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Yotel: Chic New York Hotel on Sale

THEATER DISTRICT HOTEL ON MANHATTAN'S WEST SIDE

Motel 6 does not leave the light on for you in the city that never sleeps. Not only are there no Motel 6-ish rates in Manhattan, but the average hotel room costs $300, pricey enough to make some people think twice about staying in town. So in June 2011, Yotel opened on Tenth Avenue and 42nd Street with a new deal for New York City.

Yotel does not pretend to be a “cheap” hotel: Rates usually start at about $190, and some weeks they're considerably higher. However, it offers so much comfort, style, and sheer fun, that $200 – or even $300 – a night is a good value.

But forget about "usual" rates. If you book any dates between Dec. 16th and March 17th, you get a Premium View room for $129. You must book by Dec. 6th. Yes, $129. Midtown. In a stylish hotel, even.

Cabin Fever

Yotel got its start at European airports, so although its Midtown Manhattan hotel occupies a LEED-certified, 63-story highrise, it still has a certain airport vibe. There's lots of purple lighting, check-in takes place at an airport-style kiosk, and a futuristic robot (they call it the “Yobot”) takes your luggage -- although, departing from airport tradition, it does not send your bags to Dallas or drive a truck over them.

Wi-fi is free throughout Yotel, as it is at good airports (you hear that, O'Hare?), and your room is not a room, but a “cabin.” That cabin, especially if it's the standard (aka “Premium”) cabin, is fiendishly clever. Floor-to ceiling windows with $600-a-night views, more purple lighting, and plenty of glass and mirrors make a 170-square-foot space seem and function twice that big. The ability to convert your bed to a sofa also helps make the space seem larger, as do the efficiently designed work space and the wall-mounted TV.

It'd be a shame if that 33-inch TV did take up a lot of space, because guests here don't spend much time watching reruns of Cheers in their rooms; instead, they mingle with locals in Yotel's lounges and restaurants. These spaces are on the fourth floor, so Yotel has named the complex “Four.” That's not as brilliant a moniker as “Yobot,” but it seems to get people to the right place.

Chef Robert Sandoval

Four includes private Club Cabins and DohYo restaurant, with Japanese-style seating at communal tables. DohYo and other spaces are flexible; they morph into meeting rooms, late-night lounges, dance floors. Yotel's 4,000-square-foot terrace, the largest hotel terrace in New York City, features two bars and, among other things, inflatable cabanas. Why you'd want to go out for the night so you could stay in an inflatable cabana is baffling, but you'd understand it if you were more of a paparazzi target.

The food throughout the hotel is designed by star chef Robert Sandoval, who specializes in Asian-Latin fusion dishes – small plates of chile-dusted tuna, stir-fried pork belly, wagyu beef – all lusty flavor bombs with just enough spicing to dance on the tongue but still play nicely with your wine. The wine list includes a good choice of bubblies as well as table whites and reds, and the bartenders mix up a fine margarita. Somebody should buy one for Yobot.

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