Size Matters: Why Americans Would Never Go for Japan's Capsule Hotels

Sorry, Japan. Size matters.

With the first Japanese capsule hotel opening in Shanghai last month, microhotels could be the next big trend in low-budget accommodations in China.

But even in a recession, don't look for capsules to start popping up around the U.S., because when it comes to accommodations, Americans are all a bunch of size queens.

"The brands really have spoiled the American traveler," Jay Schultz, senior vice president of Hotel Business, publisher of Hotel Business Magazine, told AOL News. "The American guest wants, at minimal, what they have at home, if not better."

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A worker presents a rank of cabinet-sized rooms at China's first capsule hotel in Shanghai in January. China has followed Japan's lead in the capsule hotel market, amid an explosion of leisure travel in the world's most populous country.

Schultz doesn't believe capsule hotels are viable in the U.S. market, explaining that American travelers have become accustomed to getting a flat-screen TV and Internet access with even the cheapest accommodations.

"Maybe there's an opportunity in gateway cities," he suggested, "marketing directly to Asian travelers."

Capsule hotels, which offer coffin-sized, single occupancy "rooms," have been around since 1979, when the Capsule Hotel Inn first opened its wee doors in central Osaka. Since then, weary Japanese businessmen -- even a wayward foreigner or two -- have turned to them as cheap accommodations in cities throughout Japan.

With nightly rates starting at about $50, the economics makes sense. And for the Japanese, there isn't much of a menu: The alternative is to stay at a "love hotel," which costs about $100 and rents by the hour, or a proper budget hotel, which runs at least twice as much.

Matt Nordstrom, a Web designer from New Jersey, stayed in a capsule hotel several years ago while visiting his girlfriend in Osaka. He remembers the overnight stay, which cost $40, as something he would only want to do once.

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"I'm not claustrophobic, but it was a really tight space," Nordstrom recalled in an interview with AOL News. "There was just enough room to fit inside. There wasn't even a door. You had this little screen that you pulled down for privacy."

With space at a premium, he said, some people slept with their feet hanging out of their rooms. And to the space restriction, add a time one, as well. At 7 a.m., there was an announcement reminding guests to leave their pods by 9 a.m.

Nordstrom expressed a healthy skepticism about the chances of capsule hotels taking off in the United States.

"I don't know if, as a society, we can handle capsule hotels," he stated. "They're a little too public."