YUST serves its guests AQUALEX water
Are you also someone who likes to keep up to date with the hippest places to be? In that case, the name ‘YUST’ is sure to ring a bell. It’s not easy to sum up the innovative hospitality concept in a single word. At YUST, you can stay for short or longer periods of time, enjoy fine dining, meetings or attend an event. Here, guests can draw tap water from the three AQUALEX appliances. “These are insanely popular”, or so we’re told.
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The impressive building in the heart of Berchem used to house a telephone factory. Five years ago, it was transformed into a hybrid concept with ‘Talk to Strangers’ as its motto. In keeping with this, the lounge has a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. “YUST in a nutshell?”, asks Vlad Semenets, Manager of YUST Antwerp. “We have a total of 100 rooms. You can rent our co-housing apartments for 1 to 12 months. They are fully furnished: with a well-equipped kitchen, furniture, and even towels, dishes and an internet connection. The target audience are expats who come to Antwerp for work, people in between places because of a renovation, digital nomads, etc. We also offer short-stay rooms: both regular hotel rooms for couples and families as well as hostel rooms. These group rooms are popular, especially now that hotel prices are higher than they used to be but guests’ budgets have not always followed suit.”
“In the ground-floor restaurant, Chef Laurens Jasperse serves next-level sharing dishes, including a vegan version. B2B clients can avail of our conference rooms for meetings. The set-up is very warm and cosy, unlike in many traditional hotels. Last but not least, we also have a rooftop bar overlooking Antwerp – a very popular spot in the summer”, Vlad says enthusiastically. YUST’s guests are extremely diverse, according to Vlad. “Here, we get a wide variety of people who love gastronomy and design. Age doesn’t matter; it’s more about mindset than age.” YUST Antwerp was the chain’s first establishment. Meanwhile, there is also a branch in Liège and another is scheduled to open in Brussels in late 2025.
Doing good
‘Doing good’ is the header under which YUST combines all its initiatives for reducing its impact on the planet. “Sustainability has been an important topic for us from the beginning”, we’re told. The restaurant mainly features seasonal produce on the menu, half of the Chef’s dishes are plant-based, and YUST primarily opts for local suppliers whenever possible. Rooms are predominantly cleaned using eco-friendly cleaning products and individually packaged personal care products are banned. Solar panels have been installed on the building. In the car park, you can easily charge your electric car at a charging station.
In 2020, YUST participated in the Dopper Wave campaign. It made a commitment to avoid single-use plastic bottles and encourage employees and guests to drink tap water. “Following this campaign, we decided to switch from bottled water to using only tap water”, Vlad says. “The minibars in the rooms were replaced by refill stations in the common areas. AQUALEX installed Arena equipment in our first, second and third floor corridors. There are glass bottles in the rooms that our guests can refill, and they can purchase a metal water bottle to carry with them outside the hotel. The tap water coolers have been around for several months now and are hugely popular. By now, we have already received a request from our long-stay guests to install an Arena on their floor as well.”
“The switch to AQUALEX water is completely in line with our efforts to obtain the Green Key label. This is an international quality label that highlights sustainable travel, meetings and leisure activities. It is also a great improvement in terms of logistics: we no longer have to stock bottles, carry them upstairs or take them to the glass container. This helps us save a lot of time. And we’re lucky, the design fits in perfectly. The appliances have the same RAL colour as the walls. This makes them blend perfectly into the interior.”
In 2024, YUST Antwerp will celebrate its fifth anniversary. “So, definitely keep an eye on us, because big things are coming!”, concludes Vlad.
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