Yotel

What we love…

• Where to start! Yotel is our favorite midtown hotel in New York for its minimal design, killer patio, central location, and let's not forget the robot that stores your bags! 
• There are four sizes of rooms to chose from, the smallest (in the pictures above) are clean, modern and well thought out, despite being one of the smaller rooms we've encountered in New York. The rooms are modeled after aircraft cabins, and designed by some of the industries leading aircraft cabin designers who've made the most of the small space. There's a bit of a Japanese feel as well, if you've traveled in Japan you know the rooms can be pretty tiny. Since we pack light and are totally use to Japanese hotel rooms we found Yotel New York actually pretty spacious, if you're an over packer you might feel a bit cramped at first, but you'll adjust. The room design is functional and efficient with everything you need at your fingertips, including a small desk and even an ironing board. The three other room sizes range from slightly larger to huge VIP suite with a large patio terrace and hot tub, which is ideal if you've got a large party.
• There's also a galley that's open 24/7 on every floor with free coffee, tea, bottled water, and a communal microwave if you need to heat up leftovers. The restaurant and bar are also fantastic, and on pleasant nights you can take advantage of the large outdoor patio, the bar is a popular place for locals too, so don't be surprised if you meet some New Yorkers during your nightcap. Each morning Yotel offers free muffins, coffee and tea for hotel guests, or you can grab a table and check out the regular menu, it's not cheap but the food is pretty great.
• Okay now on to Yobot, the hotels resident luggage robot that lives in the hotels ground floor lobby. This robot is behind a thick glass wall with floor to ceiling cubby drawers, which Yobot works tirelessly to stow luggage in. This of course comes in handy if your room isn't ready at check-in, or after you check out so you don't have to lug your bags around the city. Why you ask would we love this ingenuous situation? Well besides the fact that it involves a huge robot (which is obviously hella cool) you also get the security of knowing that no other hotel guest or staff member can mess with your stuff. How many times have you had to bring your laptop with you because the luggage store room was open to every passerby and you just didn't feel safe leaving it? And even if you don't worry about that, it's still fun to watch the robot all the same.