A hotel is offering ‘self-love pods’ for solo play. Here’s why that’s a thing

Across America, and around the world, more and more people are going it alone.

Nearly a third of US households are single-occupancy, a record high. In Europe, the trend is even stronger, with around 46% of Danish households inhabited by men and women flying solo.

People are marrying later and less often. Just 37% of Americans ages 25-49 are married with children, down from 67% in 1970.

Google searches for solo travel have had a post-Covid surge and Millennials and Gen Z are driving a boom in solo dining, with more people eating alone at restaurants than ever before.

Now a leisure activity traditionally seen as the preserve of couples has been given a lone-wolf twist: the romantic getaway, or its more carnal variant, the dirty weekend.

To mark Sexual Health Awareness Month this September, New York’s Walker Hotel Tribeca has introduced a “Self-Love Pod” offer, aimed at the recently single.

Guests are invited to use their hotel stay to “re-explore their own sexuality.”

That means exactly what you think it means, although the “pod” description is misleading.

This isn’t tearful onanism in a windowless cubby in a capsule hotel, but a package of chic add-ons to the existing range of rooms in this upscale boutique accommodation in downtown Manhattan.

The perks include a Recess adaptogen drink with claims towards de-stressing and reenergizing; adaptogens are a big player in 2024’s alcohol-free beverage trend.

There’s perfume oil and fancy soap from skincare brand Fablerune and a journal from personal growth brand Grow Into. A curated selection of self-love focused meditations from Cacti Wellness awaits guests, plus a free pass to the Othership sauna in the Flatiron district.

Finally there’s an egg-shaped personal massager from sexual wellness brand Maude, for external use, suggesting that this is a package aimed at female consumers.

The wellness boom

Women are, after all, driving the boom in the global wellness industry, of which the $1.8 trillion US market is the biggest in the world.

In heterosexual relationships, an estimated 70% of divorces in the US are initiated by women.

Due to factors including longer life expectancy for women and men being more likely to remarry after being divorced or widowed, the majority of single-person households are women living alone – in the US and also in developed countries around the world.

When it comes to romantic partners, there’s no cheaper date than your own five digits, but rates for Walker Tribeca’s Self-Love Pods start at $350 – and that’s before you even buy yourself dinner.

Booking site Hotels.com confirmed to CNN that 90% of its hotel searches for stays in September are for adults without children, snapping up cheaper rates after the summer rush has ended and kids are back at school.

While DINKs (dual income, no kids) are often on easy street as the demographic with the highest net worth, single Americans bear the weight of what’s colloquially known as the “single tax”: paying premium on rent, mortgages and household bills.

Not only do single travelers have to gather their pennies together to afford a hotel room alone, often they face a “single supplement” price hike when booking flights and cruises.

If you’re newly single, like the target market for the Self-Love Pod, then your breakup is likely to have hurt both your heart and your wallet, with most Americans spending up to $20,000 on their divorce from their formerly nearest and dearest.

The health benefits of “me time”

Whether your self-love journey begins in the crisp linens of a downtown hotel or in the humbler surrounds of your own bedroom, Walker Tribeca are onto something with the physical and mental benefits of a little intimate “me time.”

Orgasms can relieve stress, improve your mood, help you sleep better, reduce menstrual cramps and even improve immunity.

It’s good for the health of your heart and in men it decreases the risk of prostate cancer. A 2004 study published in the British Medical Journal found that men reporting 21 or more ejaculations a month were less likely to get prostate cancer than men who ejaculated four to seven times a month.

That’s quite a lot to shoot for, but it’s definitely one of the most fun ways to reduce cancer risk.

For women in midlife, sexual activity becomes increasingly “use it or lose it.” As well as helping maintain good sexual health, a 2020 study by University College London found that women who engaged in sexual activity weekly or monthly — solo or otherwise — were less likely to enter early menopause.