YOTEL Melbourne will be located at 63-69 City Road in Southbank, walking distance from the CBD. YOTEL’s model of ‘everything you need and nothing you don’t’, provides corporate and leisure travellers with affordable luxury that offers innovative design, quality, comfort, technology, and a sense of community.

All YOTELs will have Mission Control, a self-service check in and check out for customers, which also provides them with 24/7 assistance, much like a concierge desk. They will also have a club lounge for customers to relax, work, and connect with others. These lounges are cafés by day and bars by night, offering food to go 24/7. 

YOTEL Melbourne will have 244 rooms (cabins), all equipped with an adjustable SmartBed. It will also feature YOTEL’s KOMYUNITI spaces which provide guests with areas for co-working, informal meetings, relaxation and socialising spaces, a 24/7 gym, an outdoor terrace, as well as a viewing deck with a restaurant and a bar. 

Hubert Viriot, CEO of YOTEL, said, “Over the past two years, we have been actively searching for the right locations and partners to roll out our brands in Australia, a key market for our global expansion and a key feeder market for our hotels in the US, Singapore, and the UK. With solid market fundamentals and global appeal, Melbourne is the perfect gateway to launch our first property in the country. Moreover, we are delighted to enter the market with Cornerstone Partners Group, an international leader in hospitality and real estate investments.”

“Australia is a very sophisticated hotel market with strong stakeholders; however, we believe the affordable luxury segment has been underserved and that’s what YOTEL intends to solve.”

Viriot explained that YOTEL Melbourne will serve as the launching of YOTEL across Australia, similar to YOTEL’s strategy in the USA, which saw YOTEL opening its first property in New York in 2011. This has now grown into 10 hotels with operational synergies and strong distribution channels.

“We are already exploring development opportunities in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and we are confident we will soon have a robust hotel pipeline in place, targeting both our international customer base as well as the domestic market,” added Viriot. 

YOTEL Melbourne will be owned and developed by Cornerstone Partners Group and will be designed by CHT Architects.

Jason Chong, CEO of Cornerstone Partners Group, said, “Our group is focused on finding gaps in the hospitality markets across Asia Pacific. In Australia, we believe there is an avenue for disruptive brands such as YOTEL, which offer something completely new to the market. We were also impressed by YOTEL’s global development pipeline, focused on key gateway markets, which fits perfectly with our strategy, therefore it was only natural to join forces on our first project in Australia in Melbourne, one of the country’s most cosmopolitan and urbanised cities.”

YOTEL plans to bring all three of its brands to Australia, including YOTEL (the city centre concept), YOTELAIR (which offers stays from a few hours to more than 24 hours in airports/busy transport hubs locations), and YOTELPAD (designed for long-stay guests). 

YOTEL has hotels internationally in key destinations, such as London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore and Istanbul. Its development pipeline includes YOTEL, YOTELAIR and YOTELPAD hotels in Dubai, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Miami and Jakarta, as well as new YOTELs in London and Amsterdam. These are set to open within the next 3 years. 

YOTEL Melbourne is set to open in the first quarter of 2022.

Cover Photo: Lobby of YOTEL NYC. (Photo: NYC & Company)