Sleep and Shower by the Minute : Mini-Hotel Readied at L.A. Airport

Weary travelers at Los Angeles International Airport who want more than just a hot towel and a mint between flights will soon have a novel way to freshen up--they can rent hotel rooms at the airport by the minute.

The rooms, measuring 6 feet by 15 feet, are in the Tom Bradley International Terminal and should be ready by late August, said Norman Panish, president of Skytel Inc., the company building the $500,000 mini-hotel.

Each of the 13 rooms will have a private bath with shower, telephone with computer jack, color television, radio, pull-down writing table and fold-out single bed. House rules include no guests and no double occupancy--even for a husband and wife.

“This is a clean operation, and one of our primary concerns is that these rooms aren’t used for sexual encounters,” Panish said. “We can’t ask for marriage certificates, so a husband and wife will just have to take separate rooms.”

Panish, a retired pharmacist who is now in real estate, said his original idea was to provide passengers with cots and a shared shower area. “That was too institutional--the American traveler wants more privacy and better amenities,” he said.

“Our customers will be able to do business by phone, take a shower and sleep in complete privacy without ever leaving the airport,” he said. “We’ll have everything that a deluxe hotel has, except for a restaurant and a pool.”

Skytel customers will be charged $5.50 for the first 20 minutes from the time they enter their rooms and 25 cents for each additional minute. Longer stays will be encouraged--an hour in the mini-hotel will cost $15.50, but customers staying more than an hour will receive 20% off. A two-hour stay will cost about $25--still considerably less than the $50-a-day rate (noon to six p.m.) charged by nearby hotels such as the Marriot and Sheraton.

Requests for wake-up calls will be entered into a computer at the front desk to keep passengers from sleeping through their next flight.

Reservations will not be accepted due to the small number of rooms and the rapid turnover expected, Panish said. Travelers may call to check on room availability, however.

Airport officials said they solicited bids for a sleep and shower facility about two years ago after travelers requested the service.

“This is designed for the international traveler between, say, Australia and London, who has a layover in Los Angeles,” said Clifton Moore, general manager of the Department of Airports. “Many people hesitate to leave the airport because they’re afraid they’ll miss their flight.”

Moore said that airports in Copenhagen and Amsterdam provide such service, but a similar facility at Washington National Airport failed to gain popularity and closed. That was because the airport is used primarily by domestic and not international passengers, he said.

Concepts similar to the honeycomb stack of “body tubes” used at Japanese airports, in which travelers can only lie down, were also considered, said LAX spokesman Lee Nichols. But they were rejected, he said, as being “a little too claustrophobic.”