A few weeks ago, I went one Thursday afternoon on an invitation to see Yotel’s first European hotel for its YotelPad brand.
This supposedly long-stay accommodations option appears to me to blur the lines between a classic aparthotel — if aparthotels have been around long enough to earn “classic” status? — and a normal hotel.
The first two YotelPad assets both opened in the U.S., one in Miami, the other in Park City, Utah, which hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The rooms in the YotelPad London Stratford have a mix of “long-stay” appurtenances, such as a small kitchenettes or a microwave, or both, but I did not see what might be described as a separate space.
I look at such rooms and often think of the CitizenM brand. But Hubert Viriot, Yotel’s CEO, was on hand to remind me that Yotel came to London Gatwick Airport before CitizenM debuted in the United Kingdom.
That YotelPad’s room setup seemed a good one for Stratford, the area of East London just to the east of the City of London that was the subject of regeneration before and after London hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The hotel opened on July 1, and when I visited on July 25, occupancy was 80%, and the hotel had closed off one floor so that media members could come and have a look.
The hotel is located on Broadway and Great Eastern Road to the Forest Gate side of Stratford, not the side near the huge Westfields Shopping Mall, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London Stadium, London Aquatics Centre and the parkland spruced up along the River Lee and the party scene of Hackney Wick.
For a fascinating read about this area, its history, its people and some of the struggles locals had in housing issues in the face of huge pressure from developers, I would recommend John Rogers’ “Welcome to New London: Journeys and Encounters in the Post-Olympic City.”
The area in which sits the YotelPad is showing signs of the developer’s shovel, and it might well benefit from that, but who am I to say?
Opposite the hotel is the beautiful, stand-alone St. John’s Church, while a few hundred feet away is the gorgeous, Grade II-listed Old Town Hall, Stratford, one of London’s grand town halls.
There are several of these wonderful, usually Victorian buildings dotted around London. They usually functioned as centers of local government — some still do — for all the main towns that over the years have been swallowed up in London’s steady move outwards and in the political reshuffle of the capital into 32 London boroughs and the City of London.
These town halls are in great demand for civil-wedding ceremonies.
YotelPad, I have no doubt, will be in great demand, too. Creatives will like that the area has a theater, arts center and much to keep people entertained in the evening. For leisure travelers, Stratford is now one of London’s major transportation hubs. And the property should be a welcome option for business guests since the City of London is literally next door.
One thing I liked about the hotel was that it has already created a walk for its guests that takes in local craftspeople, cool shops, coffee bars and restaurants, historical sites and the newest, coolest additions to a tiny part of a London district that people might not have investigated before or even know about.
If Viriot is correct about the hotel’s guest makeup, then likely their time is precious, so such an initiative will have them use their time productively and educationally.
Another thing I liked about the hotel is that ironing boards are hidden on the reverse side of vertically hung mirrors that in size are a little more than half length.
That is just a design trick, but I noticed it.
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