Visitors coming to Waikīkī will soon have another lodging option: a new luxury capsule hotel that offers smaller spaces for guests to rest their heads — at smaller price.
First Cabin International Hawai‘i, a compact hotel brand inspired by first-class airline cabins, is set to open its luxury capsule hotel this spring but an opening ceremony was held Monday.
Located on the 14th floor of Waikīkī Business Plaza, at 2770 Kalākaua Ave., the hotel will offer four first-class cabins with a double bed, nine business-class cabins with a single-size bed and 90 premium economy cabins with a single-size bed.
The first-class cabins measure 47 square feet, while the business class, which are taller and lined single-file, and premium economy cabins, which are stacked two high, measure 27 square feet.
The hotel includes free Wi-Fi, as well as laundry facilities, lockers, showers, sauna and lounge.
Operational Supervisor Yumi Nishikawa told Aloha State Daily that for travelers, the accommodations are a little more "friendlier on the wallet."
"But at the same time, we're also targeting the locals that live especially on the other side of the island and want to have a night or two here in Waikīkī. I think it's a really nice pit stop, something that we don't really have," she said. "... I would say everybody is really our target audience right now."
But "luxury," she says, is what separates the hotel from the "average capsule hotels that we do regularly see in Japan."
Nishikawa said rates for the hotel will range from around $100 for the economy pods to $160-plus for first-class and business, depending on seasons and other factors.
"I feel like for visitors, even local [residents], this is something that's new," she said when asked what the most exciting part of this offering was. "I feel like in Hawai‘i everybody's always looking for something new and exciting and somewhere to go."
But the hotel is also something that can draw more visitors from Japan, and support tourism in general, Nishikawa said.
"It's hard for a lot of people to afford the rooms around, so hopefully this is something that's a little bit more [affordable] — they can use that budget for memories and adventures instead, and just have a pit stop to just sleep and shower, and still feel like you're on a little nice vacation, rather than just being in a little tiny actual capsule like what we regularly know of in Japan."
First Cabin International has 10 locations across Japan in cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka, as well as facilities in Haneda Airport and Kansai International Airport.
More information can be found online here.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
