3 hotels

Capsule Hotels

Small rooms, big ideas about sleep. Two of these are true capsule hotels in Japan. The third takes the same thinking into a compact European city hotel.

  • Hotel MyCUBE Yamanashi

    Yamanashi, Japan

    Yamanashi is Mount Fuji country, and this capsule hotel serves travellers passing through on a budget. Sleeping cabins are stacked in neat rows, each with a curtain or panel for privacy, a reading light and a place to charge a phone.

    Bathrooms and washrooms are shared. Luggage goes into lockers. A common lounge gives the day a place to start and end, so the cabin itself stays a place only for sleep.

    • Sleeping cabins
    • Shared bathrooms
    • Luggage lockers
    • Common lounge

  • 9 Hours Akita

    Akita, Japan

    The name is the plan. One hour to wash, seven to sleep, one to rest: nine hours in total, and the building is laid out to follow that sequence.

    Capsules in the 9h style are pale, smooth and quiet, with lighting that dims for sleep and brightens toward morning. Floors are separated, the showers are generous and the whole place has the calm of a clinic rather than the clutter of a hostel.

    • Nine-hour routine
    • Minimal capsules
    • Timed lighting
    • Separate floors

  • citizenM Milan

    Milan, Italy

    Not a capsule hotel in the strict sense. It earns its place here because citizenM treats space the way a capsule does: every room is small, and every centimetre is worked out.

    A wide bed runs wall to wall beneath the window. A tablet controls light, blinds and temperature. Check-in happens at a kiosk in minutes, and the ground floor is a shared living room with designer furniture, art on the walls and food available at most hours.

    • Compact rooms
    • Window-wide beds
    • Self check-in
    • Shared living room