Next time you’re in Atlanta and you feel the need to rent a room by the hour, you’ll be able to do it without leaving the airport and heading to a sleezy part of town. Behold, I bring you the Minute Suites.
For world travelers, this is nothing new. You can find dayrooms in airports all over the place, but the US has 
been way behind the curve on this trend. Atlanta is, I believe, the only place you can currently do it in the US. Please correct me in the comments section if I’m wrong.
I think the airport may be the one place where you would even consider lying on the sheets they provide in a rent-by-the-hour hotel. I mean, it’s a pretty sketchy business in almost any context. But in the airport it makes perfect sense, and it’s a welcome addition.
Here’s how it works. Go to minutesuites.com and you can reserve a room. The mini hotel is located on concourse B outside gate 15. The cost is $30 for the first hour and $7.50 for each 15 minutes after. Anything over 8 hours will get you a 25% discount. That’s still a very hefty $450 for 20 hours (which is basically what you get at a regular hotel). So this is clearly not for that purpose.
The main purpose is for those people who want some sleep. A few years back, I took a redeye from San Francisco to Atlanta and then had a 5 hour layover before my flight to South Africa. I would have loved to have had a bed for a couple hours to break up the two overnight flights.
It’s about time that this trend came to the US. I know there have been efforts in the past (I recall a hotel in the Bradley terminal at LAX long ago), but hopefully this time it’s a trend with staying power. If you want to take advantage, I’d highly recommend making a reservation. There are only a few rooms in this place.
