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The lowly hostel has long since started to clean up its act. But even the most discerning budget travellers have never seen anything like these high-impact, low-overhead design-led hostels - not to mention the new wave of pod hotels that provide a more private, low-cost alternative to bunking en masse. If any of these had existed in our backpacking days, we might never have come home...
Pictured: the eye-opening pod-like bunks at Matchbox, Singapore
Writer: Lauren Ho