A list of small hotel spaces wouldn’t be complete without one of Japan’s famed capsule hotels, where tiny sleeping spaces are stacked on top of one another. Though the capsule hotel concept has been around since the 1970s, Nine Hours in Kyoto gives the idea a sci-fi spin. Guests walk into an all-white lobby, take off their shoes and enter a men’s or women’s elevator, which takes them to a washroom and an area where they can change into provided pajamas. The curved sleeping “pods” look straight out of a futuristic movie scene, with a high-tech control system that wakes guests up gradually with light. The “nine hours” moniker is based on the idea that a guest should have one hour to shower, seven hours to sleep and one hour to rest. Guests can spend up to 17 hours in one stay.
4,600 JPY ($56 USD) for a one-night stay, 9hours.jp