No sex allowed in communal living start-up

RENTING a city pad is expensive, especially when you’re only there to eat and sleep. So this group came up with a drastic solution.

HAVE you ever stayed at a cheap hostel and thought to yourself, ‘I wish there were more pretentious millennials here — and there’s far too much sex going on’?

Then PodShare might just be for you.

The Los Angeles-based start-up is the latest craze in the low-cost short-term accommodation market, billing itself as a ‘co-living space’ for social travellers and mobile workers.

Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Elvina Beck and her father, PodShare is a basically a co-working space with 10 to 30 beds which turn into desks by day, Motherboard reports.

For $45 to $65 a night, $295 a week or $1180 a month, ‘Podestrians’ get access to all the amenities including a napping station, Xbox 360s, laundry and community kitchen.

“We are trying to strike a balance between social good and creating enough of an economic reserve to keep building more pods,” Beck told Motherboard.

“The nightly, weekly or monthly membership is meant to be setup in a way that if you just have a toothbrush and clean underwear, you can survive here like a baller on a budget.”

Much like Japanese capsule hotels, pods are “custom built minimalist spaces”, each with a 22-inch TV with Netflix, Hulu and games, plus power outlets and LED night lights.

“PodShare makes life more affordable because there is no security deposit or cost of furnishings and we provide flexible living,” said Beck.

“Pod life is the future for singles which are not looking to settle down, but focus on their start-ups and experience something new.”

Beck said she started PodShare, which has grown to three locations, to “cure my own loneliness so I never had a night without friends”.

More than 4000 members, 84 per cent of whom are international, have stayed with Beck over the past four years. “At check-in, we say, ‘you get your own pod, but we share everything else,’” she said.

“Sharing an open space with strangers who have their name written beside their sleeping quarters, and who cook different foods, leave different toiletry products in the shower, and play different music on the PA system, is the reason we travel.”

The big drawback, obviously, is lack of privacy. Beck says the “No PodSex” rule can be a challenge for couples staying in the queen-sized pods.

“We built the pods facing each other so the community polices itself,” she said.

Originally published as No sex allowed in communal living start-up