YOTEL: spelling the future of hotels

The YOTEL, which opened this summer a few blocks west of Times Square in New York City, is a self-acknowledged  “radical” change from old-time tradition but there’s a lot of speculation that it represents the future of the hotel business.

“It goes where no other lodging has gone before — to a world seemingly built by George Lucas, Steve Jobs and a kindergarten room designer,” says The Washington Post.

Why is that?

Music is one reason.

It has a “sound architect,” Tom Middletown.

In the role of YOTEL New York’s Sound Architect, Middleton has created distinct music

and sounds for all of the hotel’s public spaces.

“Middletown even created a special soundtrack to serve as the voice of YOBOT, the world’s first luggage robot,” says a news release. Even the elevators and restrooms have their own special music

 “YOTEL redefines the hotel experience in many ways and the sensory offering is as

important as the price and location,” said YOTEL CEO Gerard Greene. “I wanted to work with

people who understood the architecture of sound to enhance the guest

experience.”

He says the hotel uses an “innovative radical design to create a mixture of luxury, fun, comfort and excitement at an affordable price, turning the hotel industry on its head.”

Other “future” features characterizing the hotel:

• Diversions on the fourth floor check in area range from breakfast bars to the so-called “Mission Control,” where the concierge, the front desk and a gift shop are located.
• There’s a bank of public computers (which often have a line waiting to use them).
• Indoors, small white tables resembling raised writing tablets allow guests to type and sip coffee.
• Outside, guests laze on plastic couches and stools.
• There are 669 “cabins” that are definitely high-tech. Users push a button on a desk and a couch turns into a bed. Dual personalities.
• The premium cabins offer super-silent heating and cooling and complimentary take-away breakfasts.
• The 19 “First Cabins” have king size beds and 336 square feet of space, with some offering hot tubs and outside private terraces.
• At the top end are three 1,100-square-foot VIP “Two-Cabin Suites” with 180-views of the Manhattan skyline from floor-to-ceiling windows. They also have rotating king beds with luxury suites and 55-inch flat-screen TVs, among other creature comforts.
• Then, there’s the Yobot where guests can store their luggage until checkout time.

The property is the fourth establishment in the Yotel colonization plan — the others have landed in London and Amsterdam — and the first in a city center rather than at an airport.

Rates start at US$199.

By David Wilkening