So, you need a hotel for a couple of nights in London and don’t particularly fancy paying £300 for a dubious guesthouse in Kensington, where the carpets have seen three monarchs and the bathroom door doesn’t quite close. The smart money is on looking at Tube stations, particularly when the Elizabeth line is involved.

Which is how I found myself standing outside YOTELPAD in Stratford, surrounded by young folk who, if truth be told, weren’t exactly giving off the warm, welcoming vibes of a country house hotel. I stood there for a moment, questioning my life choices. Had I made a terrible mistake? Was this going to be one of those hotels that looks fantastic on the website but leaves you wondering whether you should have just stayed at home?

Thankfully, once you’re through the door, things improve considerably.

YOTELPAD is very much of the modern, minimalist school of hospitality. Checking in involves iPads rather than people, and getting into your room is a matter of door codes rather than keys. It’s all very efficient, although you do occasionally wonder whether the ultimate ambition of the hotel industry is to remove every last human being from the process.

The rooms are stylish enough, with plenty of wood, rainfall showers, a kitchenette and some clever use of space. It’s all neatly designed, and you get the feeling that somebody has spent a reasonable amount of time thinking about how to make a relatively small space work.

And then there’s the bed. Or, more accurately, the smart bed.

This is essentially a bed that folds up, giving you more room when you’re not sleeping. It’s a clever idea, particularly if you’re staying for a few nights and don’t fancy living in a room where the bed occupies roughly 97 per cent of the available floor space. Operating it does, however, give you the faint impression that you’re in a hospital room, albeit one where they’ve forgotten to attach the drip.

Location-wise, Stratford makes a lot of sense. With the Elizabeth line on your doorstep, getting around London is relatively painless, and you’re not paying West End prices simply to have a postcode that sounds impressive.

Is it luxurious? No. Is it particularly welcoming? Not in the traditional sense. But it’s modern, functional, reasonably stylish and, depending on when you book, potentially a rather more sensible use of your money than that £300 Kensington guesthouse.

YOTELPAD isn’t somewhere I’d necessarily choose for a romantic weekend or a leisurely hotel stay. But for a couple of nights in London, when you want somewhere clean, contemporary and well connected, it does the job.

Just don’t expect a warm welcome from the locals, or a bed that doesn’t require a small engineering degree.