I stayed at Hong Kong’s first 'capsule hotel' to see what it's like to live in micro — and the experience was a nightmare

• SLEEEP is Hong Kong's first capsule hotel, a concept invented in Japan in the late 1970s that aims to provide cheap, convenient "sleeping pods" for travelers who do not require the services of a full hotel.
• I stayed at SLEEEP on a recent business trip to Hong Kong.
• SLEEEP is ideally located and well-designed aesthetically, but its capsules get hot quickly and do not block out sound, making for a poor night of sleep.

---

It sounds great on paper — a budget hotel completely designed around getting you the best night of sleep. That's the idea behind SLEEEP, Hong Kong's first capsule hotel.

The reality, however, isn't quite so relaxing.

Located in Sheung Wan, a neighborhood on Hong Kong island near the main business district, SLEEEP caters to solo tourists, overworked Hong Kongers, and harried business travelers by offering them "a breathing space within a suffocating environment," in the words of Jun Rivers, who co-founded the hotel with childhood friend Alex Klot.

"We truly believe that high-quality, sufficient sleep can take us further in both our personal and professional lives," Rivers told Lifestyle Asia last year, shortly after it opened.

While it is ideally located and designed with an Apple-esque eye for minimalist design — it won silver for Design for Asia Awards 2017 — the hotel fails at its most basic purpose.

I stayed at SLEEEP on a recent business trip to Hong Kong. After a long couple of days reporting in Macau, I arrived at the hotel excited for an excellent night of sleep. Instead I found myself overheated, woken multiple times, and altogether turned off by the entire concept.

SEE ALSO: One picture shows how absurdly tiny apartments are in Hong Kong — and people are paying a premium for them

DON'T MISS: Inside the most expensive part of the world's most expensive city, the Hong Kong billionaire enclave where Alibaba founder Jack Ma may have bought a $191 million mansion

SLEEEP is located between Queen's Road Central and Gough Street, two winding roads in the Sheung Wan neighborhood of Hong Kong. There's a staircase halfway down the street. Walk up it to find SLEEEP.

It feels a little like looking for a secret passageway. When you start to see the cheeky messages related to sleep, you'll know you found it.

One of the best things about the hotel is how streamlined the experience is. There are no receptionists or keycards. You just walk up to the touchpad outside the door.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Contributer : Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2Jsdf8N

Something that you might miss to see?