I visit the new YOTELPAD Stratford and ask YOTEL’s CEO …. what is a YOTELPAD?

On Tuesday I headed down to Stratford to take a pre-opening tour of YOTELPAD, Europe’s first outpost of YOTEL’s ‘extended stay’ brand.

YOTEL’s long term (10 years) CEO, Hubert Virot, was there to oversee the finishing touches and to chat about his plans.

The obvious question, of course, is how you combine YOTEL’s formula of compact Japanese-style rooms with the requirements of an extended stay hotel. The answer is ‘you probably can’t’, but it is still a good looking hotel and worth a visit.

If you’re of a certain age, you will associate YOTEL with windowless hotels in airports. Whilst the business started here, it’s not where it is expanding now. Only five of the 24 hotels are at airports and none are recent openings. These sites are now branded as YOTELAIR and Rhys recently reviewed the outpost at Gatwick.

Seven of those 24 hotels are in the UK, although the brand can be found as far away as Tokyo and Singapore. This is third YOTEL / YOTELPAD site in central London. Other UK sites are in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.

Where is YOTELPAD Stratford?

YOTELPAD is on The Broadway, at the core of the ‘real’ Stratford which 90% of visitors to the Westfield shopping centre and Olympic Park never see.

It is a short walk – six to eight minutes – from the tube and railway station. Stratford is probably London’s best connected railway station, used by the Elizabeth, Jubilee and Central tube lines, London Overground, DLR and National Rail services.

There is an exit (marked ‘Town Centre’) which takes you away from Westfield and comes out opposite the old Stratford shopping centre. If you walk directly through the centre, past Costa Coffee, you exit on The Broadway. It is partly pedestrianised with a lively international food market. Turn left and you soon come to YOTELPAD.

Whilst the immediate neighbours are not enticing, it is in a pleasant spot. Directly opposite is a church and a tree-heavy churchyard and this is what you see from the front-facing hotel windows.

YOTELPAD is a new build property which means that everything (hopefully) works well.

In what way is this an ‘extended stay’ hotel?

It’s complicated.

This is a ‘limited service’ property. Whilst the building will contain a restaurant in a few months, it will be independent of the hotel. There is no breakfast room, just a ‘grab and go’ area in the lobby (stocked with predominantly UK brands) where guests can help themselves to coffee and snacks.

There is a laundry room but no gym, although the hotel is in discussions to allow guests to visit nearby private gyms.

Fundamentally there isn’t a lot going on – although you really don’t need a lot of eating options given what else is in the area. That said, as there is a pricier Hyatt House ‘extended stay’ hotel in the Westfield shopping centre (review here) with more facilities, it will face local competition.

Rooms at YOTELPAD Stratford

The property has 62 studios, as they are called.

The strategy, according to CEO Hubert Virot, is to create a property which will attract a stay longer than the typical two night average.

It’s important to note that YOTELPAD is aimed at people wanting a room for 3-7 nights. It is not somewhere where you would want to spend 2-3 months if working in London on a long contract.

In reality, because the rooms are actually quite small, I suspect that it will end up taking a lot of 1-2 night bookings regardless. West Ham football games and ABBA Voyage are a short walk away and drive a lot of business to Stratford.

The property has a few rooms which are not set up for longer stays – no microwave etc – which are 16 sq m.

The larger rooms types – Studio Pad Plus at 18 sq m and Premium Studio Pad at 22 sq m – have various ‘extended stay’ features, such as a fridge, a microwave, an ironing board, cutlery, coffee machine and a toaster. The Premium Studio Pad also has a dishwasher and a hob for cooking.

You don’t get a lot of wardrobe space vs a conventional hotel, and even 22 sq m for the largest studio isn’t huge. YOTEL knows that people won’t want to spend more than a few days here.

Whilst not targetted specifically at young families, the microwave and fridge make the property well suited to travellers with a baby. I’m not sure how well set up it is for cots etc.

One key YOTEL item is the SmartBed which, as in the YOTELAIR capsule hotels, can ‘switch from upright couch to fully flat double bed at the touch of a button‘. This allows guests to sit on their bed and work (although rooms do have desks) or watch TV in more comfort.

As you can see from the PR photos in this article, the design is impressive with lots of cool woods and an entirely glass walled (albeit frosted) bathroom and shower that will drive the housekeeping staff crazy.

Some of the rooms facing the rear have these little nooks by the window:

As a new build, you don’t need to worry about the tech. USB A/C sockets are available and the TVs allow streaming from your smartphone or laptop.

As a new build, it is also cutting edge in terms of sustainability. It has a ‘green roof’ to reduce rainfall run off along with bird and bat boxes, air source heat pumps control the hot water and solar panels generate some of the electricity required. Occupancy sensors in the rooms and corridors reduce the power used for lighting.

The reason I mainly used PR images here, despite having toured the hotel, is that YOTELPAD has invited us down for a night to try it out and do a full review. The official opening date is 1st July so we’ll try to get back over the summer and report.

Pricing and loyalty

For typical pricing, a three night stay from 17th-20th September (midweek) starts at £122 and goes up to £147 per night. I’d certainly be tempted to pay the small premium for the larger rooms.

As a comparison, the Hyatt House long stay hotel in Westfield Stratford is £180 to £283 for the same dates, but even the smallest rooms at Hyatt House are 20% bigger than the largest rooms at YOTELPAD.

YOTEL does not have a points-earning loyalty programme but offers lower rates to members of its free YOTEL Club. (The rates above are member rates.)

The partnership between YOTEL and Virgin Atlantic ended following Virgin’s withdrawal from London Gatwick, but you can earn miles with JetBlue’s TrueBlue programme.

TrueBlue members receive a JetBlue discount, a VIP amenity and one point per $1 spent. Top tier Mosaic members also receive an upgrade and late check-out. You only get these perks by booking via this page of the YOTEL website.

You can find out more, and book, on the YOTEL website here.

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