Yotel is spinning off three sub-brands from its roots as a pioneer of small, smartly designed “cabins” operating in airports.
The three brands are Yotel for city hotels, Yotel Air for airport hotels and a work-in-progress brand covering a new serviced-apartment product line, said CEO Hubert Viriot, interviewed in Singapore where a Yotel will open early next year, followed by a Yotel Air in 2018 at Changi Airport.
The new brand architecture comes as the company signs up four more city hotels – in Dubai, Riyadh, Geneva and London – on top of seven hotels under development. Of the seven, four are in the U.S. (Boston, San Francisco, Williamsburg Brooklyn, all opening in 2017, and Miami in 2018), the two in Singapore, and one in Dubai opening in 2018, will be its first serviced-apartment product.
A Yotel Air is opening in Charles de Gaulle, Paris, in July, joining three others in operation in London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol. Only one Yotel is in operation today, the flagship Yotel New York.
“Yotel Air is ‘lighter’ than a Yotel,” Viriot explained. “As its name suggests, it is located at airports, has less F&B, no gym, with room size of 9 square meters to 11 square meters.”
Yotel is the urban hotel, with room size of 13.5 square meters to 22 square meters, but on average 16.5 square meters. “That’s really enough, but we have to be flexible because of the different building codes in different cities,” Viriot added. In Miami, for example, 22 square meters is the minimum room size.
Yotel has two basic facilities, a club lounge (unlike the traditional club lounge, this is a multi-purpose social place for breakfast, to chill out, connect, work, etc.) and a gym. “But again we are being flexible – in cities which perennially have hot weather, such as Singapore and Dubai, we add a pool,” Viriot said. “We also adapt to market preferences and habits. In Europe and North America, we provide free coffee and tea in the lounge. But we find that in Asia, guests want free coffee and tea in their room, so we will provide that. But these are minor adjustments. We stick to our concept of a curated, digital-driven, minimalistic hotel that offers affordable luxury.”
When asked what a Yotel serviced-residence model might look like, Viriot said, “The serviced-apartment product is inspired by our cabins but will be more spacious and residential.” He declined to reveal more.
As a rule of thumb, Viriot said it costs around US$110,000 to build a Yotel room. “But it really depends – in Bangkok, a developer thinks he can do it for US$75,000 because of lower labor cost; in Singapore, it’s higher due to higher labor costs but also other reasons such as we’re located next to the Thai Embassy (on Orchard Road) and we can’t construct during certain hours,” Viriot said.
Viriot believes the first Yotel in Singapore and Dubai will jump-start the development of more projects in AMEA. “We have been mainly in Europe and North America,” he said. “When we opened our flagship Yotel in New York, both the consumers and the investment community could see why it (the Yotel concept) works.
“In Asia, I am confident the same thing is about to happen. We need to show the product. Instead of me talking about it, we will let the physical product and the team, led by Brendan Daly (general manager of Yotel Singapore), be the face of Yotel in Asia, create a bang and speak for itself.”
With the first 610-cabin Yotel Singapore being the brand’s spokesperson in the region, Daly, previously general manager of Amari Pattaya, said he is on a mission to ensure that people can see that affordability and luxury are not strange bedfellows. “It’s about giving people the experience they want,” said Daly. “Affordable hotels have been around but other brands tend to dumb down. Our room may be 14 square meters, but we make it count and our R&D is on guest comfort for the 21st century traveller – mattress, monsoon rain shower, no long queues, high technology, etc. It appeals to the digital-driven, smart traveller of any age, both leisure and corporate clients,” Daly said.
Yotel Singapore expects to charge S$200 (US$148) to S$240. That’s about half of what the nearest hotel to it, the Hilton Singapore, charges.
