In the same way that Ikea cornered the home furnishings market with irresistibly cheap but well-designed products, and Easyjet made low-budget flying trendy, the German hotel chain Motel One is cornering the hotel market.
Having started in 2000 in Munich, the rapidly growing chain has rolled out new hotels in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle over the last few years.
And in these British cities saturated with dreary B&Bs and chain hotels, the Germans are taking over, with the motto: ‘Great design for little money’.
The Newcastle hotel, one of the newest additions to Motel One’s British portfolio, is a case in point.
The key factor is the price for a city centre hotel – it’s hard to argue with rooms from £59 for a single and £74 from a double in a superb buzzing location in the heart of the city’s shopping and restaurant area, five minutes’ walk from Newcastle railway station.
Children under 12 stay for free with a parent. You might think that for that price and location, a hotel must be a bit of a dive, but Motel One is clean, fresh and comfortable with a modern, design-led European coolness.
The lobby and bar areas are spacious, with dark walls, steel furniture, exposed brickwork and technical lighting creating a raw industrial atmosphere in keeping with Newcastle’s history.
Around the bar, the black-and-white striped wallpaper references Newcastle football club, collages showcase the work of the local inventor of the 1829 steam locomotive ‘Rocket’, and pictures remind guests of Newcastle’s ship-building heritage and bridges.
Our room on the sixth and top floor was small but perfectly formed and immaculately clean, with a comfortable king-size bed and modern shower room.
Like a budget airline, this is a stripped back hotel which manages to be comfortable and modern by cutting out some of the expensive frills other hotels have. There’s no room service, no gym or spa, no mini-bar, no phone in the room, and if you want an iron (or anything else) you have to call down to reception from your mobile.
But these hardly feel like privations for the cost, since reception is staffed 24 hours a day and Deliveroo will bring food from more than a dozen city centre restaurants to your hotel room within 45 minutes. Breakfast can be added as an extra for £9.50, and there is free wifi.
Reception staff were friendly and keen to be of assistance and if you want to borrow a free iPad for your stay, you only have to ask them for one.
There was no Sky TV, but Freeview was fine. No wardrobe to hang our clothes, but the single clothes rail provided with wooden hangers was all we really needed anyway. A little cupboard tucked into the wall beside the bed cleverly folded down to make a shelf with a spotless kettle, cups and tea and coffee.
The bathroom was too small to have a bath, but the Hansgrohe raindance shower was just right. Instead of glasses, expect film-wrapped plastic cups; and instead of individually wrapped toiletries to plunder, there was a large bottle of organic shampoo and another of organic handwash which had both been used by previous guests and which we left for the next occupants.
It wasn’t a room to luxuriate in, but for an overnight stay in the city centre where you just want a clean, comfortable place to sleep and wash, it would be hard to beat Motel One.
We worried it might be noisy – Geordies out ‘on the toon’ not being renowned for quiet decorum – but the room was well soundproofed and we heard only a little bit of singing on the streets around 7pm, allowing us a peaceful night’s sleep.
