If you’ve been traveling a lot lately, you may have noticed a recent airport trend where you can grab Zzz’s in airport napping pods.
Checking in to an airport hotel is one way to catch some zzz’s in between flights. But, this method has been around for decades. Check out this tripchi blog where we discuss the opening, for example, of the latest DEN Airport hotel. Other airports that feature airport hotels include DXB and Changi – airports outside of the US have actually been the most on the forefront when it comes to airport napping trends.
And the latest trend is airport napping pods, debuted by Abu Dhabi airport. GoSleep pods is the name of the company that developed the product being installed in the airport. It is the same company that claims an airport’s first chairs that convert into private, flat beds. Abu Dhabi Airport (AUH) has installed ten (10) airport napping pods in Terminal 3 and in the Al Dhabi Lounge in Terminal 1 (learn more from the AUH website here). 35 more are expected later this year.
You are able to make reservations in advance, or on the spot (subject to availability). The pricing is very obscure on both the AUH websites as well the manufacturer’s site. Here’s the best we could do to deduce the airport napping pod pricing:
- AED 50/hour for 1st hour
- AED 25/hour for 2-6 hours
- AED 30/hour 6+ hours overnight
If anyone else has first-hand experience with these airport napping pods and can let us know more concretely about the pricing, we will post it here.
There’s also a special promotion going on now. if you check-in after 10:00, and Check-Out before 20:00, the prices goes down further:
| 2 Hours | AED 75.00 | US$ 22.00 | |
| 4 Hours | AED 125.00 | US$ 36.00 | |
| 6 Hours | AED 175.00 | US$ 50.00 | Includes free rental pillow |
| 8 Hours | AED 225.00 | US$ 64.00 | Includes free blanket, and free rental pillow |
| Additional Hour | AED 25.00 | US$ 7.00 | or part thereof |
But are these airport napping pods an airport first? No. In fact they’ve been around more than about a year at other international airports (conceptually at least). Several different companies and products (SnoozeCube, SleepBox and NapCab) have been responsible for the majority of the form factors at these international airports:
- Amsterdam: Concourse D
- Beijing: Terminal 3 offers sleep pods for $47/hour
- Belo Horzonte: Coming soon!
- Dubai: Concourses A and B (within the Mahraba lounge) and Concourse C. Note, tripchi covers DXB in the tripchi airport app here.
- Helsinki: Gates 31, $7/hour
- Moscow: offers one sleep box, with more on the way
- Munich: Terminal 2 boasts six (6) nap pods available around $15/hour
- New Delhi: Terminal 3 offers for $10/hour Sam’s Snooze at My Space service
- Tallinn: Gate 9, Free
- Tokyo Haneda: capsules/micro-hotels that are actually a little larger than pods and allow a traveler to stand-up.
For more information about airport napping pods in the Abu Dhabi Airport, check out the AUG website here.