Waiting for your flight may just have become more bareable

There is nothing easy about trying to grab a few hours’ sleep between connecting flights on those uncomfortable airport chairs, where plastic armrests and wafer thin foam pads hinder any chance of comfort. Combined with the drone of security and boarding announcement, excited children and stressed parents (not to mention the sounds and smells coming from the person next to you) it’s usually a long, trying and uncomfortable wait before you are able to board your flight for yet more insufficient rest.
While some airport terminals do have connecting hotels where you can gather a few hours of contented rest (probably the only time most of us would consider paying for a hotel by the hour), the rates are usually too steep for most to consider this an option.

An affordable solution is on the horizon however and may be coming to an airport (or even train or bus station) near you.

The Sleep Box is a budget friendly, compact hotel room featuring a modest 4sq meters of space, with single bed and a lockable door so weary travelers are able to grab a little rest in peace and security.

There are no en suite facilities and with just a plug needed to connect the rooms’ electricity, units are entirely mobile (think small garden shed with a bed inside) and can be installed in any space, without the need for extensive renovations or remodeling, making this new innovation not only practical but very affordable.

They are gradually being seen in hotels, hostels and even offices (for overworked employees) around Europe with plans to introduce these to the USA in 2012.

Prices range depending on location but are typically around $50 per night or $15 an hour for those in airport terminals.

Photo Credit: SleepBox

Hotel Opera in Paris, France

Travelling close to the holiday season can often put a strain on your budget, but the Concorde Hotels and Resort group is offering the chance to make your money go further.

Stay in any Concorde Hotel in Europe between now and March 31st and your Euros will go further with the Night Bonus Offer; guest will receive a daily voucher of €30 or €50 which can be put to use in the hotel’s restaurant or bars.

Plus, if you’re travelling in a group you can also combine the offer with the Friends and Family package: when you book two or more rooms you receive a complimentary breakfast and a 50% discount on the second room.

The Concorde Group have hotels in nine countries and 20 cities around the world including: Prague, Boston, Tokyo, Geneva, Barcelona, Cairo, and Berlin. Concorde hotels can also be found in eight French cities (Cannes, Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Nimes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, and Paris). 

All the hotels offer a luxurious stay with modern rooms and top class facilities, traditional and international cuisine is also available in any of the hotels highly rated restaurants.

For more information or to book call reservations at
1-800-888-4747 or visit the  Concorde Hotels website.

Photo Credit: Concorde Hotels and Resorts

Interior and exterior view of the rooms

If you’re looking for an original place to stay, want to save some money or perhaps you just appreciate the minimalist approach to accommodation, how about bedding down in a drainage pipe? With all the amenities of course! Situated in a small campsite next to the Danube River in Ottensheim, Austria, art school graduate Andreas Strauss has created a series of basic rooms, made from (thankfully new) concrete drainage pipes.
While the rooms are basic, these concrete tubes offer all the conveniences of a budget hotel room: a double bed with storage, power and 24 hour check in (via a key pad safety code sent by email). Bathrooms and cold showers are available just in front of the rooms, which (keeping in the same style) have also been made out of concrete tubes.  While there is no onsite restaurant, there is a small café just a few hundred meters from the rooms, in addition to many restaurants available in the town centre.
Rooms are rented on an honesty system, with visitors paying what they wish. The result is a not only a bargain priced, simple lodging, but also one with a low environmental impact. 
Plans are already underway to create more, similar lodgings across the country; an idea that could spread around the world. 

DasPark Hotel
Donaulände 21
4100 Ottensheim, Austria 

Related Posts: 

Five Favourites in Vienna, Austria 

Do it Yourself Sound of Music Tour in Saltzburg, Austria 

Innsbruck,  Autsria 

Photo Credit: DasPark Hotel

From Anne-Sophie Redisch of Sophie’s World

Whenever I’m in Vienna, I try to stay at Pension Nossek, one of my favourite B&Bs anywhere. On elegant pedestrianised Graben Street, just metres away from Stephansplatz and the Imperial Palaces at Hofburg, it’s in the heart of the Austrian capital. You would be hard pressed to find a more central location in Vienna.

At this family-run pension, it’s easy to feel transported back in time – from 2010 to 1910, perhaps? Or even as far back as 1781. That’s when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived in this building, walked the hallways, slept, worked, lived, loved. From September 1781 to July 1782, Graben Street 17 was his home. It gives me a great thrill to open the heavy wooden door with my own key (which you must after 9 pm) and walk up the narrow, winding stairway, knowing that he must have done the same, almost 230 years ago.

Back in the present, Pension Nossek offers several types of rooms, from simple single rooms with a shower (but with toilets in the hallway) for EUR 62, to double ensuite rooms for EUR 115. There’s also a suite for EUR 150. The bright, airy rooms are high-ceilinged and the long hallways have wooden floors and colourful Persian carpets. All rooms have TVs and wifi. Breakfast (included in the price) is continental – and ample, with the delicious, hard-crusted rolls known as semmeln, jams, meats and cheeses, coffee, tea and hot chocolate.

Pension Nossek does not accept credit cards. However, there are plenty of ATMs just out the door.

For other hotels in the centre of Vienna, have a look at this post.

Pension Nossek
Graben 17
1010 WIEN – Austria
tel + 43 (0) 1 533 70 41 – 0 
reservations@pension-nossek.at

Photos courtesy of Anne-Sophie Redisch