I visited a micro-hotel in NYC, where rooms are half the size of the average hotel and you have to walk through the bathroom to get to the bed — and it felt way more spacious than I expected

arlo soho 1205

In New York City, a boutique micro-hotel offers 150-square-foot guest rooms — some with bunk beds — and a "bodega" in lieu of room service.
Arlo Hotels operates two boutique hotels in Manhattan: one in SoHo and one in NoMad, with another set to open near Hudson Yards in the next year or two.
We visited the SoHo location, where average rates range from $335 to $535 a night.
The rooms were definitely small, but for someone who doesn't plan to spend much time in their hotel room and isn't traveling with multiple large pieces of luggage, I think it would be a fun and memorable place to stay.

Measuring just 150 square feet, the guest rooms at Arlo Hotels aren't meant for people who plan on spending most of their time holed up in their rooms.

At Arlo's boutique micro-hotels in New York City, the rooms are less than half the size of an average hotel room, there's a 24-hour "bodega" in lieu of room service, and you can sleep in bunk beds. What the individual guest rooms lack in size, they make up for in creative, space-saving design, according to managing director Javier Egipciaco.

The average size of a hotel room in the US was about 330 square feet in 2015, CNBC reported, and the average rate for a hotel room in Manhattan is about $216 per night in 2018, according to The Real Deal.

On Yelp, a couple of people compared Arlo to a hostel, with one calling it "overpriced fancy hostel" that lacks storage and space to work.

But Arlo's philosophy is to offer an abundance of welcoming common space and activities to offset the smaller rooms.

"The micro-room concept was one that we came to market with in the beginning, but then we realized pretty quickly that Arlo was a lifestyle and not necessarily a micro-concept lifestyle," Egipciaco told Business Insider.

Inclusivity is a large part of their brand, he said, which is why the common areas are all open to the public without requiring anyone to buy anything. The hotel includes expansive, open shared space that comprises a lobby bar, an airy lounge area, a courtyard, a rooftop bar, and a restaurant that serves healthy, seasonal fare and is run by chef Harold Moore.

We took a tour of Arlo's SoHo location to see just how small the rooms actually are and met the managing director to hear what Arlo Hotel is all about.

Here's what it was like.

DON'T MISS: 45 hotels around the world with stunning views