The Jumbo Stay Hotel was once a working Boeing 747, which started flying all the way back in 1976. Its first operator was Singapore Airlines, then later went to PanAm, then Garuda Indonesia, then Cathay Pacific, before finally ending up at TransJet. Fair to say that it’s been a few places.
TransJet went bankrupt in 2002, which is when hotel owner Oscar Dios picked it up. After all, he’d already turned boats, lighthouses, and trains into overnight stays, so why not one with wings? The Jumbo Stay Hotel opened in 2009, maybe the second-coolest use of the a 747 ever. If you wanted a room, there were many to choose from! You could sleep in one of the four engine nacelles, which is really neat, except it had no bathroom. Or you could choose one of the wheel wells, which is also really neat, except it also had no bathroom.
The fuselage of the aircraft was where most of the beds were, though these were in hostel-style bunks in a big group area. The bathrooms were communal; my understanding is that these were the actual 747 bathrooms. Up in first class, as befits its status, were some actual private rooms with private bathrooms, which also look like they were just the plane’s bathrooms. Finally, there was the coveted cockpit suite, where you could finally fulfill your dream of sleeping under endless switches and instrument panels.
Meanwhile, there was no staff, breakfast was as basic as it gets, it was rusting, the elevator didn’t work, and everything was just cramped because, well, it’s an airplane. Frankly, if it weren’t a 747, it would’ve been a really bad hotel. Maybe that’s why revenue slashed in half between 2019 and 2023, though some new (likely better) hotels in the area may have been a contributing factor. Also worth noting there was a global pandemic in that timeframe as well.
