 friends and welcome to StartItUp. Today we have got a fantastic, brilliant business opportunity for you which is really as fresh as it comes. It is called the POD Hotels or the Capsule Hotels. Now what is happening today is that there is a solo traveller who is always looking at options for affordable lodging opportunities and you can start your own new age innovative lodging business just trying to service this person and this is what the POD or the Capsule Hotel business opportunity comes in. Just to give you a background the POD Hotels started almost as back as about 2015 in Japan which anyway has a spacing crunch and then of course it became so popular over there that it went on to other countries like China, Singapore, some other parts of Southeast Asia and of course in about 2017 and 18 it entered India and their first company to start it in India was a company called Urban POD. So what has worked for the popularity of the POD or the capsule hotels is the cheaper booking rates, flexibility in booking and also the experiential POD design that is existing today in these capsule hotels. Now POD hotels are very tiny small hotel arrangements in which there is just a tiny room in which there is a small bed and the travellers are there looking for a small space just to rest for a while or take a nap would use this space for some time. So now capsules which exist within the POD hotels are actually arranged one over the other and the guest room itself is almost like a small chamber in which their bed is the room is just the size of the bed in which the person can actually draw and just sit up on the bed or sleep on the bed. Each POD contains a bed with a mattress and a proper bedding, a personal television set with a headphone facility, adjustable lights, charging points, free wi-fi, adjustable air conditioning facility, a dresser on the wall, maybe a mirror or perhaps a sliding door. So the POD hotels actually have shared facilities which could be the form of locker spaces, which could be the form of bathrooms, even a restaurant where the residents can go and enjoy a snack or a breakfast or a small meal. There is separate place for luggage keeping luggage or valuables which may be a small locker within the room or a different locker facilities which are available. Now the thing about POD hotels because they are currently new that you need to be extremely distinctive about where you're going to put it up in terms of its location. Right now it needs to be located somewhere which is near the transit area which could be near an airport or a railway station or even some metro stations or of course close to the business districts. Now as the popularity of POD hotels will grow you will primarily require or see POD hotels everywhere that you would need the right land in order to set up this property. It would of course work the best if you own the land yourself but in case you do not then it would be better that you actually run into a partnership with somebody who owns this property and you can go out and actually construct this POD hotel yourself and do a revenue sharing arrangement. There are also opportunities today to be entering into a relationship through a public private partnership model with the government because IRCTC more recently announced that they want to set up by the end of 2020 POD hotels close to the Mumbai Central railway stations and of course as we go forward in other cities also. So what could be an ideal size for a POD hotel? You can at least start with a square feet area of 9500 in which you can put up about 140 to 145 small sized PODs in which you can accommodate close to about 150 maybe some children within this hotel. So now once you have identified the right property now you will need to get into the construction work of the POD hotel. Now the typical cost of constructing a POD hotel would come somewhere between 15 to 16 crore rupees depending upon the right city that you are putting this POD hotel in. Setting up one particular POD with all the facilities around it would typically cost you somewhere between 7 to 8 lakh rupees. Of course today because the whole concept of POD hotels is very new you might want to think about taking up a franchise of a Tapsool or a POD hotel as well. Now normally one would think that the customer of the POD hotel is either a person who is a frugal traveler or a student or somebody who is looking for cheaper lodging facilities when they are in their travel but that is not the only customer as it has been internationally noticed. The customer for a POD hotel could also be a city dweller who because of his intense working hours and long commute may decide to stay back at a POD hotel rather than travel back to his home for a very short duration of sleep. The average night stay in a POD hotel is typically between rupees 1000 to 3000 rupees. It could vary between a classic POD, a private POD or a sweet POD depending upon what the customer has chosen. Also there is a facility in these POD hotels to actually take rooms by the hour basis which are typically called the nap hours. The rate of the room would also typically include breakfast. Now the occupancy rate today in a POD hotel is being seen close to about 65 to 70 percent of the total rooms facility which means that given with this occupancy rate you'll be able to actually break even within a year if not less. So that is what the POD hotel facility looks like and as a business opportunity it is extremely very promising for somebody who wants to start this lodging facility. I hope you enjoyed our episode of start it up today. We look forward to bringing many more business opportunities to you but of course you can look at more business opportunities on www.entrepreneur.com. Also if you would want to boost your existing business look up www.entrepreneurplus.in. Like to get notified for more such videos