Capsule hotels have long offered tiny spaces to sleep at rock-bottom prices, but they are now looking to attract a wider range of customer than the typical male office worker who has missed his train after a night's drinking.

A new breed of lodging featuring the signature stack of sleeping capsules is focusing on women, younger travelers and foreign tourists as well as men seeking more than the bare minimum.

New Japan Kanko Co., which claims to have inaugurated the first capsule hotel in Japan, in the Umeda district in the city of Osaka, in 1979, opened the Cabana exclusively for male guests two years ago.