Pronounced ‘do-shi,’ the °C Sauna + Sleep Ebisu capsule hotel in Tokyo might be light on sleeping space, but it’s heavy on steam, offering intimate enclosed sauna rooms shared with other guests or single sauna stalls with customized temperatures. Inspired by Finnish sauna culture – where access to these sweat-inducing facilities is considered a necessity rather than a luxury – the hotel literally allows you to immerse yourself in the relaxing ritual.

The facility is open 24 hours a day, and there are 162 capsules total (102 for men and 60 for women, with separate saunas.) You don’t even have to stay overnight if you don’t want to – the hotel charges by the hour for both the sauna and the sleeping pods, with a full stay costing just ¥4,500 (about $45.) Once checked in, you head to the sauna and choose your preferred temperature: 20º, 25º or 30º Celsius.

Would you stay at a hotel like this just for the sauna experience, or choose it over a different capsule hotel because of the amenities? It seems like it would be easy to overdo it; 20 minutes at a time is usually considered a reasonable amount of time for most people. But you could always let off some steam, take a cool shower, hang out in your capsule and repeat.

The °C Sauna + Sleep hotel has been open for about a month, and another location will open in the Gotanda area of Tokyo sometime in early 2018.

If you love the sense of community at multi-day outdoor music festivals like Glastonbury, Coachella and Bonnaroo but hate the mud, dust, noise and filthy porta-potties, this hostel was designed just for you. Cao Pu Studio designed ‘Together Hostel’ as an indoor camping experience, with guests staying in translucent individual ‘tents’ under a common roof. The experience emphasizes socializing, with lots of shared interactive spaces, but provides a tad more privacy than the average hostel bunk room.

The tents are organized in groups of four or five, making the hostel ideal for small groups traveling together, or for travelers prioritizing making new connections with strangers. Each tent is equipped with power sockets, extension cords and reading lights. Each of the timber-framed structures is finished in frosted polycarbonate, which doesn’t offer total privacy, but at least gives occupants a sense of their own personal space within the larger hostel without shutting them off altogether. If you’re backpacking, you can even roll out your sleeping pad in the theater area at night instead of sleeping in a ‘tent’ for a lower rate.

There’s a food court with lots of seating, a shop, a bar, a small theater space, a kitchen, offices and plenty of private showers and restrooms in addition to the tents, which come in single or double sizes. Modular tables in the central hall fit together like puzzle pieces, creating larger or smaller surfaces depending on whether you want to sit with a big group or dine alone.

The concept capitalizes on growing trends (voluntary or not) toward living in smaller spaces and in closer quarters with others rather than spreading out in suburban-style homes. People who travel on the cheap are accustomed to giving up space and privacy in exchange for a good deal, and this design makes the experience feel cleaner and more intentional. Would you stay at the ‘Together Hostel?’

In Japan, the rooms aren’t much larger than coffins – tiny stacked pods with beds, a television, a radio and little else. But one company is seeking to take that ‘capsule hotel’ concept and make it more livable. Lookotels plans to roll out prefab modular hotels in Spain that are quick to construct and cheap to maintain, with rooms around 100 square feet.

Each energy-efficient 100-room hotel will be built (offsite) and assembled within six months, offering low-cost travel lodging that emphasizes modernity and convenience with self check-in and -out kiosks. No shared bathrooms here – the diminutive sleeping quarters include their own private bathrooms as well as a sofa bed, television, desk, chair and television. A 24-hour service line allows a small staff to attend to guests’ needs.

The capsule hotel movement started in the 1970s with Japan’s famed Nakagin Capsule Tower, which was scheduled to be demolished until its architect Kisho Kurokawa realized that his design could allow the modules to be ‘unplugged’ and replaced. While many such pod hotels are now more often used as low-cost homes for low-paid urban workers or the jobless, others are getting modern makeovers. The recently opened 9h Hotel in Kyoto provides just enough space to sleep for $50 a night.

Lookotels has secured financing to build 10 hotels over the next 5 years throughout Europe, and is seeking partners in the U.S.