The Jakarta administration has closed down a "sleep box" – a larger but crummier version of capsule hotels – at Jalan Rawa Selatan V in Johar Baru, Central Jakarta, after the Central Jakarta Deputy Mayor Irwandi and Kampung Rawa subdistrict head Suherman inspected it on Monday and found that the establishment has been running without a permit. 

Sleep boxes have lately become an accommodation of choice for Jakarta's transient populations, including tourists and migrants looking for jobs in the capital.

A room in a sleep box can be rented for as short as 24 hours, just like a hotel, or for as long as a month. 

For some people, it has overtaken the indekost or kost, the ever popular rented rooms, as the most viable, and cheapest, accommodation in the city. 

A sleep box can be rented from Rp 50,000 per day ($3.5) to Rp 400,000 per month. This is way cheaper than a halfway decent indekost room in Jakarta that can cost anywhere from Rp 1 million to Rp 3 million per month.

But according to the Jakarta administration, conditions at most of the city's sleep boxes are less than ideal and could even be dangerous for their occupants.

The room is invariably small, some as small as 2 meters by 1 meter, with poor air circulation.

In the sleep box in Johar Baru, access to each room is gained through a flimsy sliding door. The room is hot and humid, since the only air conditioner in the establishment is found in a narrow aisle that doubles as a communal area.