Travel Cheap With a Trunk That Transforms Into Its Own Hotel Room

 Andrew Liszewski

If you're looking to explore the world on the cheap but the thought of sharing a hostel room with strangers creeps you out, designers Roberto De Luca and Antonio Scarponi have got you covered. The pair's Hotello is a rolling trunk that transforms into a 43 square foot hotel room complete with a bed, a desk, a lamp, a shelf, a locker, and even a privacy curtain.

The money you save on expensive hotel rooms will probably just be squandered on what it costs to ship the Hotello around the world. But that's not really an issue anyways since the trunk only exists as a design concept and won't be made available for sale. Besides, who would want to stay in a portable hotel room that's lacking a mini bar, unstealable hangers, and a bathroom?

Broward County hotels

Broward County hotels ran 87.6 percent full in February versus 86.3 percent in February 2012, while the average daily room rate last month was $151.54, compared with $144.10 last year.

Palm Beach County hotels saw occupancy of 86.1 percent and average daily rates of $197.43, the researcher said. That's up from 83 percent and $187.05 respectively from February 2012.

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About the Author

About the Author

An experienced freelance writer, videographer and television producer, Ben's interest in all forms of innovation is particularly fanatical when it comes to human-powered transportation, film-making gear, environmentally-friendly technologies and anything that's designed to go underwater. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where he spends a lot of time going over the handlebars of his mountain bike, hanging out in off-leash parks, and wishing the Pacific Ocean wasn't so far away.   All articles by Ben Coxworth

Those bars are held in place

Those bars are held in place by a set of bar ends, and a center support (if needed). The bar ends each feature bubble levels, and foldable legs to get the whole apparatus up off the ground. Users can also mount the bar ends on two tripods, if they really want some elevation.

The bars can take the form of two lengths of user-supplied electrical metallic tubing, which Kamm suggests that traveling film-makers could simply purchase in a hardware store at their destination. He does, however, offer a set of carbon fiber bars – they’re six feet (1.8 meters) long when in use, but pull apart into 24-inch (61-cm) lengths for transport. They support loads of up to 45 pounds (20.4 kg).

As he did with the successful Aviator jib (which the slider is designed to work with, incidentally), Zeke is now raising production funds for the Red Rocket on Kickstarter. A pledge of US$425 will get you the 3.5-pound (1.6-kg) Base Kit, which doesn’t include bars, when and if the funding goal is met – the estimated retail price with shipping is $525. If you want a kit with the carbon fiber bars, you’ll need to pledge $799.

Although not everyone

Although not everyone may remember it, there was a time when if you wanted to make a professional-looking film, you needed either a 16mm movie camera or something along the lines of a BetaCam. Compact professional video cameras and video-capable DSLRs have changed that, although slick-looking videos still require more than just a good camera – it helps if you have a way of performing nice camera movements, too. The Red Rocket Slider is designed to get you some of those moves, without requiring a big gear truck or a big budget.

The slider is the creation of Oregon-based film-maker Zeke Kamm, who previously brought us the Aviator Travel Jib. Like the Aviator, the Red Rocket packs down small – when disassembled, it fits in a padded bag that’s about the size of a shoebox.