Tech Workers Paying $700 a Month for Tiny Bed 'Pods' in San Francisco | Hacker News Reader

Tech Workers Paying $700 a Month for Tiny Bed 'Pods' in San Francisco

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68 pointspg_123454 comments

Capsule hotels in Japan are very similar, but they rent nightly as other hotels do. The capsules typically have a shade that acts as a non-locking door, which means there is privacy but not sound isolation. Each floor has keys, so not just anyone can wander in and look at your stuff while you're out. Most offer female-only floors. Some have capsules big enough to store a suitcase under the bed. Others have lockers on a separate floor.

Some places have gym-style showers, or even common bath areas. Some have showers with locking doors, and the facilities can be nicer than many regular hotel bathrooms.

In the places I've stayed, the common areas were universally excellent. Comfy couches and tables for working; cozy nooks for reading; ample kitchens; console video-game libraries. One place had round-the-clock curry and rice in the kitchen, and if you've had Japanese curry you know what a treat that is.

If you're in the right mindset, staying in a capsule hotel in Japan can be a great experience. But bring earplugs; you can be sure that someone on your floor snores.

Hmm, so you can hear noises? Doesn’t seem much of a capsule to me! How is ventilation done? Is that noisy too?

People in Japan reliably observe societal norms. If a capsule hotel floor is for sleeping and getting dressed, then the only noises you'll hear are people sleeping and getting dressed. Think of the door as a "quiet please" sign rather than a physical light/sound suppressor.

It's almost the opposite of the US, where people take pride in exercising their right to be assholes. Talking in movie theaters, taking speakerphone calls in public, watching videos on phone speakers in airport lounges, etc. are unimaginable in Japan but sadly commonplace here in the US.

In the hotels where I stayed, there were usually little airplane-style vents supplying cool air, so you could reach up to the top of the capsule and dial whatever level of ventilation you wanted. Barely audible.

The US is a big place. There are certainly huge areas of the country in which social norms have deteriorated to the point you’re describing, but it’s not the case across the nation. There are still plenty of small towns in rural US (and Canada) where speaking in a movie theatre, playing music on a bus, or littering on the street are generally not tolerated and at worst might even invite a polite confrontation. In the area I grew up and now own a home in, it’s not uncommon to see unoccupied roadside produce stands (with incredibly food) which are entirely cash and self serve. It’s not hard to explain why stands like that don’t exist in urban America.

I’ve spent half my time in NYC and Seattle the past couple years. I think it really can’t be understated how different rural and urban America are in their social norms and behaviors.

If capsule hotels spring up in rural US, I'll be happy to stay in one!

The capsule I stayed in had a little tv with 3 porn channels too!

What luxury.

In Kobe can recommend "Kobe sauna & spa". Excellent common bath areas as the name implies, with a variety of bathing options, one even in the open air so you can float while looking at the sky. I think they even had an electric bath.

I spent a decade traveling Europe in hostels and visiting clients. There's nothing inherently wrong with a pod itself. Indeed, I prefer it if it means you get expansive public space.

Later, I lived in a New York building which was originally to become a we-work, with great amenities. It's not like you spend much time in bed. Indeed, many people (in cities) go to cafes etc. to work.

That's an interesting take that seems so obvious now that you've said it. I've spent my whole life in single family homes and never quite "got" the "go work in a cafe" and similar stuff. Seems like a pretty rich tapestry of possible experiences to miss out on. Huh. Will be chewing on that for a while.

> That's an interesting take that seems so obvious now that you've said it. I've spent my whole life in single family homes and never quite "got" the "go work in a cafe" and similar stuff. Seems like a pretty rich tapestry of possible experiences to miss out on. Huh. Will be chewing on that for a while.

The only way to find out if it's worth your while is to try it. I tried it, and it wasn't for me.

I've done that stint in NYC and Tokyo. It's not a bad lifestyle if you're working long hours in your 20's and just need a place to sleep and want to minimize spending.

Eventually though you do want some space for yourself.

There is no reason outside of ideology that a normal person would choose a pod/hostel bed/... over a spacious room for the same amount of money. It doesn't matter if you only sleep there, a house is always more comfortable all things considered.

All other argumentation is making up for the fact that you are paying exorbitant amounts of money for a tiny crowded space and can't afford a house. It is a social and political failure, not something to be celebrated.

In Victorian times you could pay a few pennies to hang over a rope with your fellow bums, or sleep in a coffin. 200 years later in the Bay you can do the same thing for a 100 times the price and people will actually relish the experience. This is slum tourism at home.

I sounds a bit like you've never left where you grew up and can't imagine why someone else wouldn't like it.

If someone would give me a house I would sell it. I don't want to live in a house and I definitely don't want do go back to the suburbs. Imagine that, a lot can actually buy a house but choose to buy an apartment!

The opposite, I've left, traveled all over, lived in hostels, lived in poverty, lived on the street. That's why I'm not fantasizing about those experiences as if they would be thrilling solely on the basis of the poorness of the accommodations.

yeah, but that's irrelevant. We're not fetishising poorness here but arguing wether you would always buy a house because it's objectively better. I wouldn't, I live in the city by choice and wouldn't move out for a house. Hell, I don't think I currently would like to live alone because I have to move into a new city and wonder about making friends there.

Re-reading it....maybe there's something lost in translation. Do you mean your own house, as in your own complete building, our something like your own home that could be an apartment?

First of all, these wouldn’t cost the same amount of money as a spacious room. That’s the point.

But otherwise there is still a positive aspect of staying in a hostel when you’re travelling; you easily meet other people travelling too.

That's the point, if people are doing it because they are too poor, at the cost of their health, then don't think it's a thrilling living experience to be celebrated.

A month at a capsule hotel will cost you more than renting a room. A New York pod or a Bay pod will cost you more than renting an apartment in a place that doesn't have a crazy renting market, pretty much 99% of the rest of the world, even big cities.

That's the point, making up for crazy living conditions in which people are packed like sardines and there isn't enough room for everyone. It's not a positive, it's not a thrilling living experience. It's a disaster and people put up with it.

A hostel is different, but if you have the money you can also rent an actual room and still get to meet people there. Hang out in the common areas, and so on, without having to deal with the terrible facilities. So stay at a hostel once and then realize if you ever do it again it'll be to save money not by choice.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Most of the time, there's either no seating, no fast Wi-Fi, or no power outlets left. That's why I prefer to work at home with a nice desk, monitor and chair setup than to go to a cafe, which I do to relax and take a break.

Sure but did you see the pics? This is worse than a hostel

Most hostels I've stayed in had squeaky off-the-shelf metal bunk beds for their communal rooms. The bed arrangement in the photo looks closer to a capsule hotel.

I’ve stayed at Podshare, a similar concept, and it was way better than the metal bunk beds.

I always got the top bunk somehow, and felt like I was causing a 5.0 earthquake below.

This just looks like a hostel to me that's amenable to long-term residents. Nothing out of the ordinary about the bed setup compared to other hostels.

Actually I’ve done hostels like that ^^ but they were on the lower end. Usually nicer hostels (like in Korea) have a curtain for privacy. I guess it’s all over the place.

Imagine bringing back a man or woman back to your “pod”. No privacy. Just shag and hope the other mates don’t wake up or kill the vibe.

Reminds me of dorm living but instead of 2-bangers, it’s a 10-banger.

Would I live in this at my current age? Nah, fuck that I like my privacy. I’ll gladly pay the premium for a 1br1ba.

Would I do this in my 20s? Highly likely!

You'd probably end up with the type of "love hotels" you see in Japan.

That's an interesting point. I see these as more of either a place of last resort or place for someone who spends all day on campus and just wants sleep, etc than a living quarter.

Not to sound prudish, but if I resigned myself to this, I'd be pretty upset if people were making a ton of noise shagging one another.

Then again, I've pretty much lost faith in people as a whole, so I envision each pod would be blasting music from a crappy speaker, making tik tok videos, or talking on speaker phone at all hours.

I've stayed in a lot of dorm rooms where there are 15 or so people sleeping together in a hostel. It's fine tbh people have been courteous in my experience, I think people with party mindset or whatever do that elsewhere and are exhausted by the time they get back. But tbh maybe just seeing the lights off and seeing other people sleeping naturally makes one quiet. If the capsules hide other people from you I can see more antisocial behaviour

That’s when you get an actual hotel room.

What women?

At least you have some protection against towels being thrown at you, and if your neighbor bangs against the divider you can just bang harder :)

>Our private beds have 40% more room than typical bunk beds, and come with individual lights, privacy curtains, temperature-controlled fans, and other essentials

It does not even come with a door? Or a lock? So it is just communal living with novel bunk beds? Why is there no drawer to stick a laptop/phone/charger/backpack?

More efficient to have a whole row of lockers nearby.

Who knew we'd come full circle back to tenanament housing (or worse).

Is there a better alternative they'd want?

In San Francisco? Build taller apartment buildings.

WFH.

>"In addition to your own private bed, you get keyless entry to the house in an amazing location, access to a full kitchen, and fully furnished common spaces such as a living room and shared office room," it adds.

That's actually not too bad of a deal as long as you can tolerate the pretty cramped sleeping situation. From the Twitter pictures the living space seems quite nice

I bought a two bedroom house in bfe (southern Missouri) for less than $700/month payment. Actually I paid triple the monthly payment to pay off the loan in 3 years at $1500/month. My neighbors are about 300 feet away, and so is a beautiful public park with tennis courts, a large swimming pool, paved walking trails, Frisbee golf, volley ball, and a baseball field. And my taxes are $300 per year.

I also don't feel the need to lock my doors because crime is nearly non-existent.

"not too bad of a deal" might be relative, but I contend that it doesn't exist in the bay area.

I know someone who is paying through the nose for a 50m² apartment in Amsterdam. The housing situation is bad in the Netherlands but you can still find something better outside that hellscape of a city. I told her there are other cities in the Netherlands but no it has to be Amsterdam.

People are strange.

Housing in the Netherlands is either your friend has an uncle looking for a tenant and now you have a reasonably priced flat that's a reasonable size. Or, you go through a company and pay out the nose. In both cases it seems almost impossible to find a place this way. But I definitely agree, Amsterdam sucks. Utrecht is waaaay better and it's only a half hour on the train to Amsterdam to see whatever you want.

But then you'd have to live in Missouri, is what I expect people would say to that. At the end of the day, places with many jobs (as many are RTO now) will be more expensive than places with few.

The usual slur we who live in the Midwest get from city folks, who are so critically under-skilled that they cannot imagine living anywhere that doesn't serve their every whim for entertainment.

We all understand the converse, right? Living in an expensive place close to jobs (that you won't be going to anyway, remote, remember) means but then you'd have to live in the armpit of San Francisco or wherever.

Yeah, that's why I don't live in either of those places, being remote for now, and why you could never pay me to live in SF, with the heightened crime, drugs on the street, etc.

Donr neglect the social circle too though, having a family in the middle of nowhere is nice but it doesn't make for having too many friends when younger if not in an area with other young people.

This is a real drawback. I had few friends growing up in BFE.

It has pros and cons like everywhere. Jobs isn't an issue though. I have worked almost exclusively at remote-first organizations since 2005 with little difficulty finding work.

Most of them don’t know it yet but their destiny is not to become rich or successful, it’s to end up very likely living in their car.

Poverty has become so cool and expensive.

Now, that's the technofeudalism Varoufakis should talk about.

They should be free to do so. Comparing this to tenement housing is just a complete misrepresentation and underestimates how horrendous tenement housing was.

This sounds a lot nicer than the Hacker House I stayed at in San Francisco. It was more than $1000 for a bunk in a 25 bunk dorm with no privacy.

I can imagine living in a single room with good, big shared amenities, but I can't imagine living in a pod. In fact, i would consider the opportunity for the single room, I find the idea appealing. But not a pod, just imagine starting a relationship while living in a pod. Sometimes you really need privacy.

"The tiny spaces only fit one twin bed"

this reads like the beds aren't supplied, to me? I'm not sure which is worse.

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