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I stayed in a $40 capsule hotel (London)
- fcpguru 10mo agohttps://zedwellhotels.com/locations/london/piccadilly-circus/zedwell-capsule-hotel/ https://zedwellhotels.com/locations/london/piccadilly-circus...
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- andy99 9mo agoI love the idea, I don’t expect people are respectful enough for it to work where I am, I’d be worried about being stuck next to somebody watching videos on their phone at full volume all night. Also Choose a cosy London capsule hotel in a shared dorm for a sociable vibe, meet like-minded travellers, and swap stories or book out an entire dorm for a private group adventure. This is literally the opposite of what I would want. It would be great to see a privacy and rest focused concept for this, which is what I associate the Japanese ones with, a place for exhausted salarymen to get some quick rest, rather than a backpacking hostel. Nothing wrong with the latter if that’s your thing but it’s not going to appeal to anyone over 25.
- nroets 9mo agoIn 2023 I stayed in a capsule hotel in Bilbao. There I was told at check in that no talking or loudspeakers of any kind is allow in the capsules. That can only be done in the lounge area. I spent 3 nights and got much better sleep than I would have at a hostel.
- ChrisMarshallNY 9mo agoIn Japan, these are often "Sleep off a drunk" hotels. They aren't really meant as regular accommodations; which seems to be the point of the article. My biggest worry about these types of places would be safety. A fire could be horrifying.
- gregoriol 9mo agoI wouldn't worry about fire: it seems to be quite modern so most likely has quite some fire equipment and concrete. Common parts from the pictures don't seem to have much flammable stuff. Last time I stayed in London was in a hotel assembled from multiple old 3-4 floors buildings and multiple old wooden staircases, like to go to your room you had to go to floor 2 then end of a corridor then to floor 3 and right left and stuff like this in 1-person wide corridors and stairs. There I was scared of a fire because there was definitely a feeling of no way to escape fast.
- einpoklum 9mo agoThere are definitely backpacker/frugal traveller-oriented capsule-ish hotels in Japan. For example, in some rural resorts like Hakone.
- integralid 9mo agoReally? I spent a few nights in a capsule hotel in Shinjuku (Tokyo) and the experience was great. It was cheap, quiet, clean, and had everything I wanted (quiet private space, free coffee and "onsen" bath. Would definitely recommend.
- ChrisMarshallNY 9mo agoNever stayed in one, but "quiet and clean" are pretty much de facto standard for any Japanese accommodation. I always enjoyed their hotels, and my preference was usually some of the cheaper ones, like the Prince hotels. I have stayed in ones like the fancy Dai Ichi ones, but I felt that they weren't really all that much better than the cheaper ones (but I'm sure there's even fancier ones, for folks that can afford).
- louthy 9mo agoI’m not claustrophobic, but looking at those pods makes me anxious. You’re one air con fuckup from asphyxiating on your own CO2 by the looks of it.
- Filligree 9mo agoWould be unpleasant, but asphyxiating from gradual CO2 increase isn’t really possible unless you’re dead drunk. Your body measures CO2 (not O2), and will escalate to full-blown panic will before it’s particularly dangerous. You’d leave on your own.
- timcobb 9mo agoI would guess there is passive ventilation too, they're not hermetic. You'd get stuffy/uncomfortable, but it's not like you'd... suffocate and die?
- hexbin010 9mo agoI wouldn't count on that passive ventilation...! Ventilation for accommodation in the UK is extremely poorly regulated, or not at all, from what I can tell. I've been given rooms with a hermetically sealed window and no A/C unit. I stayed at a brand new Hyatt the other day and the A/C had no "fan" only option (ie to avoid dry throats), and when off, provided no passive ventilation as far as I could tell. No opening window. And this was an aparthotel with a cooker etc. Absolutely ridiculous. Premier Inn's budget 'Hub' brand chain have sealed windows and just wall-mounted A/C (not fed fresh air from a central duct). Should be illegal I think legally they're allowed to use the 1 inch space under the door as ventilation... You actually need a lot of ventilation in hotels because they often use very harsh chemicals especially in the linen
- timcobb 9mo ago> Premier Inn's budget 'Hub' brand chain have sealed windows and just wall-mounted A/C (not fed fresh air from a central duct). Should be illegal Places like this is just brutal...
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- ramonga 9mo agoI checked the website and the cheapest I could find in 2026 is 64 pounds with most of the days going +100 edit: checked wrong location, only 1 of the locations has capsules and it is 27 pounds as advertised
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- andy99 9mo agoI just checked this link and every day in Jan was under £40 https://zedwellhotels.com/locations/london/piccadilly-circus/zedwell-capsule-hotel/ https://zedwellhotels.com/locations/london/piccadilly-circus... Edit, Jan 1 is £48
- timcobb 9mo agoI looked at this in NY recently and it was like $150/night with a shared bathroom. Not worth it for me, at that point I'd rather not go to NY :/
- torben-friis 9mo agoThis is dystopian: > Workers who moved out of London for remote work are under pressure to come back to the office in the city, and some are choosing to stay in Japanese-inspired sleeping pods for just £30 ($40). People that could be living in human friendly spaces are being pushed to live in a tube for no significant reason other than the whims of the wealthy. Even setting aside stuff like fire hazards or claustrophobia, notably absent from this is the ability to lead a social life inside: no place to bring a partner or a group of friends. Your time will be spent at work or recharging for the next work day.
- amarcheschi 9mo agoYou will own nothing, and you'll be pretty miserable as well
- gregoriol 9mo agoYou misread the story: it's not a house, just a cheaper hotel room.
- impossiblefork 9mo agoYes, but if something is allowed and provides some advantage (lower cost, etc.) and there's competition it's going to be mandatory for somebody.
- exitb 9mo agoStill, I don’t think you can have a normal human experience devoting a significant portion of your life to work and a coffin. It seems like any low paying job that lets them get back home every evening would be better than this.
- torben-friis 9mo ago>You misread the story Did I? >Workers who moved out of London for remote work are under pressure to come back to the office in the city, and some are choosing to stay in Japanese-inspired sleeping pods >in 2025, there’s been a sharp recall in remote work offerings with major companies enforcing return to office mandates in London from HSBC to JPMorgan, Amazon, Salesforce and John Lewis. A typically dormitory with roughly a dozen capsules inside Zedwell Capsule Hotel. A typically dormitory with roughly a dozen capsules inside Zedwell Capsule Hotel. Sawdah Bhaimiya >Zedwell’s Aziz said one of the hotel’s core demographics is young professionals and hybrid workers who are using Zedwell as a “base in the city” due to their flexible working patterns which require them to be in the office for a few days a week. This is not travelling, it's moving workers half the week to the tube.
- gregoriol 9mo agoThe story is interesting but clearly lacks the most useful parts: - interview and feedback of people actually using it (since the author says they are not the target audience at the end) - experience with the shower: does it feel private enough, was it clean, ... - experience related to other people staying there: could you hear them? were they nice? socializing? - feeling regarding the small space
- ljf 9mo agoWhen I was commuting back to London for work I tried a hostel in Central London, I think it was about £25 a night 9 years ago. The room itself was clean and 'only' 6 people in it. The main lobby was nice and a pint was a reasonable price - I sat there after having dinner at work, and read a book, which felt pretty nice to be honest. The bed was comfy, with clean good smelling sheets. But there were three issues that meant I went back to relying on friends and family until I got a local job. 1. Someone's feet smelt terrible - so bad it was hard to sleep 2. Someone snored loadly - it was even harder to sleep 3. The shower was grimy. I was lucky to have a ThirdSpace membership so showered there instead It was a bargain and saved me traveling after a long day of work and having to be social after a very early start to get to London on the Monday. But the better option for me was to find a suitable local job and not do the extra long week commute. (I was also missing my family loads too, so it was never a longer term option for me).
- ageitgey 9mo agoI love that you were living in a hostel while having a £300+/month premium gym membership.
- alisonatwork 9mo agoI can't speak for this one, but I've stayed in a bunch of these over the years and they're exactly as quoted in the article - better than a hostel, worse than a hotel. Because the rate is higher than a hostel, it prices out the bottom rung crowd, and because the architecture explicitly prioritizes privacy over socialization, the visitors tend to be more respectful of one another. As such, it's quiet and clean enough, although obviously if you are sleeping next to a bunch of other people you may hear some snoring, farts, sleeptalking etc. Some of these are better sound-proofed than others. Some even have little TVs or radios inside, but I've never found that worse than traffic or construction noise if you're anyway in the city. There's always earplugs. Shared bathrooms suck, especially if you need to be out during "rush hour" when everyone else also needs to be out, but for a saving of $100+ per night there's plenty of people who would gladly accept holding their pee for a few minutes and/or getting into an already-steamed-up and damp shower cubicle. Most people gotta work 4 hours to make that kind of money back.
- markus_zhang 9mo agoI don't mind living in such a place if I'm alone. But I'm not a sound sleeper so I figured the noise is going to be very upsetting. I'll probably try to stay in the office if no one cares...
- adventured 9mo ago3M X5A + earbuds, you'll never hear a thing.
- jzb 9mo agoHow would you sleep with those things on your head? Might work for people who sleep on their back, but not great for side sleepers.
- adventured 9mo agoI'm exclusively a side sleeper. You use a U pillow, which the X5A rests between (something akin to the neck pillow you typically see used for airport travel; there are a lot of variations to test to find whatever works best for a given person in terms of comfort). There are also a lot of variations of cut-out pillow options for headphones/earbuds and ears (people with sensitive ears), for side sleepers. So: X5A hard plastic ear segments between U shaped pillow (the U shape supports your skull, the hard plastic goes between the U) -> then ideally something very soft under the U shaped pillow which buffers between the hard plastic of the X5A and your mattress, so the plastic never fully presses against anything firm (if the plastic of the X5A meets something firm, then your skull is meeting something firm). Very soft memory foam can work great for that, or really anything super soft.
- markus_zhang 9mo agoDoes it cancel human voices effectively? I have tried a few such earphones but none of them is good against human voices. I'm particularly sensitive to human voices.
- adventured 9mo ago
- pseudony 9mo agoTry telling the boomer generation that they have to work in the city center, for a salary insufficient for suitable housing (read: space for children) close by. Then, while remote-work could work, tell them they can’t, instead, push then toward sleeping in a king-sized coffin while god knows how they can manage having children. I think it’s time for a societal reality-check.
- thrance 9mo ago*single-sized coffin, more like. They're only one meter wide
- HPsquared 9mo agoCities have always been places where people are consumed and converted into capital.
- ghusto 9mo ago> Try telling the boomer generation that they have to work in the city center They would say "no", which is exactly what you young people should be doing.
- roschdal 9mo agoNo.
- JodieBenitez 9mo agoThe only appropriate response to such a proposition.
- PopAlongKid 9mo agoI stayed in this location as a solo tourist for four nights last year. I was in a "cocoon" not a capsule. My room looked a little different from the photo at the website for 1 person, in that there were no hooks on the wall for hanging clothes, but there was a low, small table that could be used to set a laptop computer on top. No chairs, no TV, no windows, but with a sink/toilet/shower. It was OK, although I probably wouldn't do it again, since I can afford something more traditional if I choose (like the Tower Hotel, which I moved to for another four nights). The facility was nice, clean and modern (it is in the Trocadero building, I think they have over 700 rooms when I asked), but the cafe didn't open until something like 9 AM so I had to go out several times in the morning for my coffee. I ended up using the bathroom mirror backlight as a night light, otherwise it is pitch black. One way to describe it is as a very pleasant jail cell, which (of course) you can leave at will.
- cardanome 9mo agoI think booking a shared room in a cheap hostel might be more pleasant and economical than living in a coffin. Still forcing workers to return to office when they have already gotten used to remote work is so messed up. Capitalism sucks.
- integralid 9mo agoDepends on a person I guess. I suffer in shared rooms and it's exhausting both physically and mentally for me. At the same time the few times I was in a capsule hotel were between OK and great - I just need a clean private space to rest and that's it. Fully agree on forced RTO being evil.
- 4gotunameagain 9mo agoIf London's real estate market had not been obliterated by allowing the world's mega rich to buy apartments they use twice a year for a week, then this disgraceful human stacking venture would not exist.
- 3rodents 9mo agoThe ultra wealthy live in a very small number of buildings that have no meaningful impact on rental prices for normal people. The high end buildings that are mostly empty have rents starting at £3k/month for a studio, which is completely out of reach for normal people. London’s problem is the U.K’s problem: not enough housing is being built. The middle-wealthy landlords are the people profiteering off of normal-people housing, but they are a symptom of not building enough.
- ghusto 9mo ago> London’s problem is the U.K’s problem: not enough housing is being built. The problem is more that a few foreign billionaires are buying up large swaths of housing, and can therefore set their own prices, "don't like it? There are literally millions of other lining up I can exploit instead". This is not a problem outside of the large cities, so no it's not a UK problem.
- A_Duck 9mo agoThis article is something of a PR-piece for Criterion Capital, who are generally not a good influence in London "The Prince Charles Cinema near Leicester Square claims Aziz is trying to “bully” it out of its building, while his business has also played a key role in the closure of the world’s first YMCA branch near Tottenham Court Road." https://www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-delta-point-croydon-prince-charles-cinema https://www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-delta-point-croy... "Why does a property company controlled by one of London’s richest men keep leasing expensive shop units to students with no obvious retail experience — only for those students to repeatedly vanish without paying millions of pounds in [property] taxes?" https://www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-london-candy-shops-gift-shop-unpaid-tax https://www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-london-candy-shop...
- rasz 9mo ago>leasing expensive shop units to students I guess snails were not available at the time https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/04/the-long-read-snail-farm-tax-avoidance-scheme-terry-ball https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/04/... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46241159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46241159
- solatic 9mo agoWhile I do think capsule hotels are just too small, I do sympathize with wanting a lifestyle where you own an actual house on actual land in an actually quiet, rural environment, and occasionally commute into the city for work, sleeping in a pieds-a-terre, which for working-class folk would look something like a studio or 1-bedroom apartment within walking distance of the office. You would rent the studio on a monthly basis for basically as long as your relationship continues with that employer, stay there mid-week, and take rail 3-5 hours out to the rural countryside for the weekend.
- imcritic 9mo agoThat's hell. So most of the time you are away from your home and probably from your family if you have one. If you don't have one - you are leaving your home unwatched most of the time. You pay for 2 places instead of 1. 3-5 hrs commute away from your job - that's nuts by itself. What you should dream of instead - most jobs becoming remote or physically proximal to where you live.
- solatic 9mo ago> most of your time For hybrid workplaces wanting 3 days in-office, it's a little less than half > away from your family Yes, this is a trade-off. The choice is between whether your family will be crammed into a too-small-barely-affordable apartment in the city, or a more spacious house, since anything family-sized in the city is priced for executives. A lot of kids don't live at home during college; a lot of sales people and the like are used to living out of a suitcase, this is a similar lifestyle except better because the pieds-a-terre apartment is actually stable, it's not the same as living out of hotel rooms. > pay for 2 places instead of 1 Theoretically 1 pieds-a-terre + train tickets + 1 rural mortgage payment is cheaper than 1 family-sized apartment in the city. If it's not in your case - fair enough. > 3-5 hour commute away from your job Even if it's 5 hours, if you do that twice a week plus 3x 15 minute walks each way, that's 10h45m commute time per week, mostly on a train where you can watch movies, read something, etc. If you drive two hours each way, in congestion, to a (premium-priced) house in the suburbs, that's 10 hours of commute time per week fully concentrated on the road. YMMV. > dream of remote or physically proximal Well sure. That's a dream. Part of the question is, what's a realistic goal to set for yourself? Pieds-a-terre + train + rural house is achievable on my own agency. Overhauling the industry to become remote-first, or overhauling housing to become more affordable closer to employers, is not.
- tiku 9mo agoI've used a capsule hotel in Tallinn. The problem with capsule hotels is that it attracts the wrong crowd. In Japan it works because they are considerate. I've used a capsule pod for a week. Drunk people having sex above your head is not fun. Those plastic pods are a bit flimsy. The last day there was a whole polish work crew that invited there girlfriends. They had no problem walking around in their underwear. I had this Japanese vibe in mind, but that was quickly gone.
- rasz 9mo agoMy favorite is Warsaw Boutique-capsule Hostel located in the former mental asylum. Guests have no idea.