Yotel to open first UK city centre hotel in London
Affordable hotel brand Yotel has announced plans to open its third property in the UK, with the launch of a 212-cabin hotel in London's Clerkenwell in late 2018.
Work has already started on the project in Clerkenwell Road, developed by Medina Investments and funded with capital from investment manager ICG-Longbow.
The cabins will include Yotel's space-saving adjustable beds, rain showers and smart TVs. Additional facilities include a gym, bar, an independently operated dining outlet and Yotel club lounge.
Located six minutes' walk from Farringdon station and 15 minutes' walk from the Barbican Centre, the hotel will benefit from the impending arrival of Crossrail to Farringdon station, also set to complete in 2018.
The company currently has five hotels, including airport sites at London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schipol and Paris Charles de Gaulle, and a city centre hotel in New York. Last year, it announced plans to have 16 hotels open in total by 2018. Seven hotels are in development, including sites in Singapore and Boston which are both due to open this summer.
In November Yotel, which was originally conceived as offering the hotel equivalent of luxury airline travel by offering luxurious cabin-style bedrooms, announced it was rebranding its airport hotels under a new Yotelair moniker to differentiate between the company's city and airport hotels.
Yotel's chief executive Hubert Viriot said: "We are more than ready to bring the Yotel city-centre concept home. Since the opening of our flagship in New York, we have been looking for the right opportunity and we finally found it in Clerkenwell. The mixed-use project, developed by Medina Investments, complements the Yotel brand perfectly. It's dynamic, creative and forward-thinking and backed by a developer with acumen and vision."
Yotel was created in 2002 by Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe and chief executive Gerard Greene, with its first hotel opening in 2007.
Yotel launches new Yotelair brand >>