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First Yotel Opens in New York City

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Checking in at the new Yotel designed by London architects Softroom and New York studio Rockwell Group is a stylish event. Overhead a purple electronic ticker provides up-to-the-minute information on weather reports, news and Yotel events and information.

The sleek floor is white polished concrete, a finish more often associated with contemporary art galleries.

Visitors at the New York Yotel that just opened in the vibrant theatre district of Manhattan are able to check in their extra bags at any time at these computerised kiosks – where their luggage is stored or retrieved by a giant robotic arm.

Guests arriving early, or wishing to deposit their bags for the hours between check-out and final departure are able to entrust their belongings to the power and security of Yobot – a giant white robot arm.

Amusingly, this spectacle is visible from outside, making this distinctive robot butler service a theatrically lit feature revealed through a huge window onto the lobby and through to the street outside. When not thus occupied, this robotic butler is free to cavort freestyle for the gawkers on the street.

But the real service is the design. When Yo! Sushi restaurant magnate Simon Woodroffe’s first Yotel opened at London’s Gatwick airport in 2007 it earned raves from users: “Cool stuff and those colours make it look cozy, yet pretty modern and hip.”

Another comment: “I was very impressed. The rooms make the most of the limited space available and the stylish interior of the cabin makes the room feel cosy, light and airy.”

While the bedrooms are as serene and elegant as you need for relaxed sleep, the public spaces are also designed to make a hip yet comfortable style statement too. Yotel is trying for a look of affordable luxury, by creating technologically sophisticated and vibrant spaces.

A variety of public meeting spaces are spread throughout the surprisingly large space in notoriously cramped Manhattan, at over 17,000 square feet covering the entire  the 4th floor. In a city renowned for its ‘lobby culture’, Manhattanites enjoy hotels as a place to see and be seen.

These public spaces spread through the entire fourth floor can be large or small, quiet and intimate, or loud and stylish.

The bathrooms are just as well thought-out and easily modern and elegant as the rest of the Yotel.

Unlike the first Yotels, which were conceptualized as simple sleeping cubicles, larger suites are also incorporated into the design offering.

But the bottom line at the New York Yotel, as it is in the previous Yotels at airports: quick access to a good night’s sleep, much needed after a long flight.