Smallest hotel rooms ever?
 

A chart entitled "Adventures in Claustrophobia" appears in a WSJ article today entitled "Hotel Rooms: How Small Can They Get?" and the smallest rooms were measured and commented upon.

No suprise- the "W-NY", as previously noted in FT, rated a $2.89 per sq ft per night- the highest surveyed.

BIG Surprise- Waldorf Astoria- Though I haven't stayed here in about 8 yrs, I was shocked to find this on the list of 16 hotels. The rooms I've had in the past were quite large and comfy- and that's by any standard, not just NYC standards.

Note: Thanks to Kitty Hawk below. Closer examination of the Table shows that only 1.4% of the Waldorf rooms are in this category, while 68% of the "W" rooms are.



[This message has been edited by doc (edited 01-21-2000).]

The Waldorf has been renting what they call "staff rooms": $199/night for what I am told is a cramped, dark, unrefurbished room. A colleague of mine was put in one, and left the hotel early, vowing never to return. He was quite voluble on the subject.

My smallest room ever was the Palmer House (now a Hilton) in Chicago...I had room to walk around the bed, but that was about it. I was there for a job interview, and the company picked up the tab, so I don't know quite what it cost, but it was no small price, I'm sure. Most indelibly impressed on my memory: The fact that the bathroom was so small that you could not possibly close the door without sitting on the toilet or getting into the shower.

BUT...I read an article a couple months ago (may have been WSJ) about these new Japanese hotels where you basically rent a coffin-sized space that you have to yourself. I think it comes complete with a small personal TV and an alarm clock (which will wake up all of your neighboring cells as well as you!). And if you're over 6' tall, you're SOL.

Glad to see some independent and objective confirmation of my observations and criticisms of the W NY. So I guess that size of my room wasn't due to the fact that I made the reservation at 6:45 pm and checked in at 7. They're all like that (or at least 68% of them would appear to be). I won't stay there again, you can be sure of that. I have, on occasion, had smallish rooms in other hotels, but I think the W was about the smallest I have ever had (including Holiday Inns, Comfort Inns, Best Westerns, etc.).

Djlawman

Is this US only? The smallest hotel room I had was in Japan.

Yes, PG, only about two dozen rooms in the US.

And my smallest hotel room (and smallest hotel bed) was also in Japan. I believe it was the New Hankyu, Kyoto, near the train station about 9-10 yrs ago. I felt like I was entering a submarine, yet it had everything you could possibly imagine in the room as well.

It was in sharp contrast to the Hyatt in Tokyo, where I was surprised at the relatively large size of the rooms.

Incidentally, the absolute smallest US room was the Paramount, NY (by Philippe Starck, 46th St) with 16% of rooms coming in at 101 sq ft. Truly I have friends with closets about this size!

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 01-21-2000).]

The absolute smallet hotel room I ever had was in Keystone, SD. I forget the name of the place but it is/was the newest facility in this very touristy town only a few miles from Mt. Rushmore. It was new enough that they were removing a plastic coverings from the new construction materials in the lobby. I might very well had been the first person to ever check in!

Opening the door, it brushed against the side of the bed. The bed was pushed against the far wall and there was about a foot of space in front of the bed. The wall facing the bed had an area that would have made a closet if it had a door. In this area was a dresser and a TV mounted on a shelf above. Next to this was a powder room sized bathroom and shower stall.

I remember seeing something on TV once about a hotel in Tokyo that was essentially a sleeping tube in the wall. Privacy curtain, reading light and temperature control- yikes!

------------------
Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop

I mentioned this in my "trips from heck" post on OMNI...

Red Roof Inn somewhere in PA (sorry I can't be more specific - it was 2AM).

The door to the hallway bumped into the bed. The door to the bathroom did also. You could adjust the temperature control on the heater/AC with about the safe effort as you would to hit the snooze button.



------------------
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Although the Paramount's rooms were the smallest of all surveyed (Note: These rooms are the smallest in the hotels, not all rooms are this small, the Beverly Hills Hotel for instance only had .1% of the really small rooms), the article went on to say it was also one of the best "small" rooms they saw because of its design.

For those who have access to the WSJ online the article is at http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/...ssFareMain.htm , though that address likely won't work after today (Friday, January 21).

PG:

I have never stayed in one only seen them on the evening news, but have you ever seen the "hotels" at the Japan train stations which are about the size of a generous tanning bed and are built/stacked locker/drawer style like the body drawers at a morgue? Supposedly these "rooms" are for commuters who missed the last train and just need a bed on which to sleep,no frills & no excess space provided. Sounds kind of claustrophobic to me.

I am not surprised to hear that the W Hotel in NYC has tiny rooms, but what about the other W's (Court & Tuscany)...? I was hoping to use a Free Friday at one of those, but maybe I should think twice about it.

onedog - no, thankfully not that small, but appreciably smaller than any other room I have ever stayed at. I forget the name of the hotel but it was in Kyoto. I have also stayed at a very good hotel in Yokohama - nice modern room, and also had a very good experience in a Japanese style hotel in Tokyo (with the paper walls and a sauna).

Most any hotel room in Scandinavia would qualify. Cots in a box is the defacto standard for most rooms. A few large hotels in capital cities are the exception.

Mine was in London, at the Radisson Edwardian Savoy Court Hotel. I thinkwe paid something like 80 GBP per night for something like an 8x10. And that was a discounted rate, believe you me.

Oh well, at least the pictures looked nice.

I think I've WON!
The smallest hotel unit (not room) is in Japan. There are stacked units the size of a coffin but twice the height. They are for people who missed the last train. I've never stayed in one.
The smallest hotel room (with a floor and walls) that I've stayed in was in London. It was a bed and breakfast place in Bayswater that has since closed. There are similar rooms in London. The room was less than 6 feet wide and about 10 feet long. Only a small twin bed fit inside.
The shortest doorway of a hotel I've stayed in was a hotel in Japan where the doorways were about 5 feet high. It looked like cubby holes from the hallway.