In recent years, capsule hotels and cubicle living have become an alternative lodging option in expensive cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong.

The latter, unfortunately, is usually not by choice:

Capsule living in Marsiling HDB

Well, one enterprising man in Singapore decided to provide this experience by opening his very own capsule hotel — in what looks like his HDB flat in Marsiling, no less.

This is the Airbnb listing:

And here's what the apartment looks like:

Yeah, the storage box things are the capsules.

The owner, however, imposes a height and weight limit for guests — 100kg and 170cm respectively.

Heartland home

According to the listing on Airbnb, the apartment is three minutes away from Marsiling MRT station.

The structure is organised into five "rooms", as can be seen in the following diagram posted on the listing:

One night stay in a capsule will cost at least S$15 — slightly cheaper than booking a dorm in a hostel here.

Capsule looks homemade

But you get what you pay for.

To put it nicely, the capsule looks homemade.

It is supported by a metal structure and decorated with what looks like wallpaper and masking tape:

Despite this, the listing has received mostly positive reviews, with an average rating of 4.5 stars.

Most of the reviews were positive, commenting on the hospitality of the owner:

It is unclear when the capsules were first listed, but the earliest review dates back to August 2017.

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Technically subletting

As this article was being written, the listing has been removed.

Which might actually be a good thing, as Airbnb hosts are technically subletting their homes — which is illegal in Singapore.

Occupants in private homes will have to stay for more than three months, while HDB tenants will have stay at least six months.

Otherwise, hosts will need permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

Under the planning act, offenders can be fined up to S$200,000, or even face jail time in addition to the fine for repeated offences.

You can find out more here:

Top photo adapted from Airbnb listing and photo from HardwareZone user Dark84