People in the Know: The Most Important Thing is to Believe in Yourself

Simon Woodroffe, founder of the avant-garde hotel chain, Yotel, is very mobile. In the morning he comes to work on a scooter and in the evening he returns to his floating Yacht home on the Thames in Trafalgar.

He can’t live without traveling, calling rooms in Yotel, cabins, and staff in the hotel, crew. Having achieved entrepreneurial success at an age when the majority of us are already thinking about pensions, he is diligently generating newer and newer projects. Woodroffe is not afraid of competition, he possesses very critical thinking. If a person manages to convince themselves of future success, it is already halfway there, it considers.

The first hotel in your chain opened a month and a half ago. What can you tell us about the experience and the future development of it?

Without exaggerating: the hotel in the last one and a half months has been practically 100 per cent full. There were absolutely no premium class rooms, I think guests liked their design and mobile beds.

Have you adjusted to cooperating with airport personnel?

Before staying in the hotel for the night, our visitors can check-in their luggage on their flight and to stay in the hotel without their luggage. In the morning passengers go from the hotel directly to passport control. The scheme is innovative, and until recent times was simply fantastic.

What contingency do the guests at Yotel have?

A significant share of our guests stay with us as they have early morning flights. So, they arrive at 10 o’clock in the evening and at 5 o’clock in the morning to make their flight. Another category of guests at our hotel are passengers on transatlantic flights, among which are many businessmen. They fly into Gatwick in the early hours of the morning, at 6 or 7 o’clock, and have to wait 4-7 hours for their next flight. Their demands are minimal: to get changed, take a shower, sleep for a few hours, and answer a few urgent e-mails. At Yotel this is not a problem as all our rooms have free Wi-Fi. Another category of guests are people who were late for their flights or whose flight has been delayed. Such people stay at Yotel for their different reasons.

Although the hotel and restaurant businesses sometimes unite, how did you risk starting work in an absolutely other area?

Probably, the success of my first enterprise – YO!sushi inspired me. Then I understood that I could be a trailblazer in other areas too.

When and how did it occur to you to create Yotel?

About 5-6 years ago. Initially I was inspired by the Japanese capsule hotel. And then I flied from flew on a British Airways flight to Kuwait in business class and, laying in bed, thought: "I want to create a hotel in which the guests would feel the same sensations, as I do now." Then I found a designer who had just worked on British Airways, and began the Yotel project.

The concept of Yotel is quite novel. Were you not afraid that somebody might steal your idea?

Well it is like at school … [it is possible to do your homework, but to not learn anything - Vedomosti]. I think: the more you talk about an idea, the more you convince yourself of it as a reality, the more possible it is to find an associate. Having the belief that your idea is profitable is already half realizing it. I always thought that the most intolerant opponent in the struggle for an idea was my own brain. Can you imagine – giving first class sensations for a low price?! Thumbing through glamorous magazines, average people think that they too would like to afford some of what billionaires have. Therefore we set ourselves the aim of creating luxury for a low price, cheaper than Holiday Inn or Travelodge. In my childhood only movie stars travelled by limousine, and now they can be rented without ceremony.

How much has been invested in the project?

In the next five years we plan to invest nearly $100 million. My first project, the YO! Sushi chain of restaurants, stretched out for nine years as I used my own funds. Now when we have a large and influential partner - Kuwaiti company IFA Hotels and Resorts, business can develop much more quickly.

Have there been people dissatisfied with your hotel?

You’ll be surprised but our hotel, only having been operating for a month, started to take the lead positions in every possible ratings, practically all responses were enthusiastic. And, certainly, our visitors think that the cabins of the hotel are an ideal model in which to spend a few hours. Not days, but hours.

Has the success of the first hotel inspired you to open new hotels? When and where will the next hotel in your chain open?

At the end of this year we will open a second hotel in the UK, at Heathrow airport. At any rate this is what is planned. Construction is going at full speed, but work inside an airport, under the enhanced attention of security services, of course, is much more difficult than working under normal conditions. Therefore the timetable for construction may be extended, although we are trying to keep to it rigidly. In August we started taking preliminary bookings online for November - December for rooms in the new Yotel-Heathrow. Our third hotel, the first outside the UK, we plan to open in March of next year in Amsterdam, at Schipholl airport, outside the passport control zone. There will be 55 rooms in the hotel - both standard, and premium class. Our company is currently holding negotiations, but we cannot say yet what will come of them, some of which will be concluded quickly though. It so happens that the parties are trying to conclude a contract, but they are objective circumstances are interfering with this. As you know, construction at airports faces a number of approvals, which at times are hard to get. However our general strategy is to concentrate on Europe, and we plan to open hotels in Paris and Frankfurt.

Does Moscow interest you?

In one of his songs John Lennon said: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” And this is what happens in business. We are developing the Yotel concept for city centers and transport centers. We have had orders from large companies wanting to equip their offices with such "cabins" so that people could work overtime in comfortable conditions. There is no problem of choosing a location. We have even carried out negotiations with Galactic Space Travel for Yotel accommodation in space. Imagine, Yotel Galactic! Some years ago such conversations could have seemed frivolous, but today they are quite intelligent. So Moscow could interest us, all I know is, you do not have enough hotels, rendering services at reasonable prices.

What are the tariffs at Yotel – for the night and for several hours?

We have two types of rooms in the hotel – we call them “cabins”: luxury Yot and standard Yot. The area of a standard Yot is 7 sq.m and has a double bed measuring 2 X1 meters in the center. Every cabin is equipped with a Techno Wall – an ergonomically saving system with a built in plasma TV and folding workstation. In addition, cabins are equipped with free-of-charge Wi-Fi, dial-up Internet, the opportunity to receive scores of TV channels and radio programs and a music center with a huge content-base. The flat screen with a diagonal of 20 inches is intended for TV programs, videogames and Internet connection. Choosing commands on the screen, it is possible to communicate with the attendants.

The bathroom is equipped with the latest equipment, there is a tremendous shower capable in just a few seconds of giving any organism new strength, a hair drier and a heated mirror. The cost of a standard room is 25 pounds sterling for 4 hours, and a maximum of 50 pounds for a night. The standard price for a night is 40 pounds sterling. Premium class rooms have an area of 10 sq.m. They have a mobile bed measuring 2 х 1.3 meters which can become a sofa at the flick of a switch. There is bags of space under the bed for luggage.

The diagonal of the flat screen in premium class cabins is 23 inches, there is a cable for connecting an iPod and music equipment. The bathroom is better equipped bathroom with an overhead rain shower. Such rooms cost 30 pounds sterling for 4 hours, and a night costs no more than 80 pounds, and on average 50-60 pounds. In addition, we have two exclusive premium class rooms for visitors with limited possibilities, equipped in the best image, in each of the rooms are two beds located in two circles, for the visitor and those accompanying them.

How does the personnel cope with such a flow of visitors?

Check-in and check-out procedures are formalized as much as possible. At the airport it is necessary to follow the signs "to the left" and you will get the hotel. As a rule, you will already have your reservation number confirmed either by e-mail or sms. This data is entered into our automatic system, which gives visitors an electronic room key. You can order food and drinks in your room round the clock. You can constantly contact “cabin crew” online. As a rule, each employee combines several functions. Breakfast takes 15 minutes. The hotel system is sparse for guests: you won’t communicate in general with anyone in the hotel until you will need to. The system intends to decrease the expenses for the service of the hotel in order to make your stay cheaper. Our hotel is a fantastic haven for travelers who do not want to overpay. And it allows us to concentrate on quality of service. Yes, the "cabins" of the hotel cannot be called big, but everything in them is of exclusive quality. The mattresses, for example, are handmade from ecologically pure coconut fibers, sheep’s wool, and latex. Lodgers do not necessarily need a lot of space but they do need to sleep well.

How do you clean the rooms? Because some hotels are empty for badly solving this problem.

Hotel rooms are traditionally cleaned in the morning, there are certain times when visitors of a hotel can check in and check out. Our "crew" are always on call and clean a room within 15 minutes of the visitor leaving. This is possible as the interiors of the cabins are decorated with easy wash materials for which cleaning a lot of the time is not required. But for insurance we reserve an hour in the booking system. We were very anxious about whether or not we would be able to support such a high rate, but it seems we can! We can "sell" cabins 2-3 times a day.

Will you limit opening hotels to airports or will you also open hotels at railway stations?

In the long term we plan to open hotels not only in places of large traffic intersections, but also in central part of cities. Then it will be easier to regulate the filling of the chain’s hotels. Although there is a certain problem here too: in the central part of world capitals it is very difficult to find empty land plots. But here our chain has one advantage. As you know, in Yotel hotels there are no external windows. Therefore we can accept a premises which owners of restaurants, boutiques and expensive hotels would refuse. Ground floors of old industrial buildings are even suitable for us, it doesn’t even have to be equipped just in the center.

Will the concept of the hotel in the airport differ from that in a city center?

Of course, first of all because visitors of a hotel in city centre will spend not just a few hours in a hotel, but a few days. Probably, our target guests in central hotels will be businessmen during workdays and tourists at the weekend. We are considering the possibility of increasing the share of premium class cabins and the possibility of reserving adjacent cabins or even double cabins, which would be extremely convenient for people who have come to celebrate a family celebration, for example, a wedding.

You have spent a long time on realizing the Yotel project. Could you have avoided this?

Indeed, we have spent five years on the project from the idea to fulfilling it. We rejected tens sketches before we got the variant that suited us the most. When you ask me whether it was impossible to do it more quickly, I will answer that really radical, innovative things are not suddenly created. Only after months of laborious work, representing a product in the market, you will hear an enthusiastic "Вау!” I always aspired to it. And if you try to ask abstract questions, for example to find out whether people want to spend the night in a room with an area of 10 or even 7 sq.m with no natural light, then of course, the answer will be “no!” You cannot carry out market research of a market that has not been generated yet.

A hotel is a temporary shelter, but people are most related to their home. What is your house like?

My house is also a bit unusual, I live with my daughter on a yacht. I bought it in 2005 and have converted it. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a big and small office, a lounge, and a deck with a view of the Thames. On the stern of the yacht there is a high-speed boat on which we sometimes take out not only on the Thames, but also in France and Holland for example.

You are a millionaire, continually expanding your business. How much money do you plan to make in the next 5-10 years?

A lot!

And more precisely, you value your own possibilities in business?

You know, there is a saying: If you want to make God laugh, show him a business plan.