Travelers are tired of paying big bucks for basic hotels. A new hotel brand wants to shake things up.

With a first location planned for Port Angeles, Wash., outside of Olympic National Park in 2027, the new hotel brand Bamboo is promising hikers and road trippers stylish, affordable accommodations — and an alternative to the rundown (and possibly overpriced) motel many people opt for out of necessity. 

It's part of a growing trend to make travel in the United States more affordable while still giving travelers what they actually want from a hotel experience. 

Bamboo's executive team includes individuals from the minimalist hotel chain CitizenM and, much like that company, it aims to give visitors a luxury-adjacent experience at a lower price point. Though its rooms will be roughly 200 square feet, smaller than the typical hotel room, they'll include a private bathroom and have amenities like a projector for watching streaming services, an espresso machine, a refrigerator, a Bluetooth speaker, blackout blinds, a safe and storage for clothing and luggage. 

Founder Nicholas Curcio tells Yahoo Travel that the average Bamboo room will be "roughly $20 a night more than a traditional economy motel, and roughly $20 a night less than a Hampton Inn or Best Western."

(There are a few Best Westerns roughly two hours from Port Angeles, and a Hampton Inn about the same distance away. But travelers might look to the nearby Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Sequim, which is a similar tier, for an idea of nightly rates.) 

It's meant to bridge the affordability-and-luxury gap not only by providing amenities guests actually want in their (smaller) rooms, but also by creating robust social spaces that encourage people to leave those rooms in the first place. Plans for the first property include a pizza oven, a movie-screening area and a fitness studio, plus a rooftop with a hot tub, sauna, cold plunge and elevated breakfast service. (Breakfast burritos with a view of the Olympic Mountains, anyone?) 

Curcio saw a gap in the market in Port Angeles, and other destinations like it: The motels and hotels in the area were decades old, but some could still go for $400 a night — all for an experience that Curcio says could "leave guests feeling disappointed, or frankly, even unsafe." 

And while Bamboo will target hikers who want to explore a national park but sleep in civilization, the intent isn't to stop there. 

"Longer term, we believe the problem Bamboo is solving isn't unique to outdoor destinations," Curcio tells Yahoo Travel. "It's true across most of the U.S. lodging market: cool hotels are unaffordable, and affordable hotels are uncool. Over time, we aim for Bamboo to become the go-to off-highway brand, in the same category as a Best Western or Courtyard by Marriott, but one that feels far less corporate, delivers an experience built for this century and comes at a more accessible price point."

Bamboo isn't the only hotel brand seeking to change how people travel domestically. While international travel may involve costly flights, domestic travel — particularly when visiting big cities like New York City, Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. — comes with its own hefty price tag. 

"If a traveler is attending a concert or an event, or they have to spend most of the time outside of their hotel, they don't really want to spend tons of money for the room," Vanja Bogicevic , a clinical associate professor of hospitality marketing at the NYU SPS Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, tells Yahoo Travel. "But the real estate is such that the lower and more economy or mid-scale hotels don't have a place in a busy location."

Abroad, there's another answer — at least for the traveler who doesn't mind trading a bit of privacy and space for significantly cheaper accommodations. While hostels have long been popular in Europe and are particularly useful for solo travelers seeking to meet others in the cities they are visiting, capsule hotels have also popped up all across the globe. 

First popularized in Osaka, Japan, in the 1970s , capsule hotels were originally a way for Japanese workers living outside the city to get some shut-eye before heading home.

While capsule hotel styles vary, what makes these hotels unique is that they offer travelers a place to sleep — but not much else. In some of these hotels, guests bed down in small, private capsules in larger rooms and share bathroom facilities with other guests. Now, these hotels are popping up in cities such as Copenhagen, Denmark; Zurich, Switzerland; Singapore; Cusco, Peru; and Bangkok, Thailand.

But the U.S. hasn't quite embraced the capsule hotel yet — and Bogicevic says American culture is one reason why. 

"The American consumer [wants] more space and the culture is generally more expressive, and louder," she says. And in general, the American traveler prefers more privacy — meaning the shared bathroom experience isn't ideal. 

If capsule hotels aren't the answer, however, more basic accommodations may be. While Bamboo may be the newest name on the market, chains like CitizenM, Moxy and Pod Hotel all offer smaller rooms and more basic amenities in major cities like New York in order to reduce the price of these hotels. While many chains like these feature private bathrooms, the emphasis is on keeping the rooms simple and making the common areas more appealing, with bars and other lounge areas for guests to utilize. 

Chekitan S. Dev , a professor of hospitality management at Cornell University who serves on Bamboo's advisory board, tells Yahoo Travel that this new class of hotels can offer guests a taste of "affordable luxury" by focusing only on what they really want and cutting back in the areas less significant to the target demographic they're seeking to serve. This looks like using technology (think: self-check-in desks or vending machines for necessities), skipping a concierge desk and offering less frequent housekeeping services. Essentially, "extra frills that they don't need and don't want to pay for," he says. 

Of course, not everyone will choose to stay at these types of hotels, even if they are more affordable. Dev says that when he and his wife stayed at one of these hotels in New York City, the tight room wasn't for them.

"It was too small," he says. "For a 60-something boomer, we're not in that target market."