In Airports, Tough Luck Calls for Creative Sleeping Solutions

Travel Blog  •  Elyse Franko  •  07.15.08 | 2:13 PM ET

As airlines give out fewer hotel vouchers, more passengers are forced to spend the night in the airport when their flights are delayed or canceled. To help travelers remain fully functional even after spending the night on the floor, business traveler Frank Giotto has invented the Mini Motel, a lightweight, single-person tent that comes fully equipped with an air mattress, pillow, bed sheet and alarm clock, among other things.

Giotto told the New York Times that a potential outcrop of Mini Motels on airport floors may give airlines a wake-up call. “People sleeping in chairs don’t seem to bother them,” he said. “We could be forcing the airports to come up with a solution to respond to the tremendous need.” 

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Tags: Air Travel, Hotels, Travel Tips, News and Briefs

Elyse Franko is a Long Island native, a graduate of the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., and a former World Hum intern. During her time at university, she wrote and edited for several campus publications and fostered her love for traveling by spending time abroad in Istanbul, Turkey, and Berlin, Germany. She currently works as a teaching assistant in Vienna, Austria.


4 Comments for In Airports, Tough Luck Calls for Creative Sleeping Solutions

Dave 07.15.08 | 7:38 PM ET

About time airports see that its not right to even make people that uncomfortable.  When people are in the airport, it is their responsibility to take care of their customers.

Ling 07.16.08 | 3:53 AM ET

Or maybe they could work a bit harder on how to make sure flights are not delayed or cancelled…

Eva 07.16.08 | 9:39 AM ET

Of course, I’d have to find room for it by checking some luggage, which the airline would them charge me for… So in a roundabout kind of way they’d actually be making a profit from me sleeping on the airport floor.

Sad times.

Dave 07.17.08 | 1:25 PM ET

Yeah, Eva is right, they probably are getting bonuses for charging for that.  With all the chaos in the airports, I actually bet the know exactly what they are doing.

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