When you’re a small family, an RV seems an effective way to live a trimmed, mobile life. The maintenance cost and carbon footprint of an average RV, irrespective of the living comfort, is not comparable to that of a teardrop trailer or a tent for a weekend getaway.
Pitching somewhere in between, as an undeniable option that requires minimum space – in storage and when driving – only to expand at a campsite into a full-sized unit capable of sleeping two adults and a child (depending on how close you choose to sleep) is the weather-resistant Hitch Hotel.
Designer: Hitch Hotel
By the name of it, you’d imagine this tiny road companion to be available for rent. But the makers, for now, offer it only for a one-time purchase and would likely consider a rentable option sometime down the line. The small towable, stowable, and expandable Hitch Hotel measure only 3.5 feet when folded for storage. It tags to the back of any car in this tiny form factor only to retract to slightly over 7 feet at the location where the user intends to set it up for an overnight camp.
The tiny trailer unfurls in a telescopic manner to give you a hard-shelled sleeping space with full protection and a safe height from the ground. Reckoned as a go-anywhere hotel room, the Hitch Hotel trailer has an impossibly small footprint until it converts into 6 feet high, 6 feet-wide, and 7.8 feet long camping trailer in minutes.
The Hitch Hotel features a fiberglass body, designed to keep the overall weight of the trailer down to bare minimum. Meant to sleep you after the sun goes down, it can be used to stow your gear when its trailing behind your car. Despite its form factor, the Hitch Hotel remains close to a conventional trailer in form and function. It has a marine-grade canvas lining on the inside with padded insulation to maintain overnight temperature for inhabitants.
Kept well-ventilated by the window on the rear door and one on the side, the Hitch Hotel has a roof fan and LED lights powered by a 60Ah battery. For convenience, owners would have to invest in their own sleeping mattresses with the standard trailer available for $9,800. An upgraded model could fetch you a tiny kitchen, water storage, a memory foam mattress, and higher capacity battery for a premium.
