YotelAir stay is about seven hours, with a starting price of around 35 euros ($42) for four hours.<\/p>\n

She said the company\u2019s ideal airport business size is about 60 to 150 cabins. YotelAir, which has outposts in Amsterdam, Paris, and London\u2019s two largest airports, has had discussions with North American airports but no agreements yet, Berrington said.<\/p>\n

Minute Suites says its business is consistent, but that it uses dynamic pricing to adjust for periods of low and high demand. The company evaluates airports with an eye toward international flights and heavy connecting traffic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

NapCity\u0092s napcabs. Source: NapCity\u00a0Americas<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rates start at about $32 per hour; an overnight stay at the company\u2019s two DFW Airport locations is about $140, roughly $100 less than a room at the airport\u2019s Hyatt Regency near Terminal C.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur business model isn\u2019t just based on delays and cancellations,\u201d said Christopher Glass, a vice president with Minute Suites, which was formed by\u00a0two ophthalmologists from Iowa, including the daughter of the late television psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlight crew members hop in and take a nap. Pilots love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Washington Dulles, the primary international airport for the nation\u2019s capital, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority issued a call for proposals last month for \u201ca quiet and comfortable place within the airport to sleep, relax, or work while waiting to board a flight\u201d that could be almost 1,300 square feet and available 24 hours per day, year-round.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere should be similar to what a traveler would experience in a small hotel room or similar private area,\u201d the airport said in its pitch to potential operators.<\/p>\n

A design paradigm taken directly from the sarcophagus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, the idea of tight quarters for a quickie nap or short overnight snooze is hardly a new one, with Japan being the\u00a0pioneer in the concept of sleep capsules aimed at densely packed urban areas, clubbing locales, and railway stations.<\/p>\n

In many Asian versions, the sleep pod\u00a0is the hotel stripped to its basic essential\u2014a mattress and little else\u2014with a design paradigm taken directly from the sarcophagus.<\/p>\n

Most of the current designs being pitched to U.S. airports are dramatically larger. \u201cWe have a very Americanized model of what there is available overseas,\u201d Glass said. \u201cWe as Americans love our space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company is planning to double the number of locations by the end of next year but won\u2019t reveal its likely next venues.<\/p>\n

Chambers says US airports are rapidly shifting their focus from increasing \u201cdwell time,\u201d or the interval travelers choose to spend in an airport shopping or drinking, to \u201cenhancing\u201d that time.<\/p>\n

The right mix of amenities, including a clean, quiet, secluded place to rest, is likely to make travelers choose one airport over another when they connect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s why we\u2019re seeing a lot of major airports finding space for all these units,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The general business model is one of high automation, with a vending-machine approach. Human employees are on duty to clean the cabins once they\u2019re vacated,\u00a0and at Washington Dulles, officials want the attendant to provide security, too.<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether such pods would be restricted to one person at a time, though\u00a0YotelAir\u00a0models can accommodate families.\u00a0These pods aren\u2019t just horizontal rubber rooms: They have televisions, Wi-Fi, mobile phone chargers, and plugs.<\/p>\n

Minute Suites sells almost 150 items to go with your nap, such as toothbrushes\u2014but many do not. The idea isn\u2019t to replicate a hotel, especially as low overhead is critical to success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t claim to be a hotel, I don\u2019t want to be a hotel,\u201d said Rosenfeld, who is working to sign NapCity\u2019s first lease. \u201cWe\u2019re here to help the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company will charge $45 for one hour, the minimum stay, and then $20 for every subsequent 30-minute period in its cabin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a high-margin business. \u2026 The difference is we do need staff,\u201d he said, calling the airport sleep cabin a \u201cmicro-luxury, a price that anyone basically can afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he tackles the airport business, Rosenfeld sees a future home for nap cabins that could be even more lucrative\u2014hospitals.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Lanseria airport launches self-service technology to allow passengers to check in their own luggage<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weary travelers are trading in coffee-stained carpets and back-cracking chairs for comfy tubes with Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":198486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198466"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198490,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198466\/revisions\/198490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}