Inside the Yotel New York, Two Weeks Before It Opens for Good

May 19, 2011 at 1:34 PM | by JetSetCD | Comments (4)

Forget what you might know about Yotels overseas; those capsule-like rooms are officially Yotel 1.0. What New York is about to get next month, when the first Yotel in the Americas debuts, is Yotel 2.0—a 669-room ode to efficiency and modernity. In fact, the hotel is based on the concept of airplane classes; a Yotel "Premium Cabin" equates to Economy Class, "First Class Cabins" follow, and the VIP Suites are of course where you want to be...especially when you walk in to discover a round, rotating bed, 3-sided fireplace and sprawling outdoor deck with hot tub.

Yes, Yotel has evolved miles from their airport terminal hotels to create something even jaded New York is buzzing about. Just wait until the restaurant and bars open...

On a recent preview tour of the Yotel, we managed to peek into almost every bit of the place. Some we can't yet reveal and some we can, but trust us that all of it deserves a good, long look once the place opens to the public for good. It's hot stuff.

If you can score one of the $149 starting rates, you'll be among the first to experience the Yobot, free WiFi throughout the hotel, rentable "Club Cabins" (for private meetings, dinners, karaoke, sports-watching, etc), and mini kitchens on every floor that include a microwave, mini-fridge, sink, water/ice machine, coffee machine and soda vending machine.

Bonus luxury: the queen beds in the Premium Cabins go from sitting up to laying flat at the touch of a button, whereas the king beds in the First Class and VIP rooms are all flat. Every mattress is hand-finished, and stuffed with coconut husk and lambswool. It's not crunchy! It's actually quite lovely, but we'll find out how it all fares soon enough when real guests check in for the night.

[Photos and video: Cynthia Drescher for HotelChatter]

Comments (4)

Return to » Inside the Yotel New York, Two Weeks Before It Opens for Good

Definitely going to have to swing by here someday soon. Is the staff nice? Or is there no staff, just robots??

Not a lot of staff yet, heck the place is only half put together. But what's together is awesome. The Yobot is sweet, but still being tinkered with, so even peeks of him from the street are iffy since the windows are papered up.

Hey!

Thanks for covering Yotel. Check out this video about all the other robots that didn't make the cut for Yobot!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/45f86e443c/celebrity-robot-audition

Ok, enough self-promotion... thanks!

Ha--just watched the video. Why did you not hire the ROOMBA?!?!?! C'mon, Roombas look extra cute when cats ride on them. Why not luggage too?

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