Cabin’s ‘moving hotel’ bus returns with more spacious sleeping space

Those trips between Los Angeles and San Francisco can be torturous. A three-hour delay on a 45-minute flight or a less-than-scenic road trip down Interstate 5 in grueling traffic for way too many hours is never any fun. So why not sleep through it?

Cabin, an overnight bus with beds, launched back in 2017, but it’s been off the road for the past six months to improve its “hotel bus.” After a year of service traveling the roughly 400 miles between San Francisco and Santa Monica, the unique transportation startup learned what its passengers wanted for the overnight journey.

Cabin is back this week, with two revamped buses that are all about maximizing a restful night’s sleep while still getting you to your destination. 

Gaetano Crupi, Cabin co-founder and CEO, said in a phone call they saw how guests behaved on the sleep bus: “They just want to go to bed.” Unlike an airplane or a hotel, the Cabin bed didn’t need to provide space for functions other than sleeping.

Crupi said Cabin launched as a more social experience with lounge music, a communal meeting area on the first floor of the double-decker, and a host jubilantly welcoming guests. But guests didn’t want to socialize with others, chat with the host, or get work done on the computer. They wanted to sleep.

So as part of the Cabin redesign the experience has changed —the lighting is more candlelight-like than bright reading lamps. Spa music soothes you when you enter, and even the host is more hushed and calm as you enter the bus and find your bed.

“It’s made for this sleep ritual — and that’s the only thing,” Crupi said. 

With a larger “Cabin” you can you sit up inside. It’s 54 percent bigger, both taller and wider, making it a more desirable physical space. A new nightstand charges phones and holds personal items and a cubby to put bags and shoes without putting them on the sleep space is accessible only form the inside.

A privacy panel makes it your own space that blocks light and sound. A control panel operates bedside lights and an air vent.

Even the bathroom experience was re-examined. Instead of a quick pit stop, the Cabin team noticed people were using the bathrooms as a place to get ready. So now there’s a place for your toiletries and more space to change. 

The amenities that come with each Cabin were also re-through and now include ear plugs, melatonin gummies, water, slippers, and hot towel service. Everything revolves around rest and relaxation.

Another big change: the bus is only made up of sleeping cabins in one large space instead of two levels. You have the option to choose a room that includes bump-canceling beds, a new technology Cabin built and started using last year for undisturbed sleep.

Everything on the inside of the bus is new from the mattresses to the sheets. It’s not just a bus ride, but “more like an apartment that moves from place to place,” Crupi said.

Trips start at $119 and with the more spacious accommodations only 22 people can sleep on the night bus each trip.