TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—WOM Allenby, the first of a new brand of pod-style hotels, will open next month in the Mediterranean seaside city of Tel Aviv. Located at 21 Allenby Street, the hotel is a block away from Tel Aviv’s beach promenade and offers 40 stylish, private and modern pod rooms in both single and double-occupancy arrangements. WOM’s new hybrid accommodation is engineered for today’s contemporary, urban traveler who values design, a sense of community and the experience of staying in a central urban location at a wallet-friendly price point. WOM is a member of Brown Hotels, the pioneering Tel Aviv-based hospitality group known for its diverse portfolio of design-led, boutique hotels.
WOM has three room categories, solo pod (1 person), twin pod (2 persons) and king pod (2 persons) with rates beginning at 40€ per night. WOM Allenby offers 40 pods with a fresh and sleek design. Each pod is outfitted with a comfy bed, Egyptian cotton sheets, desk, a sink, A/C, TV screen and sound system, storage space and a private safety deposit box. Every three to four rooms share a single-occupancy bathroom in the hotel’s hallway that is cleaned in between each use. Hotel amenities include Maapilim, an artisanal grooming and skincare line created with natural ingredients from the Mediterranean.
Guests of WOM will be treated to a seamless experience with all needs streamlined via the WOM App, available for download for iPhone and Android phones. Via the WOM App, guests can check in/check out, control their pod’s facilities (light, sound, WiFi, TV & communication), share group and activity chats with fellow travelers, communicate with hotel staff and book tours. WOM Allenby is located under the new Lighthouse Hotel by Brown Hotels and guests of WOM are welcome to use the hotel’s facilities, including the fifth floor restaurant and Haiku Skybar on the 18th floor.
Was Former Office Building
The concept of WOM was developed to tackle the issues of limited space and high prices in dense urban cities. In Tel Aviv specifically, many older office buildings have stood vacant because they are either too small for a large corporation or too large for smaller organizations. WOM occupies such a space and has transformed a former office building into a new designation and design-led hotel. WOM can open a hotel on less than 500 SQM of space and is able to tap into small to medium office spaces that a normal hotel could not.
“We founded WOM with the belief that we could change the way the travel world uses space,” says Co-Founders, Owners and Co-CEOs Lihi Gerstner and Din Gerstner. “WOM is built upon a community of architects, designers and hoteliers who are on a mission to transcend the traditional concept of hospitality and provide everyone with access to stay in the best locations for urban travel at affordable prices.”
Coming from the world of architecture and interior design, the Gerstners understood that space is rare in dense urban cities and rarely used in a productive way. Their compact design of WOM is composed of the necessary specifications to accommodate the modern traveler’s essential needs, design sensibility and personal belonging storage space requirements for the duration of a short weekend trip.
Urban Travel Accommodation Redefined
“We took our background in architecture, our love for technology and passion for sustainability together with the Brown family and their immense experience in hospitality, to redefine urban travel accommodation,” says sibling-duo Lihi and Din Gerstner. “We’re driven to create a new way of urban traveling that focuses on the city experience and the connections we make to form a global community. WOM provides comfort and a sense of style within a minimal sized space designed for the modern traveler’s essential needs.”
WOM’s innovative design is eco-friendly and adheres to core sustainable design values. All pods are constructed with pre-fabricated steel structures for quick and precise on-site assembly. WOM’s efficient and smart design allows for the doubling of standard hotel units using less space and time for construction. The brand only uses eco-friendly and sustainable materials and construction methods. The use of cellulose insulation material (re-used paper), along with soundproof-certified partitions and doors provide each pod room with advanced thermal insulation and acoustic levels. Each pod is soundproofed with an impressive 45 decibels, fitting strict Israeli hotel regulations.
The hotel’s lighting scheme is outfitted solely with LED A-rated energy efficient bulbs. The building’s water system is reused to refresh and cool the interior pods and public spaces, wasting less water through the heating and cooling systems and lowering the electric energy use. WOM’s construction was handled by the local workforce with locally sourced materials and incorporates as much recycled materials (wood, plaster, recycled paper and recycled PVC) as possible and minimal use of plastic.
WOM is a fast-growing brand with plans for expansion in both Israel and across Western Europe. WOM Neve Tzedek will open in Fall 2019 with 140 rooms.
