Dutch hotel will accommodate guests in modular ‘cabins’

Modular hotels have graced our virtual pages on numerous occasions already, but lately we came upon one that’s a little different. For just EUR 20 per night, Amsterdam’s CityHub hotel will offer self-contained sleep cabins and an active online community aimed at “shoppers, culture geeks and socializers.” Instead of standard hotel rooms, the CityHub hotel will be filled with modular sleep cabins that each offer a two-person bed, a shelf for a suitcase, lighting, windows and a locking door, according to a report on HOPE Entrepreneurship’s Get Started website. Bathrooms will reportedly be shared, and most services — including catering, cleaning and maintenance — will be outsourced to minimize costs. Rates, accordingly, will be among the lowest in Amsterdam’s city center at just EUR 20 per night. An interactive online community, meanwhile, will provide a place for guests to connect and share their experiences. CityHub’s Amsterdam hotel is expected to open its doors in late 2011. CityHub reminds us in many ways of DeveloperTown’s plans to use its wood-frame modular “house” offices to convert a local warehouse into a startup incubator. Together with all the other modular structures we’ve seen in the works, it’s further evidence that future buildings will increasingly be put together on a “mix and match” basis. Developers, hoteliers and others: Time to start thinking in self-contained units.