Yotel, New York's newest - and smallest - luxury hotel

Yotel, New York's newest - and smallest - luxury hotel

 

Visitors to New York usually have to be prepared to fork out at least $200 a night for even the most basic of rooms.

But from June, a European hotel company will offer budget travellers the chance to stay in luxury - as long as they don't mind squeezing into a 170 square foot room resembling a futuristic shoebox.

Known for its tiny rooms at airports in London and Amsterdam, Yotel is opening its first city-centre hotel in New York, giving visitors 'everything you might find in a luxury hotel in under 200 square feet.'

Small but perfectly formed? Budget travellers can stay in one of Yotel's 170 square-foot premium cabins for just $149 a night

It will open 669 rooms just west of Times Square this summer, starting from $149 a night for two adults.

The price includes free super-strength Wi-Fi, a complimentary breakfast - and the chance to see Yobot, the 'world's first luggage robot' in action.

The $149 room is a Premium Cabin, which features a retractable queen-sized bed and a mini-workstation.

Tight squeeze: The bathroom is built behind a sliding door rather than off a hallway to make it feel more spacious

 

Efficient design: For an extra $30, visitors can squeeze in an extra guest in a suspended bunk above the retractable queen bed

Its bathroom, with a tiny monsoon shower, is built behind a light sliding door rather than stuck in a small corridor to make it seem more spacious.

New home: Yotel will open in MiMA, a new 63-storey glass tower just west of Times Square

Designers even managed to find space for a 'techno wall' with a flat-screen television and music station.

And for an extra $30, you can squeeze in an extra person with a bunk bed suspended over the queen.

They're cheaper - and bigger - than the rooms at London Heathrow's Yotel, where a 75 square foot cabin with a single bunk costs $145 for 24 hours.

Yotel CEO Gerard Greene told USA Today: 'It appeals to an older and younger clientele, as well as affluent and non-affluent not only because it's affordable but because it's a luxury product at the same time.'

He said the rooms have been designed with a 'first-class yacht cabin' in mind,  with lots of mirror, glass and windows to make them seem more spacious.

If guests don't mind splashing out a little more they can even treat themselves to a 340 square foot 'first cabin' with its own terrace and hot tub.

The rooms will cover 27 floors of Middle of Manhattan - MiMA - a new 63-storey glass tower including 500 apartments, a cinema and several theatres.

Innovative: Yotel's 669 rooms will be spread across 27 floors of the New MiMA building on 42nd Street

When visitors tire of their tiny quarters, they can make their way to the hotel's huge restaurant, designed like a Japanese sumo-wrestling platform where guests eat at long shared tables.

Yotel is the brainchild of Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe, who based the concept on Japanese capsule hotels and luxury airline travel.

In a statement he said: 'A solution to expensive and boring hotels, I wanted Yotel to use innovative radical design to create a mixture of luxury, fun, comfort and excitement at an affordable price, turning the hotel industry on its head.'