Lounge in a Box

Once in a while I will come upon a story in the online news sites that sounds good at first look, but which demonstrates a more hopeful world view or greater faith in humanity than I have left at this point. Despite what my critics might imply, I don’t believe that all people are terrible, or that if it is possible for members of the general public to steal and/or destroy something for their own fun and profit that everyone will do so. The problem is that in many cases it only takes one bad actor to ruin everything for everyone else. I’ve often summed up businesses that failed because of the work of a limited number of bad actors with the expression “Another beautiful idea – ruined by people.” This was my first reaction to the CNN story about small, private rooms that can be rented by the hour being installed in airports…

The company behind this, which calls itself Jabbrrbox, claims that these cubicle-sized rooms can be used to provide a quiet space in which to place phone calls, get some work done, or speak with others in privacy, much like a very small, private airport lounge. The company also claims that these are more cost-effective than executive clubs offered by airlines, although at $10 for 15 minutes and $30 for a whole hour this is only the case if you are planning to use the Jabbrrbox unit for fewer than 15 hours per year (American Airlines’ “Admiral’s Club” is $450 per person per year, for example) or fewer than 2 hours in a visit (a one-day pass for the Admiral’s Club is $59). It also lacks the concierge service, refreshments, business services and other amenities one would find in a conventional executive club. It does, however, offer greater privacy – which I can’t help thinking is going to be the biggest problem…

At the moment, the Jabbrrbox units have a clear door panel, but the company is talking about equipping future units with a privacy screen, and even if they don’t, anybody could block the panel with a handful of printer paper and a spool of scotch tape. I’m not suggesting that people are going to start using the cubicles for drugs, sex, or contraband, just because they can. I’m saying that people will already use any relatively secure or temporarily private space for all of those purposes, and I can’t see anything that would keep people from doing the same with the Jabbrrbox compartments. Again, I don’t expect everyone to turn one of these cubicles into a drug den or a brothel, but it wouldn’t take more than one such bad actor to put an entire bank of them out of service…

That seems unfortunate, since this is a potentially useful service, and they’ve already got to deal with more common criminal activities like vandalism, credit card fraud, and a significant chance of squatters, including customers who will refuse to leave when their time is up and drunks passing out on the floor. I’ve written extensively in this space about how difficult it can be for an entrepreneurial start-up business to survive, let alone flourish, but in this case the company is going to have a lot more to deal with than the capitalization, cash flow, and customer development/marketing issues that will destroy more conventional businesses…

Now, I would be the first to admit that I don’t have any hard data on how much crime still goes on in American airports, any more than I know what percentage of air travelers are destructive nihilists or ugly drunks. I also have no idea what measures (if any) Jabbrrbox has in place to deal with the objections I’ve pointed out in this post. It’s entirely possible that I’m just being too conservative, pessimistic, or traditional in my assessment of this company’s long-term prospects for success; it’s also quite possible that the company has already got all of this figured out and are just waiting for clearance to start installing these private lounge units in airports all over the world. I’m just saying that whoever came up with this idea has a higher opinion of the general public, or even of air travelers, than I do…