Cheap Sleeps Around Town | England; America; Australia

A decent $10 hotel room seems impossible, but the new trend of stylish, value-priced properties is making it a reality. (Prices are for single rooms.)

ENGLAND The company behind budget airline easyJet is launching a pod-style easyHotel in London this summer with rooms as low as $9 a night sans TV and phone (14 Lexham Gardens; easyhotel.com). Later this year Yotel will open hotels at London's major airports; the best, 100-square-foot rooms are $140 (yotel.co.uk). And in Nottinghamshire, Formula 1 race-car driver David Coulthard is backing the first branch of Dakota, a funky bargain-hotel chain. Rooms, which are decorated with dark wood and appointed with flat-screen TVs, start at $150 (Lakeview Dr., Sherwood Business Park; 011-44-870-442-2727).

AMERICA The first property in InterContinental Hotels' new value boutique line, Indigo is in Atlanta; beachy blue rooms go for $119 (683 Peachtree St.; 800-HOLIDAY). The second one opens in Chicago in May.

AUSTRALIA As hotels get cheaper, hostels are getting stylish. Base Backpackers' fancy, communal accommodations start at $16 a night, with private rooms for $46; Melbourne's branch is particularly swanky, with a girls' Sanctuary floor stocked with Aveda toiletries (17 Carlisle St., St. Kilda; 011-61-3-8598-6200).

Published April 2005