City council approves pilot project for pod hotels in Vancouver

Vancouver city council has voted to move ahead with a pilot project exploring pod hotels in the city. 

Couns. Sarah Kirby-Yung and Lisa Dominato brought forward a motion calling on the city to find ways to turn vacant office space into pod hotels, which passed unanimously Wednesday.

On Friday, Kirby-Yung told CityNews that pod hotels don’t offer full rooms, but instead provide sleeping pods for a much lower cost than traditional hotels.

“You get a great bed for the night. You have access to shared amenities, but individual use for showers, water closets, etc. You still have services like the restaurant, but it provides a much more affordable option than we have in Vancouver today.”

Apart from affordability, she says the city would also benefit from being able to make use of empty space in the downtown core.

“We have a higher commercial office vacancy rate than Vancouver has experienced in a long time. Hitting a high of 14 per cent — where it used to be about two per cent,” said Kirby-Yung.

One tourism and hospitality professional called into the Council meeting to share her support for the motion, saying it will “stimulate entrepreneurship” in Vancouver.

The city has not yet set a timeline for the pilot project.