Catching a Plane? You Can Catch a Nap Too : Travel: Firm is test-marketing small rooms for those who want to rest while passing through Minneapolis. Response has been good, officials say, and the idea may spread.

The business traveler in search of a catnap or a corner for catch-up work may soon be able to rent privacy and quiet by the hour at busy airports.

A Florida company, which since August, 1992, has been testing free-standing private rooms at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, says the idea has proven a winner and is on the verge of expansion.

“We are talking to a number of other airports,” said Sheryl Andrews, vice president for operations at Ziosk Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla.

“We’re very happy with the results. The customer response has been excellent. We’re very excited about it and we have quite a bit of repeat usage,” she added.

The “Ziosks” being tested in the Minneapolis airport--eight of them scattered throughout the terminals--are free-standing private rooms, each equipped with a sofa, work table, credit card-swipe telephone, fax machine, television and clock radio.

Seven of the rooms are 7-by-9 feet in size. The eighth is smaller and has a recliner chair but no sofa.

To gain access, the traveler picks up a phone outside the unit. An 800 number is automatically dialed, putting the customer in touch with an operator who takes down the name, address and credit card number as well as the length of time for which the unit is to be reserved.

The user then gets a four-digit code that allows entry and re-entry through the rental period. The cost: $12.95 for the first hour, $6.98 for additional hours.

So far, about 2,900 people have used the units at the test site, Andrews said, with an average stay of about 90 minutes. Thursday seems to be the busiest day of the week, she said, though usage patterns vary by month and location.

She said one customer in Minneapolis uses a unit there “almost weekly,” apparently arriving in the early morning on a “red-eye” flight from the West Coast and getting in a nap before heading out on business.

The man who thought up the concept is Jeff Fortune, who, along with his wife, operates three resorts in the St. Petersburg area. They formed Ziosk Inc. to market the rooms.

Andrews said Fortune devised the concept several years ago, but technology made it feasible only recently.

“They are all operated remotely,” she said. “The only on-site personnel are cleaning contractors whom we beep when the renter enters the room, telling them the room number and the time when they’re due to leave so they can enter and clean it,” she said.

Comments from users have been favorable, she said, with many asking what other airports will have the rooms.

While none of the test locations has running water, the company has a design for a room that will have a shower and toilet.

Andrews said the company is the only one testing such a system in the United States. A similar concept has been in use at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris, but that involves a number of units consolidated in one walled-off location, she said.

“What we have basically is a private space which can be used either as an office away from the office or a private place to take a nap, for both business and leisure travelers,” she added.

Andrews said the company has not decided yet whether to expand to other locations by franchise or by operating the rooms on its own.