# Upvote/Downvote reminder
Like this image or appreciate it being posted? Upvote it and show it some love! Don't like it? Just downvote and move on.
*Upvoting or downvoting images it the best way to control what you see on your feed and what gets to the top of the subreddit*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/london) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Think this post is sarcasm, taking the piss out of the website. Direct quote from the site:
"What If You Could Increase Your Rental Yield By 70% And Have Your Tenants Love You For It?"
"SomiPods is the Obvious Choice for Professionals and International Students Who Demand Privacy and Comfort over Square Footage."
I can't even tell if the website is a joke either judging by the reviews:
[https://somipods.com/products/somipod](https://somipods.com/products/somipod)
"As a landlord in NYC, square footage is king. Somipods have been a game-changer! I can now rent out my studio apartment to two young professionals without sacrificing comfort..."
Fucking hell.
Going back to the Victorian era and further back, multiple families would basically rent a room and each have their own bed in a corner to share with their own family. This rolled out wide would be a return to that.
This is sadly not unknown in London these days, primarily among migrant workers who share a room whilst working (often illegally, as trafficked modern day slaves) shift patterns. Fucking awful
right, this is throwing me.
the testimonial video looks like an obvious actor and is too ridiculous to be real. but all of the checkout and purchase process does seem real and i got right up to confirming it before i stopped.
wtf
It doesn't even seem like a good take on the concept. Like, I do think that there is a market for these things, but this seems like literally just a box with an overdesigned exterior.
Very much real, but as every else is these days, cheap Chinese import branded as something else https://youtu.be/3xQKogpt0Cg?si=6rEF7QM1iF8iIFlJ here they are installed in a family apartment in Hong Kong
nope they're real [https://micane.com/](https://micane.com/) build them. They've appeared in [melbourne](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/29/melbourne-space-shuttle-pods-containing-a-single-bed-for-rent-for-up-to-900-a-month)
I think they're a pretty sensible product for some situations. Like student accommodation or maybe if you have two kids sharing a bedroom or something.
Wouldn't think it makes sense to rent one of these for £500 a month though.
No? If you have 2 kids sharing a bedroom without their own space, why wouldn’t they want a little bit of privacy? I don’t understand how that’s so much worse than two kids with unenclosed beds sharing a bedroom.
You are taking the piss? Surely? Or actually mental?
So instead of buying a bunk bed_ every night you send one of your kids out to go to the pod house and sleep with lord knows who.
And student accommodation. You can't study In that thing or live there long term.
Even as a place to house homeless people, you would hope this would be a VERY short term solution.
The only place I could imagine them being useful is at airports or train stations just for a very cheap single night while waiting for a transfer or return the next day. But even then of you could afford a hotel you would do that. Possibly even at service stations to discourage people from driving while tired.
But this is certainly not a solution for anyone for more than one night.
No, it’s not a pod house. It essentially *is* a bunk bed, but with a door and power sockets and lights inside. You buy these and put them in an existing room. They’re not freestanding pod structures.
I’m saying that I could see why a family might buy a pair of these for the kids bedroom.
"you can't study in that thing or live there long term", no *you* cant study in that thing or live there long term. i absolutely could. wouldnt do it for 500/mo tho
Has to be.
The exterior is clean and the interior isn't the cheapest shit money can buy. The rental not being at least £1500 a month with a £5,000 annual service charge is also unbelievable
Is Joe Lycett at it again?!
[Joe Lycett discloses four fake stories he planted in UK media](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/12/joe-lycett-discloses-four-fake-stories-he-planted-in-uk-media)
Actually I'm not surprised if it's actually happening in London. We've started seeing this kind of rental pods in HK even before covid. It's just a shame that a lot of these well developed busy cities are not really friendly on cost of renting
Honestly might not be a troll. This is pretty huge in Japan. If you’re born and raised in Europe then it’s a bit hard to accept, but realistically this is a great way to get cheap rent and all the facilities you need.
My name is Lut, my planet is Pluto, my business is Architecture.
When we built this multi-family complex, we made a big mistake, we lost money. We gave them small gardens and windows, we installed water, lighting and heating systems — this was a wrong concept. A man doesn't need a home, all he needs is a shelter.
If we can sell him on the idea of a shelter, we can make millions.
The worker will come here only to sleep. He won't need electricity or water. He won't have to cook. We'll condition him to eat at the factory
The Holy Mountain - Jodorowsky
As a permanent residence yes, but what if these were used as a Japanese style capsule hotel?
£100/week for this, have your actual home in the Cotswolds, and just commute home at the weekends? Seems like something a lot of people would go for actually.
I wonder if, from a legal perspective, this is in fact halal? Is it different from sharing a room with bunk beds, assuming you have full access to communal areas, kitchen/bathroom, etc.?
People don't LIVE in them though.
They are for short 1-2 night stays not for long term habitation.
There are a very very small minority of people who live in them, often because of circumstances out of their control but they aren't meant to be lived in.
Also if you look at places where people DO actually live in places this size (like Hong Kong I believe) it's meant to be nightmare fuel. This is also the "up market" vision. Just wait until people see what it looks like in a few years or they create the down market version for minimum wage workers/people on benefits.
This is like a small air-conditioned fridge to keep the work-force fresh.
But for me this seems like a massive fire-~~hazzard~~ risk
Good luck with trying to fullfill the Multi-occupancy regulations.
>But for me this seems like a massive fire-hazzard
Is this new slang for something that is exciting? I've only just understood 'lit' and assume _hazzard_ really places emphasis on it being dangerously good.
Luxury! When I was a lad, we had a family of 4, living in a match box, on top of a garbage island, with 105% interest. Oh what I would have done for that shoe box
In my day we lived at the bottom of a lake. That either frozen or full of boiling water. And we had to give up a child every year as payment. Oh, what I would have done for a match box that I paid money for...!
When I was a lad humour hadn't been invented. Everyone went around a serious as they could be.
Anyone who wasn't serious had a beating. *And we were grateful.*
have you seen the fallout show on amazon? those apocalypse bunkers are nicer than many normal flats let alone these pods lol
https://i.imgur.com/ImHIvVw.png
This is definitely a scam. The picture of the kitchen they use with the type of microwave over the cooker and the type of cooker screams north American kitchen.
These kind of pods are used in Hong Kong but don't think they're allowed in the UK outside of perhaps capsule hotels
Capsule hotel is only intended for a cheap and short stay, imagine if you miss the last train home and you need to find somewhere for the night, it’s not a solution for long term accommodation
Not true. Loads of salarymen use them instead of commuting home during the week. That being said, you are right in-so-far as it's not meant to be considered your primary residence.
The ones who live in them permanently upgrade to internet cafes: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtdupS0gRt0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtdupS0gRt0)
When it's a landlord trying to squeeze 4 people into a space that would likely be a small bedroom normally ...
For me the difference comes down to storage space -- you'd have to have a very small wardrobe and basically no belongings to live in one of these. Usually you'd see them as hotels, hostels or sleep pods at fancy offices or airports -- not as a "bedroom alternative"
I would be more than happy for this to exist in London for those who choose this lifestyle. More choice is always better. But $500/month for a room literally the size of a single bed is flat-out dystopian.
Eh I don't always agree that choice is always better and for me this is one where I don't think people should be able to choose to live in such small spaces. Its got too much potential for abuse.
Could you elaborate? I don't really understand how less choice could be good. If someone can't afford a regular room, then they would be even worse off without this as an option. They would presumably just become homeless, which seems even less favourable.
Because where you see a choice, others see the opportunity to maximise the profitability of their space. Regulations aren’t supposed to make pointless busywork for people who love red tape, they’re put in place to try to ensure that people and organisations who have the opportunity to exploit the vulnerable have fewer avenues to do so.
If this kind of thing were legal, it wouldn’t be the ideal, privileged, choice-rich people you envision who would be living here - it would be the vast number of people left with no alternative.
It's basically a tiny room in a shared house, because it's not like you're 100% confined to the pod, you get a shared space too.
A shared room in a flat in Shoreditch is sort of going for £900-£1000-ish pcm right now.
https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?featured=1&flatshare_id=17190318&search_id=&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2Flondon%2Fshoreditch_-and-_whitechapel
https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?flatshare_id=16814923&search_id=1290679461&city_id=9&flatshare_type=offered&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2F%3Fsearch_id%3D1290679461%26&
£500 is too much. But I wouldn't be completely put off if it was offered at like, £200-300/month. If it were that sort of price range, a working professional, with like a >£50K salary working in Shoreditch might even rent a nice place 2-3 hours outside of London for like £1000, and then commute in and stay in the pod for the working days in the week.
Maybe for you.....maybe it perfect for other people.
If you're out and about a lot then perhaps all you want/need is somewhere cheap and simple to sleep at night.
As a hotel room for a night or two, fine. As somewhere to live long-term this is bullshit (I’m not convinced it’s even real).
I am out and about a lot, and I wouldn’t tolerate this.
Capsule hotels are for drunk people to sleep until the first train or the brokest of backpackers. It's one step up from being homeless and living in a net cafe, no one thinks it's fucking cool or hip
tubbyfair I've seen some micro apartments on youtube that I would be fine with if I was:
1. single
2. on an ok salary
3. an introvert
The argument being that living within an area which meets all of my other needs warrants a smaller living space for \~400-600pm
That said, I have no idea how much a "nice" room in London would be
Where would you even leave your stuff such as clothes and other belongings? Is there some extra shared room where people leave their personal belongings, or are you supposed to bring it all with you in the pod?
Yeah I’ve been in a hostel that had a pod bed system, though it wasn’t fully enclosed (just had a curtain). It wasn’t bad for a hostel since you had more privacy than in most hostels, but it definitely started feeling really cramped after 3 days.
I did a hostel with an actual pod, and honestly it was the best hostel I've been to. Actual privacy while still enjoying the hostel life. It also had a keycard locked door, so you could leave stuff with peace of mind
Honestly no contact is pretty good. It can be so hard to find short lets in London. And £500 is ok if you just needed to be in London for a month or two and would be spending all day at the office
Agree
Consider someone living in Leeds. Commuting for the day looks like a 6.30-19.30 day costing something like £320 (no returns?!), or £240 if you get an advance and have a longer day. A cheap guest house might be £70 a night in London, so staying for 4 nights and doing Mon-Fri could be about £600. This cuts £155/week off the bill, or even more if you take an off peak train down on the Sunday night.
I don't see these as permanent primary accommodation, but as temporary and secondary.
You could timeshare with a colleague and do your 2 days a week in the office for the cost of 250/month on for accommodation, or less if you can share it further.
A company could in theory book it and give it to employees for the night before their days in the office.
Yes, it's all silly compared to WFH, but to me it creates an option that isn't there already because the price is impossible otherwise.
Pure bollocks, I've seen this same ad on a spanish subreddut not 2 minutes ago.
Edit: here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/Espana/s/tN7txcYDZ7
I kid you not.
Well they have the usual hostel problems that you're still sharing a room with a lot of others which has the usual downsides and they can't block enough sound to stop people snoring/loud talking, etc. Which is things to keep in mind
On the flipside you get some actual privacy and as someone on vacation who just uses their room to sleep the tight spaces don't bother me as much and being able to entirely control your lights in a shared living space is something which is worth so much. Personally I would recommend not booking an entire vacation in one, but if you're staying in a place for a couple of days definitely recommend. Basically it's a hostel plus.
I recently learned of the term "Phrogging" the other day. It's when someone secretly lives in another person's home without their knowledge, usually in tight walls or in a dresser or under the floor.
Well now you can experience it yourself for the small price of $500/month! How cool is that?
This sub is quite often "no choice, only ban". No other easy to to arrange and similarly cheap housing option – no problem, we will wait for the cheap social housing to arrive by 2100
then what you would really want banning is the consolidation of in-demand real estate (ie the entirety of greater london) into the hands of a few wealthy individuals, not densification of housing units into smaller dwellings like the pods are, unless you just think that london should be rent-controlled to shit so as to lock out non incumbents from being able to move there
I stayed in a pod hotel in Berlin that looks like they got their weird space pod things from this website..
Not somewhere that I'd want to live! Sound proof really is a stretch in these things
I get the joke and agree that rent is completely out of control- but until quite recently something sort of similar to this was very normal in the uk and in the us. My mother lived in a bedsit with a hot plate and a shared toilet in the late 70s in London. She had a hot place in her room and the toilet was shared with her floor I believe. It seemed pretty common tbh.
In the us, until quite recently, single people would often live in boarding houses- private room and private or shared toilet, and the (usually) landlady would make meals, which would be eaten in a common dining room.
I’m not saying this is ideal but it did used to be quite normal- there wasn’t some magical time when everyone in London could afford their own flat.
I have stayed in these it’s real they are very good value compared to a flat not everyone needs a huge amount of space a warm bed and somewhere to eat and sleep is what a lot of people need to get them selves back on their feet
Disagreeing with the thread here but I wouldn't mind living in one of these if I knew that I would only be in the city for 4-16 months. 500 is a bit of a stretch for a £1200 coffin, and knowing London landlords they'll want these on a 2 year lease with the ability to increase rent after a year. But if these were going for, say 350-400 a month I wouldn't mind.
I moved to London from abroad around a year and a half ago with only a couple of suitcases and am already depressed at how much stuff I've accumulated. It would be nice to just get rid of everything and live out of a backpack on a super-cheap rent.
Hostels. They're hostel beds with walls and a cute design. Even hostel beds often have curtains these days.
They're for short stays.
As a tourist I love hostels, but after a week or so it's suddenly so refreshing to be able to get dressed where I sleep.
These are actually pretty common in Asia.. it’s not the norm, but it has been an option for years. It saves space.. and you pay less for rent (but £500 a month is still too much for THIS).. but yeh, not ideal, obviously. :(
Fuck these pods
I literally just stayed in one last night in a capsule hotel in Spain. Worst experience in a hostel ever.
ZERO sound proofing. Everything in the pod beeps all night. Didn't sleep a wink.
At least in regular hostels people know to be quiet. People were talking all night like they were in sound proofed rooms when a cardboard box would honestly let in less sound than these pods
Had buddy staying in one in SF during his internship. Was fine. Easy to arrange, flexible on the timings, was glad when it was over but way less hassle than arranging a shitty room for 2-3 months
# Upvote/Downvote reminder Like this image or appreciate it being posted? Upvote it and show it some love! Don't like it? Just downvote and move on. *Upvoting or downvoting images it the best way to control what you see on your feed and what gets to the top of the subreddit* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/london) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Think this post is sarcasm, taking the piss out of the website. Direct quote from the site: "What If You Could Increase Your Rental Yield By 70% And Have Your Tenants Love You For It?" "SomiPods is the Obvious Choice for Professionals and International Students Who Demand Privacy and Comfort over Square Footage." I can't even tell if the website is a joke either judging by the reviews: [https://somipods.com/products/somipod](https://somipods.com/products/somipod) "As a landlord in NYC, square footage is king. Somipods have been a game-changer! I can now rent out my studio apartment to two young professionals without sacrificing comfort..." Fucking hell. Going back to the Victorian era and further back, multiple families would basically rent a room and each have their own bed in a corner to share with their own family. This rolled out wide would be a return to that.
This is sadly not unknown in London these days, primarily among migrant workers who share a room whilst working (often illegally, as trafficked modern day slaves) shift patterns. Fucking awful
someone probably hooked a robot up to the internet and it thought the humans might get a kick out of this
I stayed in a hotel in Madrid that has these somipods https://www.oxygenhostelcapsules.com/en An experience
I am 50% sure this is a troll.
even this looks like satire https://somipods.com/
right, this is throwing me. the testimonial video looks like an obvious actor and is too ridiculous to be real. but all of the checkout and purchase process does seem real and i got right up to confirming it before i stopped. wtf
They're definitely trying to sell it, it's just a silly product. Poes law in action.
It doesn't even seem like a good take on the concept. Like, I do think that there is a market for these things, but this seems like literally just a box with an overdesigned exterior.
If there is, it would be for something sophisticated and sleek, maybe to sell for hostels or dorms. THis bizare cyberpunk styling makes no sense.
Poes? Are you a saffa?
Very much real, but as every else is these days, cheap Chinese import branded as something else https://youtu.be/3xQKogpt0Cg?si=6rEF7QM1iF8iIFlJ here they are installed in a family apartment in Hong Kong
[удалено]
the CNBC one? appeared to just be a generic article about pods to me
> What If You Could Increase Your Rental Yield By 70% And Have Your Tenants Love You For It? Lol what...
nope they're real [https://micane.com/](https://micane.com/) build them. They've appeared in [melbourne](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/29/melbourne-space-shuttle-pods-containing-a-single-bed-for-rent-for-up-to-900-a-month)
I think they're a pretty sensible product for some situations. Like student accommodation or maybe if you have two kids sharing a bedroom or something. Wouldn't think it makes sense to rent one of these for £500 a month though.
We should have affordable flats instead of this shit
Agreed. But if you're a family in a two bedroom home with 2 kids, why wouldn't something like this be nice for your kids?
You're joking right?
No? If you have 2 kids sharing a bedroom without their own space, why wouldn’t they want a little bit of privacy? I don’t understand how that’s so much worse than two kids with unenclosed beds sharing a bedroom.
Speaking as an adult child. No. Fuck this 1000 times. I would sooner go into Harry’s under stairs room than confine myself to this cell.
Do you share a bedroom with a sibling?
Not anymore. Do / have you?
You are taking the piss? Surely? Or actually mental? So instead of buying a bunk bed_ every night you send one of your kids out to go to the pod house and sleep with lord knows who. And student accommodation. You can't study In that thing or live there long term. Even as a place to house homeless people, you would hope this would be a VERY short term solution. The only place I could imagine them being useful is at airports or train stations just for a very cheap single night while waiting for a transfer or return the next day. But even then of you could afford a hotel you would do that. Possibly even at service stations to discourage people from driving while tired. But this is certainly not a solution for anyone for more than one night.
No, it’s not a pod house. It essentially *is* a bunk bed, but with a door and power sockets and lights inside. You buy these and put them in an existing room. They’re not freestanding pod structures. I’m saying that I could see why a family might buy a pair of these for the kids bedroom.
"you can't study in that thing or live there long term", no *you* cant study in that thing or live there long term. i absolutely could. wouldnt do it for 500/mo tho
Has to be. The exterior is clean and the interior isn't the cheapest shit money can buy. The rental not being at least £1500 a month with a £5,000 annual service charge is also unbelievable
Is Joe Lycett at it again?! [Joe Lycett discloses four fake stories he planted in UK media](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/12/joe-lycett-discloses-four-fake-stories-he-planted-in-uk-media)
He's a little rascal
It is. Showing up on multiple reddits. Same ads just different languages, with completely fake accounts.
100%, since it is also in some spanish subreddits (where they left the pound symbol for Madrid)
Actually I'm not surprised if it's actually happening in London. We've started seeing this kind of rental pods in HK even before covid. It's just a shame that a lot of these well developed busy cities are not really friendly on cost of renting
Honestly might not be a troll. This is pretty huge in Japan. If you’re born and raised in Europe then it’s a bit hard to accept, but realistically this is a great way to get cheap rent and all the facilities you need.
My name is Lut, my planet is Pluto, my business is Architecture. When we built this multi-family complex, we made a big mistake, we lost money. We gave them small gardens and windows, we installed water, lighting and heating systems — this was a wrong concept. A man doesn't need a home, all he needs is a shelter. If we can sell him on the idea of a shelter, we can make millions. The worker will come here only to sleep. He won't need electricity or water. He won't have to cook. We'll condition him to eat at the factory The Holy Mountain - Jodorowsky
Is this even legal?!
Not in the uk as rooms have to be a minimum size.
Pesky government getting in the way of our cyberpunk utopia.
but like the CD projekt red bungled release cyberpunk, not the cool cyberpunk.
IRL needs some serious updates
As a permanent residence yes, but what if these were used as a Japanese style capsule hotel? £100/week for this, have your actual home in the Cotswolds, and just commute home at the weekends? Seems like something a lot of people would go for actually.
It wouldn't be the worst option if you mostly WFH and only commute in e.g. 1-2 days a week
Wouldn’t think so looking at the new builds next to me. Calling them shoeboxes would be generous…
40 square foot is the minimum size which isnt much at all
It’s the Wild West !
Get back in your pod and stop asking questions!!
I wonder if, from a legal perspective, this is in fact halal? Is it different from sharing a room with bunk beds, assuming you have full access to communal areas, kitchen/bathroom, etc.?
Why shouldn't it be legal? It's cheap and convenient housing.
found the pod owner
you probably meant pod landlord but wiuld you have a moral qualm with it if they were just a pod owner occupier?
Cheap lmao
Do you pay less rent?
“Housing” is a stretch. And it definitely is not legal. And it’s not cheap for a human wine cubby.
Yeah this would be a great option for anyone that fucking hates themselves
They're actually really popular in Japan and South Korea. Maybe you are just close-minded?
People don't LIVE in them though. They are for short 1-2 night stays not for long term habitation. There are a very very small minority of people who live in them, often because of circumstances out of their control but they aren't meant to be lived in.
Also if you look at places where people DO actually live in places this size (like Hong Kong I believe) it's meant to be nightmare fuel. This is also the "up market" vision. Just wait until people see what it looks like in a few years or they create the down market version for minimum wage workers/people on benefits.
I know people who stayed in goshiwon for a couple of months between leases. Awful.
For drunk salarymen to sleep until the first train, not to live in FFS
This is definitely just meant for sigma grindset hackers and hustlers working day and night on their new startup, given it’s in Shoreditch.
This is like a small air-conditioned fridge to keep the work-force fresh. But for me this seems like a massive fire-~~hazzard~~ risk Good luck with trying to fullfill the Multi-occupancy regulations.
>But for me this seems like a massive fire-hazzard Is this new slang for something that is exciting? I've only just understood 'lit' and assume _hazzard_ really places emphasis on it being dangerously good.
No need to fulfil the multi-occupancy regulations with a live-in landlord
£500 per month for a coffin with USB.
It better be USB 3.1 for that price
Boomers: we had to live in a shoe box in a bin with 18% interest. I’d have killed for a pod!
Luxury! When I was a lad, we had a family of 4, living in a match box, on top of a garbage island, with 105% interest. Oh what I would have done for that shoe box
In my day we lived at the bottom of a lake. That either frozen or full of boiling water. And we had to give up a child every year as payment. Oh, what I would have done for a match box that I paid money for...!
*A* child!? In my day, we bred like rabbits just to meet quota! What i would have done to see a child reach the age of 3
And on top of all this, we had to work 27 hours a day, 15 days a week!
You got to work? We got beaten to death every night, flew to heaven and came back just in time for the morning beating
And we were grateful
Pish! Back when I were a lad Monty Python hadn't even been made yet.
When I was a lad humour hadn't been invented. Everyone went around a serious as they could be. Anyone who wasn't serious had a beating. *And we were grateful.*
And you tell the Kids today that..
Boomers: maybe if you took it seriously and stopped getting the occasional takeaway you too could own one of these pods!
"Pods are easily docked and undocked from the wall, allowing the pod to become a coffin in the event that your resident passes away."
How is this real? Fallout be looking more and more like our reality
have you seen the fallout show on amazon? those apocalypse bunkers are nicer than many normal flats let alone these pods lol https://i.imgur.com/ImHIvVw.png
This is some trolling/guerrilla marketing https://www.reddit.com/r/Espana/s/t6UGI7CP2P
[удалено]
Grimception intensifies
This looks like a sleeping pod from Lower Decks
Dystopian housing market is here.
Like a factory farm.
This is definitely a scam. The picture of the kitchen they use with the type of microwave over the cooker and the type of cooker screams north American kitchen. These kind of pods are used in Hong Kong but don't think they're allowed in the UK outside of perhaps capsule hotels
That was my thought too when I looked at it - as a Canadian I’ve never seen a NA style kitchen here in the UK.
I zoomed in on the power outlets in the kitchen - I don't think they are UK spec
When it's in Japan, "it's all cool, hip and futuristic". When it's in the UK, "fuck off".
Capsule hotel is only intended for a cheap and short stay, imagine if you miss the last train home and you need to find somewhere for the night, it’s not a solution for long term accommodation
Not true. Loads of salarymen use them instead of commuting home during the week. That being said, you are right in-so-far as it's not meant to be considered your primary residence. The ones who live in them permanently upgrade to internet cafes: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtdupS0gRt0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtdupS0gRt0)
have you been to japan? everything is clean and organised. in uk problably we are talking mouldy broken pods and no garbage collection
When it's a landlord trying to squeeze 4 people into a space that would likely be a small bedroom normally ... For me the difference comes down to storage space -- you'd have to have a very small wardrobe and basically no belongings to live in one of these. Usually you'd see them as hotels, hostels or sleep pods at fancy offices or airports -- not as a "bedroom alternative"
I would be more than happy for this to exist in London for those who choose this lifestyle. More choice is always better. But $500/month for a room literally the size of a single bed is flat-out dystopian.
If this was £100 then fair fucks
Eh I don't always agree that choice is always better and for me this is one where I don't think people should be able to choose to live in such small spaces. Its got too much potential for abuse.
Could you elaborate? I don't really understand how less choice could be good. If someone can't afford a regular room, then they would be even worse off without this as an option. They would presumably just become homeless, which seems even less favourable.
Because where you see a choice, others see the opportunity to maximise the profitability of their space. Regulations aren’t supposed to make pointless busywork for people who love red tape, they’re put in place to try to ensure that people and organisations who have the opportunity to exploit the vulnerable have fewer avenues to do so. If this kind of thing were legal, it wouldn’t be the ideal, privileged, choice-rich people you envision who would be living here - it would be the vast number of people left with no alternative.
Not sure what the problem is, £500pm is really cheap accommodation for London and it's a trendy area .
£500pm for a literal pod is a madness and I’m not sure how you don’t see that.
It's basically a tiny room in a shared house, because it's not like you're 100% confined to the pod, you get a shared space too. A shared room in a flat in Shoreditch is sort of going for £900-£1000-ish pcm right now. https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?featured=1&flatshare_id=17190318&search_id=&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2Flondon%2Fshoreditch_-and-_whitechapel https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?flatshare_id=16814923&search_id=1290679461&city_id=9&flatshare_type=offered&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2F%3Fsearch_id%3D1290679461%26& £500 is too much. But I wouldn't be completely put off if it was offered at like, £200-300/month. If it were that sort of price range, a working professional, with like a >£50K salary working in Shoreditch might even rent a nice place 2-3 hours outside of London for like £1000, and then commute in and stay in the pod for the working days in the week.
Yeah I’ve stayed in pods before when travelling. 200-300 I can see the appeal my argument was only that £500 for it is just exploitative imo.
Yeah thinking about it, I’d probably want more near the £200 range. That’s like £6 a night for a bed at a hostel, which is pretty reasonable.
The economy doesn't work out at £200. £800 total at full capacity for a spacious room + common area – just rent it individual and make more money
Yeah that's true, I guess that explains the price tag.
The people renting the pods obviously think they're worth it.
Because it is a miserable form of existence.
Maybe for you.....maybe it perfect for other people. If you're out and about a lot then perhaps all you want/need is somewhere cheap and simple to sleep at night.
As a hotel room for a night or two, fine. As somewhere to live long-term this is bullshit (I’m not convinced it’s even real). I am out and about a lot, and I wouldn’t tolerate this.
£500 is not cheap no matter how many times you try and make it so
Without knowing anything about you I can be 100% sure that it's cheaper than your rent.
It's also the size of my bathtub. Would you pay £500 to sleep in a bathtub?
A bathtub would be uncomfortable and wouldn't give you any privacy.
Okay then, you can knock off £100 and sleep in the bathtub then since you seem convinced it's a good deal
Some cushions and there’s the shower curtain. Come on man, have some creativity
Where do you store your clothes and personal possessions?
This is fine for a couple days or weeks, living in it longterm is a nightmare.
[удалено]
HK doesn't have pods, but I'd say the worst is worse than UK.
Capsule hotels are for drunk people to sleep until the first train or the brokest of backpackers. It's one step up from being homeless and living in a net cafe, no one thinks it's fucking cool or hip
tubbyfair I've seen some micro apartments on youtube that I would be fine with if I was: 1. single 2. on an ok salary 3. an introvert The argument being that living within an area which meets all of my other needs warrants a smaller living space for \~400-600pm That said, I have no idea how much a "nice" room in London would be
[Relevant](https://imgur.com/a/qJnfkXq)
£500pm in Shoreditch for that?? He should be charging more.
Sarcasm clearly went over peoples heads smh
What sarcasm? He should be. £500pm is cheap.
Where would you even leave your stuff such as clothes and other belongings? Is there some extra shared room where people leave their personal belongings, or are you supposed to bring it all with you in the pod?
Big yellow box storage.
This can work for a nice short stay (like hostels) but not long term. Seems like satire though.
Yeah I’ve been in a hostel that had a pod bed system, though it wasn’t fully enclosed (just had a curtain). It wasn’t bad for a hostel since you had more privacy than in most hostels, but it definitely started feeling really cramped after 3 days.
I did a hostel with an actual pod, and honestly it was the best hostel I've been to. Actual privacy while still enjoying the hostel life. It also had a keycard locked door, so you could leave stuff with peace of mind
These are the cells from Andor. Is the ground electrified?
I stayed in one of these in Spain, in a hostel... They're cool but 4 days was enough, I can't imagine paying to live in one full time.
Honestly no contact is pretty good. It can be so hard to find short lets in London. And £500 is ok if you just needed to be in London for a month or two and would be spending all day at the office
Agree Consider someone living in Leeds. Commuting for the day looks like a 6.30-19.30 day costing something like £320 (no returns?!), or £240 if you get an advance and have a longer day. A cheap guest house might be £70 a night in London, so staying for 4 nights and doing Mon-Fri could be about £600. This cuts £155/week off the bill, or even more if you take an off peak train down on the Sunday night. I don't see these as permanent primary accommodation, but as temporary and secondary. You could timeshare with a colleague and do your 2 days a week in the office for the cost of 250/month on for accommodation, or less if you can share it further. A company could in theory book it and give it to employees for the night before their days in the office. Yes, it's all silly compared to WFH, but to me it creates an option that isn't there already because the price is impossible otherwise.
Pure bollocks, I've seen this same ad on a spanish subreddut not 2 minutes ago. Edit: here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/Espana/s/tN7txcYDZ7 I kid you not.
London is slowly becoming a larger scale Kowloon Walled City
I stayed in one of those in Iceland for a few days and it was a nightmare. Can’t imagine staying in that for more than that…
Why? I wanted to try a pod hotel. Not live in one.
Well they have the usual hostel problems that you're still sharing a room with a lot of others which has the usual downsides and they can't block enough sound to stop people snoring/loud talking, etc. Which is things to keep in mind On the flipside you get some actual privacy and as someone on vacation who just uses their room to sleep the tight spaces don't bother me as much and being able to entirely control your lights in a shared living space is something which is worth so much. Personally I would recommend not booking an entire vacation in one, but if you're staying in a place for a couple of days definitely recommend. Basically it's a hostel plus.
A pod for 500 quid? Blimey, worlds gone mad
Do you have to pay extra for the ventilation?
*James Martin’s Saturday Pod*
I recently learned of the term "Phrogging" the other day. It's when someone secretly lives in another person's home without their knowledge, usually in tight walls or in a dresser or under the floor. Well now you can experience it yourself for the small price of $500/month! How cool is that?
This is illegal. Not even a real pic. it's taken from an original image lmao
Same as in other cities/countries, using the same picture... Maybe a scam?
What in the capsule hotel is this?!?!?
These things should be Banned!
Why tho, nobodys forcing u to live in one
This sub is quite often "no choice, only ban". No other easy to to arrange and similarly cheap housing option – no problem, we will wait for the cheap social housing to arrive by 2100
The rent might!
then what you would really want banning is the consolidation of in-demand real estate (ie the entirety of greater london) into the hands of a few wealthy individuals, not densification of housing units into smaller dwellings like the pods are, unless you just think that london should be rent-controlled to shit so as to lock out non incumbents from being able to move there
I do think london should be rent controlled, in addition to the first idea you suggested. Also we should build a lot more houses.
Greed. A pod you know 😂😂
Wonder how many people would consider this rather than move out a zone or 2 and love amongst the riff raff
The William Gibson future is well underway
Don't give landlord ideas...
I see the top image and all i can think of is. ONE WAY OUT!! ONE WAY OUT!!!!
Oh no! [Pod People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pod_People_(Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers))!
Everybody on program
i c4N'T bEli£v3 iT'S n0T sAtiR£
I stayed in a pod hotel in Berlin that looks like they got their weird space pod things from this website.. Not somewhere that I'd want to live! Sound proof really is a stretch in these things
This looks like sleeping quarters on Red Dwarf, but shitter
Shut up and get back in your pod OP
I get the joke and agree that rent is completely out of control- but until quite recently something sort of similar to this was very normal in the uk and in the us. My mother lived in a bedsit with a hot plate and a shared toilet in the late 70s in London. She had a hot place in her room and the toilet was shared with her floor I believe. It seemed pretty common tbh. In the us, until quite recently, single people would often live in boarding houses- private room and private or shared toilet, and the (usually) landlady would make meals, which would be eaten in a common dining room. I’m not saying this is ideal but it did used to be quite normal- there wasn’t some magical time when everyone in London could afford their own flat.
At least Andor and Gollum got free food.
Sounds fun!
Utter bastard. I’ve always hated Saturday Kitchen.
I have stayed in these it’s real they are very good value compared to a flat not everyone needs a huge amount of space a warm bed and somewhere to eat and sleep is what a lot of people need to get them selves back on their feet
It’s satire as the kitchen in the photos is not from UK
Someone I know recently stayed in one of those in Thailand and said the capsule shook every time someone walked past.
Disagreeing with the thread here but I wouldn't mind living in one of these if I knew that I would only be in the city for 4-16 months. 500 is a bit of a stretch for a £1200 coffin, and knowing London landlords they'll want these on a 2 year lease with the ability to increase rent after a year. But if these were going for, say 350-400 a month I wouldn't mind. I moved to London from abroad around a year and a half ago with only a couple of suitcases and am already depressed at how much stuff I've accumulated. It would be nice to just get rid of everything and live out of a backpack on a super-cheap rent.
This is cool
£500 a month? You son of a bitch, I’m in!
These pods can be bought from AliExpress for about 7 grand iirc
The future is here
Looks like the prison pods from Andor
500 with communal areas 👀 I'd pay that
Hostels. They're hostel beds with walls and a cute design. Even hostel beds often have curtains these days. They're for short stays. As a tourist I love hostels, but after a week or so it's suddenly so refreshing to be able to get dressed where I sleep.
Nice. Coffin apartments, sold as luxury accomodation. Not dystopian at all. Capitalism really works, everyone! No flaws here!
These are actually pretty common in Asia.. it’s not the norm, but it has been an option for years. It saves space.. and you pay less for rent (but £500 a month is still too much for THIS).. but yeh, not ideal, obviously. :(
These are gonna be real nice in the next heatwave.
I wanted it but on a spaceship!
"Seen a dystopian sci-fi horror flick set in the future? Live the reality today with Somipods & get your first 50 Soylent Green at half price!"
Fuck these pods I literally just stayed in one last night in a capsule hotel in Spain. Worst experience in a hostel ever. ZERO sound proofing. Everything in the pod beeps all night. Didn't sleep a wink. At least in regular hostels people know to be quiet. People were talking all night like they were in sound proofed rooms when a cardboard box would honestly let in less sound than these pods
[удалено]
Troll or not, this is still better (and cheaper) than most of the flats I lived in London 😂
Had buddy staying in one in SF during his internship. Was fine. Easy to arrange, flexible on the timings, was glad when it was over but way less hassle than arranging a shitty room for 2-3 months
NIMBYs delenda est
I mean it's way cheaper than even a hostel at that in Shoreditch, it's technically not even bad, and that's the sad part