Capsule inns are an inexpensive various to costly accomodation in London for workplace employees.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Staff who moved out of London for distant work are beneath stress to come back again to the workplace within the metropolis, and a few are selecting to remain in Japanese-inspired sleeping pods for simply £30 ($40).
I travelled to Piccadilly Circus within the coronary heart of London to spend an evening in a newly opened capsule resort, after two of my colleagues who stay outdoors the town advisable staying there.
Zedwell Capsule Resort, a model owned by Criterion Capital, opened in September and gives almost 1,000 capsules measuring 1 meter lengthy, 1 meter broad, and a pair of meters in depth — doubtless the smallest resort rooms in London.
It has a relatively unassuming exterior regardless of being positioned contained in the historic London Pavilion constructing — initially constructed as a music corridor in 1885. The doorway is across the nook of the busy station, by way of some black doorways.
Non-public sleeping capsules alongside one another in Zedwell Capsule Resort in London.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
The price of staying in a resort in Central London is staggering, sitting at a mean of £265 per night time within the third quarter of 2025, based on actual property agency Knight Frank. As compared, the common every day price of inns throughout Europe was 125 euros in the summertime, based on an evaluation of over 600,000 reservations from 2,000 unbiased inns by RoomRaccoon.
Criterion’s Head of Motels Halima Aziz informed me that the capsule resort addresses a spot out there between price range hostels and inexpensive lodging.
“We have shaped this candy spot between the 2. We’re not a price range hostel. We’re not coming in at a £15 price, supplying you with a bunk mattress in a metal room,” she mentioned.
“After we determined to get into capsules, we actually took inspiration from Asia, and the capsule idea was actually born out of Japan as a response to very comparable pressures we’re going through in London.”
In Japan, the primary capsule resort was constructed within the metropolis of Osaka in 1979, primarily to function a cheap in a single day possibility for salarymen who labored late and most well-liked to remain out ingesting and socializing relatively than spending extra money commuting dwelling.
It is given rise to some capsule-style inns in New York, from sleeping pods by Kama Central Park, to Nap York, a sleeping station with non-public pods for brief naps or in a single day stays.
Now that the idea has come to London, I used to be eager to see for myself what the British model has to supply.
Inside a sleeping capsule
Inside a sleeping capsule in Zedwell Capsule Resort in London.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
It is a Monday night, and as an alternative of my regular work-from-home routine, which includes making ready to enter the workplace the following day, I am crawling right into a brightly lit sleeping pod.
I roll down the garage-like shutters and lock it from the within as I put together to sleep. My head is simply inches beneath the ceiling of my pod, which has a lightweight dimmer, two clothes hooks, an air air purifier, a large mirror stretching alongside the top of the capsule, and charger sockets.
Though I can really feel my baggage — a backpack and tote bag — on the finish of my mattress, and the underside of my coat held on the hooks, I am shocked by how comfy and comfortable the bedding is.
I change off the lights and noisy air air purifier and discover myself enveloped by pitch black and silence. It feels eerie, however with nothing to distract me, I go to sleep shortly.
Every capsule measures 1 meter lengthy, 1 meter broad, and a pair of meters in depth.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Earlier within the day, I checked myself into the resort utilizing one in every of 4 kiosks, and as I roamed across the resort, I seen that the partitions have been painted black to match the outside — and there is not a single window in sight.
I rode as much as the primary ground and used a key card to entry my female-only dormitory. My capsule was one in every of seven stacked aspect by aspect or on prime of one another, and a few have been solely accessible by way of steps.
A female-only dormitory inside Zedwell Capsule Resort.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
I discovered that regardless of the low preliminary value, there was a collection of further facilities company pays for, from an additional £10 to be in a female-only dormitory, to £8 for a padlock, and £15 to retailer baggage securely.
The resort had an unfinished really feel. The doorway was lined in scaffolding and the faint sound of drilling may very well be heard from contained in the constructing.
That is as a result of it’s “nonetheless beneath development,” Zedwell’s Basic Supervisor Greg Walsh informed me. The drilling sounds have been coming from underground the place a bigger reception was being constructed, with direct hyperlinks to Piccadilly Circus Station.
CEO Aziz confirmed that the constructing shouldn’t be full, including that the extra value for the feminine dorms was largely attributable to upgraded facilities, together with a towel contained in the pod and a female-only magnificence room full with hairdryers — though that is nonetheless beneath development and never at present accessible.
“In the end, in case you’re not simply concentrating on the normal hostel market, and also you wish to widen entry, it’s worthwhile to reply to folks’s wants, and other people have wants for laundry, for magnificence, that would not sometimes be thought of,” she added.
Whereas exploring the constructing, I discovered shared bogs and showers with classical music taking part in inside, in addition to merchandising machines within the reception with snacks, drinks, slippers and eye masks amongst different gadgets.
I wandered out for dinner and with Oxford Circus, Leicester Sq., and Covent Backyard inside strolling distance, it wasn’t exhausting to entertain myself.
Zedwell Capsule Resort is positioned in Piccadilly Circus, London.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Staff are coming again to the town
Throughout my time within the resort, I found I used to be one in every of many working professionals within the constructing. I noticed a number of company arriving in fits and ties and carrying briefcases. One chef from Newcastle even informed me he paid a complete of £284 to remain within the resort for a fortnight to work in London.
In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, many workplace employees in London moved out of the town, the place it was cheaper to hire or personal a house, attributable to distant and versatile working choices turning into a normality.
“The price of commuting from Oxford, Cambridge, metropolis facilities that are not accessible by way of the London Underground system, is kind of excessive.”
Halima Aziz
Criterion’s Head of Motels
A 2021 report from Metropolis Corridor mentioned it was doubtless that London’s inhabitants fell in the course of the pandemic. The variety of payrolled London staff dropped sharply by about 210,000 by November 2020, with the report citing that versatile work preparations made it simpler to maneuver out of the town.
The development endured, and by 2022, 43% of commuters lived over half-hour away from their office within the U.Okay., reflecting greater property costs in central areas, based on a report by industrial actual property agency CBRE which surveyed over 20,000 folks globally.
Moreover, CBRE discovered that 41% of individuals worldwide have been planning to maneuver to extra distant places within the subsequent two years both in the identical metropolis or to a special metropolis.
Nevertheless, in 2025, there’s been a pointy recall in distant work choices with main firms implementing return to workplace mandates in London from HSBC to JPMorgan, Amazon, Salesforce and John Lewis.
A sometimes dormitory with roughly a dozen capsules inside Zedwell Capsule Resort.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Zedwell’s Aziz mentioned one of many resort’s core demographics is younger professionals and hybrid employees who’re utilizing Zedwell as a “base within the metropolis” attributable to their versatile working patterns which require them to be within the workplace for a number of days every week. Roughly 20% of the resort’s prospects are company employees, Aziz mentioned.
“The price of commuting from Oxford, Cambridge, metropolis facilities that are not accessible by way of the London Underground system, is kind of excessive,” she mentioned. “Our product is usually cheaper than their commute or late-night journey dwelling.”
The return-to-office mandate has left employees who do not stay in cities scrambling to seek out cheap methods of staying within the metropolis, with out having to resort to unattractive choices like hostels.
“The place they would not historically think about a hostel product, we recognized that they might certainly think about a capsule resort, as a result of it gave that privateness,” Aziz added.
As a Londoner, my regular commute to the workplace lasts simply over half-hour, so the resort would not provide a lot when it comes to comfort for me, however I can see the attraction for these dwelling additional away from the town.
After I awoke within the morning, I virtually forgot that I wasn’t in my mattress at dwelling. After a fast bathe, I bought prepared inside my capsule earlier than heading out and becoming a member of the throng of commuters in central London.
