Woodroffe intends to open his first Yotel!, with 200 windowless rooms each measuring just 10 metres squared, in 2005.

Costing #70 per night, the rooms situated in a hotel in the centre of the capital have been inspired by Japan's capsule hotels and the lay-out of first-class cabins on commercial planes.

In order to overcome the exorbitant cost of building property in London, Woodroffe has decide to make the rooms compact and place the hotel on an unexploited site.

"It's a very simple hotel to operate," Woodroffe explained in an interview with AFP. "We can put them in airports around the world, in the basement where there is no natural light, above the carpark in a supermarket, on a roof of a building... (even) in the crossing of a river."

Despite the rooms measuring only 3.6 metres by 2.75 and with a single window looking, not onto the street outside, but the hotel's corridor, customers' comfort during their stay will be of the highest standard, Woodroffe insisted. Each room will feature a rotating bed, wireless Internet access and a flat screen television with the ability to play hundreds of films and CDs.

There will be a small bathroom and lighting that can be manipulated by each individual to change the ambiance of their room.

"It is very luxurious and will feel more like being on a luxury yacht than it does in a hotel room," said Woodroffe, who is well known in Britain for his YO! Sushi chain of restaurants.

At YO! Sushi diners are treated to an array of raw fish, served on a conveyor belt, while robots bring them their drinks. Launched in 1997, YO! Sushi has 17 restaurants in Britain, while Woodroffe (53) has also opened chains in Greece and Dubai.

Oriental inspiration
Like Yo! Sushi, Yotel! has taken its inspiration from Japan. "One of my formulae is to take things from the East and adapt them to the West," explained Woodroffe, who has been likened to Virgin boss Richard Branson and EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who plans to open his own budget hotels, charging as little as five pounds a night for a central London room.

"Soon after I started YO! Sushi, people said you are going to be the new Virgin (boss) and I looked around for new things to do," said Woodroffe.

"I looked at Japanese capsule/love hotels, I decide that neither of them were right for me to do, but I still wanted to do something with the Yo! brand to create radical solutions providing very good value for money."

The new mile-high club?
Woodroffe said the idea for Yotel! was born out of the entrepreneur being upgraded to first class on a British Airways flight and falling in love with the airline's beds.

"I thought I am going to find the guy who designed the first class cabin and get him to design a hotel for me," he recalled.

Woodroffe's entry into the hotel business comes as Britain enjoys a revival to its tourism sector after taking a hit in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks on the United States.

According to the tourism body Visit London, a total 12.7 million tourists should descend on the British capital in 2004. "This year we are on course to be back at the levels before the 9/11," said Jamie Talmage at Visit London.