In the heart of London’s West End, the first hotel from this new spin-off brand is big on slick tech and design features but small on actual room space
I walk straight past the hub by Premier Inn when I arrive from the Trafalgar Square end of St Martin’s Lane. All those Lenny Henry ads have programmed my brain to expect a purple hue and I wasn’t looking for low-key, lime-green branding.
I’m met by a couple of cool young things who ask me how I’m doing and if I have any evening plans. Fine, I say. Yes. They seem a bit put out that I haven’t downloaded the hotel’s app, which lets guests control the TV, lights and air-con from a phone, contains a city guide and eases the check-in process. But their smiles only wane for an instant and I’m soon directed, via the lifts, to my fourth-floor room.
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