A website to make sleeping in airports a little less miserable

Sleeping in an airport is probably not high on any traveler’s list of fun things to do, but the sad thing is, these days, it’s almost inevitable. With the rise of cheap, but somewhat less reliable, budget airlines, and more flight cancellations than ever, it’s no longer uncommon to find yourself stranded in an airport.

Then of course there are those times when you have a long layover than isn’t quite long enough to bother leaving the airport; or perhaps you’re just on a really, really tight budget. Whatever the case, there will probably be times in the course of your travels that you’ll find yourself stuck overnight in an airport.

And you’ll find that not all airports are created equal when it comes to sleeping (in my experience neither the Dubai nor Bangkok airports are good places for sleeping). In fact there’s enough disparity between airport sleeping that there’s a website dedicated to ranking the experience — sleepinginairports.com.

The concept is pretty simple, the site takes reports from travelers who have, for whatever reason, been forced, or even chosen, to sleep in airports.

Sleeping in Airports ranks airport sleeping based on things like whether or not the benches have cushions, if you’re likely to be hassled by security, how clean and quiet the area is and so on. In some cases there are also anecdotal reports that’ll let you know the best area to catch a few Zs.

It’s not the sort of website most people will visit regularly, but given that most airports have wifi these days, it’s worth bookmarking the site. That way, should you ever find yourself suddenly stuck in an airport, you can look it up and find the best area to spend the night.

The site also has links to terminal maps for most of the airports, so it makes an easy way to figure out where you need to go, before you arrive with only ten minutes to make your connecting flight.