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Sleepbox
131–140 of 149 posts
Re: Sleepbox
#132In Japan we have long had 'coffin hotels' (or 'capsule hotels', pre-Neuromancer). We also have love hotels, which are expressly designed to be rented for two hours at a time to do whatever nasty, sticky business you can convince somebody to do with you. The changing the linens and whatnot are solved problems. (Some businessman-oriented places have a sealed plastic bag of bedclothes hung in the room... you have to do…
Actually, Yotel already do this: http://www.yotel.com/ I've used the Yotel inside the international transit area at Schiphol for jet lag purposes, during a 5-hour stopover on an intercontinental flight; it beats a recliner in a business lounge into a cocked hat for thouse 4-hour dead spots after a sleepless red-eye. I wish this idea would catch on at more hub airports!
Considering Yo! take a lot of inspiration from Japan for their products, I'm honestly not surprised. Look at Yo! Sushi, for instance.
Re: Sleepbox
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh c'mon, this is brilliant, and solves a huge pain problem for lots of people (myself included). You don't have to have perfect solutions to edge customer cases in order to be successful (e.g. Zipcar, AirBnB, eBay, etc), and you can always iterate on the solutions. The airport/station staff can do the daily cleaning and replenishing. Also, they can give you a grace period of 5 mins to reject the pod if there's a pro…
> You don't have to have perfect solutions to edge customer cases and you can always iterate on the solutions. This isn't a high tech startup. These units would be placed in very public places, so initial impressions would have an enormous impact on their subsequent success (or failure). Imagine the worst things someone could do within one of these units and then ask yourself how you would discretely clean that withi…
What makes you think non-tech startups don't iterate? If anything, I think they're much better at it. With software, we have to work really hard to see people use our products and talk with them. But for most businesses it's pretty easy, and it's that feedback that really drives innovation.
This seems like an easy one to iterate on. You put one box in one airport. You catch every customer as they're coming out (which should be easy as departure will be indicated on booking, and you'll want to go by to clean it anyhow). You ask them what they think.
If initial impressions are somehow terrible, then you solve the problems and set your next one up with different branding in a different airport. Then keep iterating.
Re: Sleepbox
#134Even if the pod is somewhat automated (e.g. linens are somehow changed without human intervention), you're not going to be able to get around the fact that you'll need someone to collect the dirty linens once in a while and replenish. And really, the tired business executive is the ideal customer ... but you're probably more likely to get a bunch of less-than-ideal customers whose actions inside the pod are going to…
A pod would actually be much easier to clean than a regular hotel room, because it's smaller. Suppose you had the bedding removed and cleaned in a high temp machine after every use, so all that's left is hard, smooth, easily cleanable surfaces, which you had cleaned with bleach, rinsed, and dried with compressed air. It would be cleaner than a typical hotel room even if the previous occupant did nasty stuff - which they could very well have done in any hotel room.
Re: Sleepbox
#135Even if the pod is somewhat automated (e.g. linens are somehow changed without human intervention), you're not going to be able to get around the fact that you'll need someone to collect the dirty linens once in a while and replenish. And really, the tired business executive is the ideal customer ... but you're probably more likely to get a bunch of less-than-ideal customers whose actions inside the pod are going to…
A pod would actually be much easier to clean than a regular hotel room, because it's smaller. Suppose you had the bedding removed and cleaned in a high temp machine after every use, so all that's left is hard, smooth, easily cleanable surfaces, which you had cleaned with bleach, rinsed, and dried with compressed air. It would be cleaner than a typical hotel room even if the previous occupant did nasty stuff - which t…
Smaller doesn't actually imply easier to clean. It's a cramped space with lots of nooks and crannies, and from the looks of it, you couldn't even get a normal sized broom under the bed without hitting the opposite wall.
Re: Sleepbox
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
alternatively, the lack of communal feeling and shame, that leads people to do things like trashing hotel rooms, is just awful.
A side effect of an increasingly individualistic society, some countries more so than others. I could only really see this working in a highly corporate and controlled environment, like a light rail station in a business district, maybe an airport but only after the security gates.
I'm not sure that's so much a side effect as it is a primary effect.
Re: Sleepbox
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like a completely unwieldy solution. Is an alarm going to go off every time I lift my legs up off the bed? What if I put a heavy suitcase on the bed next to me? Would you want your company to be known for refusing to allow a nursing mother and father to sit next to each other on the bed? What about a parent and a child? Further, a hotel owner can't just barge in on a tenant. They have to believe someone i…
>Is an alarm going to go off every time I lift my legs up off the bed? What if I put a heavy suitcase on the bed next to me? I think I could write an algorithm to filter out the vast majority of false positives. With enough pressure sensors under the mattress, and maybe passive IR it really shouldn't be too difficult (face recognition with automated deletes and no long term recording or viewing capabilities would pro…
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Re: Sleepbox
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me it's definitely about the security of my belongings & personal safety. In certain places personal safety is less of a concern, but belongings are still so easy for someone to walk off with.
You can put those in a locker though
Yes - I think a good locker system is a more feasible solution.
Re: Sleepbox
#139I prefer the MVP I've been using in airports for years: - hoodie - ipod with white noise - mindfold mask (mindfold.com) - inflatable neck pillow - backpack with strap wrapped around my arm - empty gate of any soon-to-be-bankrupt airline It's already paid for, it works great (the mindfold is the secret, believe me), it weighs less that a pound, and I can use it on the plane too.
Do you not fly enough to have lounge access?
It appears that many airports have gotten rid of lounges, or have super limited hours on them.
I was flying through Philly and almost got stuck there overnight. It looked like my options were to get a ~$150/night hotel that was near the airport (no vouchers available since it was 'weather related' despite no bad weather) or just sleep in the airport.
I had tried asking if there was a way I could get access to the lounge. The answers I got seemed to indicate there either wasn't one, or it wasn't open overnight, or perhaps I just couldn't pay to get access. Unsure. But I wasn't getting in a lounge either way.
Thankfully, I got a flight back to Cleveland instead of CAK because the flight to Cleveland was running 2 hours behind (perfect for me) and I had a coworker pick me up there instead.
Re: Sleepbox
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you have to go to court to dispute the chargeback? Couldn't you set up some kind of system to send them to the credit card company if a customer attempts a chargeback, so they can verify that the chargeback is invalid?
It doesn't matter. The chargebacks count against your limit whether you dispute them or not. You must get less than 1% of your monthly gross volume back in chargebacks if you hope to stay in business. If you're above that for several months in a row, 99% of MSPs will terminate your account immediately. As far as Visa and MasterCard are concerned, if you're generating chargebacks on a regular basis, something is wrong…
Wonder how that works with companies that I'm sure do get chargebacks a lot, but are huge? Car rental companies come to mind.