Capsule Hotels

Pod's Hell's Kitchen property sits west of Times Square in a part of Manhattan that is residential enough to have a grocery store and central enough to walk to the theatre district. The building is a mid-rise with a small lobby and a lift bank, and the rooms begin immediately.

The rooms are the point. A pod queen fits a bed, a shelf and a wet room into a footprint that would be a walk-in wardrobe elsewhere; a bunk pod stacks two berths with their own reading lights, sockets and curtains. Some room types share bathrooms along the corridor, a trade that keeps the rate down and is stated plainly at booking.

Communal space carries the rest of the programme, with a bar, a courtyard and a rooftop that operate as the hotel's living room. Guests who plan to be out all day get the arrangement instantly; guests who want to spend the afternoon in their room will find it a tight fit.

Jeju is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Korea, ringed by a coastal trail and centred on the Hallasan massif, and it draws a steady traffic of walkers, divers and weekenders from the mainland. Wink Hostel serves that traffic with capsule berths rather than conventional rooms.

Each berth is a fitted timber box with a mattress, a curtain, a light and a power outlet, arranged in banks along a shared dormitory floor with separate sections for men and women. Lockers sit at the foot of the berths; showers, laundry and a kitchen are shared and signposted in Korean and English.

The hostel's usefulness is logistical. Buses to the trailheads and the coast leave nearby, bags can be left between check-out and an evening flight, and the common room is where most people work out the next day's section of the trail.

The chain's name states its thesis: one hour to shower, seven to sleep, one to get ready. Everything in the Karasuma property is arranged around that sequence, and nothing is included that falls outside it.

The palette is white and grey throughout. Guests take a locker on arrival, change, use the shower floor and then climb into a moulded capsule on a sleeping floor kept dark and quiet around the clock. The capsules are ventilated, individually lit and closed with a blind rather than a door, and the floors are separated by sex.

Its location is central Kyoto, on Karasuma near the Shijo intersection, within walking distance of Nishiki market and a short subway ride from the station. As a place to stay between a late arrival and an early train it is close to ideal; as a base for a week it is not intended to be.