Want to sleep in a floating mansion in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where room service is available by speedboat and the private pool is on the upper deck? It’s time to go to Miami.
In January, the city will receive its coolest new tourist complex Arkup.
It can be located in the ocean protected from hurricanes, return to a marina or go two thousand five hundred nautical miles in the ocean.
Only a few such floating homes exist worldwide.
The first prototype has four bedrooms, costs $ 5 million, and was completed in 2019. The other was recently commissioned by a Miami travel company, which hopes to turn Arkup into a new type of vacation rental property.
The personalized yacht house, called Arkup 40, will be rented through SEXTON Stays, a competitor of Airbnb, which plans to buy up to 10 Arkupes and even connect them together in a floating resort. But with only one Arkup at the moment, it can be difficult to make a reservation.
SEXTON told Bloomberg that the houseboat is likely to have a maximum of two bedrooms, storm-proof glass walls, an outdoor kitchen, and a hot tub on the upper deck.
If guests want to stay along the coast, they are expected to dock at the city harbor in downtown Miami.
But for those who want the full experience of shipping, the captain can take guests in the middle of the ocean and return to shore, leaving them all alone.
If the weather deteriorates, the ship can self-stabilize through retractable columns called probes, which descend to a depth of 6 meters in the water.
For people in Dubai or Singapore, a single Arkup unit will not be worth the trip.
People in Asia and the Middle East have much easier and wider access to five-star full-service water resorts.
But for people in the United States, there is not much competition from Sexton’s Arkup. The only semi-local options for water bungalows are found in some Caribbean resorts and in Eldorado Maroma in Mexico, which is a few hours by plane from New York City.
Other water home options that have been under development since at least 2016 are yet to open, including Vice Roy and Bocas Del Toro in Panama.
Even Airbnb and Verbo have nothing to offer as floating hotels in North America. This makes the price of about one thousand two hundred dollars a night – a little easier to swallow because it is still cheaper than a luxury yacht.
