by John Lindsay

Created on: March 16, 2009

Gatwick, UK- The two things you crave after a long flight from west to east are sleep and a bed. Happily these cravings are only thirty steps away from the arrivals door at Gatwick Airport's South Terminal.
Yotel' has a comfy bed and quiet cabin reserved for you. Sleep awaits.

Yotel is a different kind of hotel. The rooms or cabins are micro-sized. However, if sleep is the only thing on your mind or what's left of it after sitting upright in a pressurized metal tube for eight hours, this is the place for you.

This hotel has sister operations at London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. You can rent cabins by the hour, overnight or even all day. If you have just arrived from somewhere that is six, seven or more time zones away and you have to look at your watch three times just to figure out the local time, you need a place to sleep. Regular hotels are okay if you are checking for an overnight stay. But Yotel makes it convenient to stay for just the number of hours you require before your next flight.

You might prolong your journey by a few hours as a result, but lets face it, whether you are flying east or west, north or south, after 8 hours on an aircraft, not many passengers are functioning at 100%.

So renting your room by the hour at Yotel is a definite plus. They call their rooms "cabins", and it's the best term to understand what they offer which is a cross between an antique British telephone booth and a stateroom on an ocean liner. They are not spacious, but they have comfort nailed.

At Yotel check-in, you will notice three things: the strange purple lighting, the quiet and accompanying realization that you have left those loud annoying on-board announcements far behind you, and a check-in kiosk that asks for your confirmation number.

The Yotel staff is visible in the nearby galley and will happily assist to get you checked in quickly. However, the last hurrah of an overloaded jet lagged ego is competence so experienced Yotel guests write their confirmation number on a card in large block letters for fast access on arrival.

A paper receipt is printed out with your confirmation number, free
wi-fi code and the staff give you an electronic key to your cabin.

Getting your luggage into the cabin can be a bit irksome because the doors are heavy. But once inside, there is a pull-down table on which to place your luggage for easy access. There is only one window in a Yotel cabin and this looks out on the corridor. If you require an open window to let in the sound

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