The Moxy Chelsea in New York City. Though their rooms are small, microhotels often have spacious lobbies that invite hanging out and co-working.

They appeal to senior citizens and millennials, business travelers and backpackers. And they’re particularly attractive to hotel developers, who can pack in more guest rooms than in a typical hotel.

They’re known as microhotels, inspired by the Japanese capsule or pod hotels of 40 years ago that offered cheap, tiny accommodations to businessmen.

The new versions — which are most common in but not exclusive to big, expensive cities like New York, London and Paris — are designed, as one hotel expert put it, down to their last square inch. Their guest rooms are small — often half, or less, the size of a typical room in an urban hotel — with furniture that often can be folded up or stowed away, and bathrooms that usually have showers and toilets but no bathtubs. Wall-mounted TVs are also major space savers.

Continue reading… “The Microhotel, a Category Seeing a Growth Spurt, Makes Small Stylish”