What happens when you send a midlifer to a hotel designed for millennials

“We thought it would be good,” said my editor, Rachel, “if you stayed in a hotel that was not necessarily up your street.” Hmm. That, I mused, could mean one of three things: it is achingly trendy; it is sultry and sexy; or it is vegan.

“Great idea,” I replied, cheerfully. I’m a good girl, I am, though in truth my heart sank. I still haven’t recovered from the utter contempt with which I was regarded at hip Costes, in Paris, by a receptionist wearing nothing much more than a diamond stud in her belly button; nor the spate of early eco hotels, where beanbags were liberally scattered, everything was made from macramé, and alfalfa sprouts were about all you got to eat. 

As for sultry and sexy, the W hotel, off Leicester Square, remains forever seared in my memory. Its corridors were so dark, you needed a serious torch to guide you to your room, and the crisps and chocolate bars were mixed with a choice of sex aids.

“The hotel is called Inhabit,” Rachel continued. “It’s all about wellness, yoga, meditation and plant-heavy, meat-free food. And it’s in Paddington.” Paddington? As in Bear? As in bedsits and crummy hotels?

In fact, on closer inspection, Paddington has become a lot smarter than it used to be, and the corner round Inhabit Queen’s Gardens, which the hotel website describes as Bayswater, is positively charming. Fine, then, as a London base for a night or two, but as for the vegan-yoga slant – is that what I want when I stay in a London hotel?

Here’s the story behind Inhabit. Nadira Lalji’s family were exiled from Uganda by Idi Amin as part of the Asian expulsion in 1972. They came to Britain, then settled in Canada, ­prospering in real estate, and later returned to London to create a port­folio of 20 hotels, including the Montcalm, at Marble Arch.

A dozen years ago, Nadira had graduated from Harvard and then Cambridge, to which she had won a scholarship, but her father’s serious illness had left her concerned for her mother and worried about the future of the family business.

She sought strength and solace in meditation, mindfulness and Ayurveda. After her father’s death, she and her cousin Rahim took on the business, intent on updating their hotels and giving them a strong focus on sustainability, eco­friendliness, community, art and res­torative practices. 

They began by trans­forming their former Park hotel, in Southwick Street, into the first Inhabit, and now the doors to Inhabit Queen’s Gardens (with 158 small but perfectly formed rooms) and Inhale, a ­subterranean wellness centre, have opened. More Inhabits will follow as the pair transform their properties.

Key staff are touchingly enthusiastic about the company’s new stance. “This is the future,” said Fernando, the impassioned restaurant manager, indicating the open-plan restaurant/lobby/reception/library at Inhabit Queen’s Gardens.

I looked around, trying to app­ear suitably awed by the relaxed, low-key Scandinavian-style space. It occurred to me that it is actually hard-working people such as Fernando, whose heritage is a quarter Spanish, Romanian, Equatorial Guinean and Cameroonian, who are the real future.

What Fernando is referring to, of course, is the sustainable furnishings, the nature-inspired art on the walls and the vegan menus created by Yeotown, a Devon wellness retreat beloved of Nadira and her mother. Service was (we are getting used to this) very slow at times, but my soy burger with cavolo nero and seaweed salad on the side was much more delicious than I had expected.

Mind you, I was ravenous. They could have given me sawdust or even alfalfa sprouts and I would have wolfed them down. As I mentioned, I’m a good girl, so I had spent the afternoon digging deep into the hotel’s Inhale wellness programme, delivered by an enthusiastic young team. 

First, I indulged in a deeply calming, two-hour full-body massage using heavenly Gaia oils. There followed a swift session in the gym (I hate gyms) and half an hour in the steam room and salt room. Lastly, I had a private and very intensive hour-long yoga and meditation class with the head of wellness, Maria.

I’m not good at yoga ­– I am better at receiving massages ­– and, frankly, an ox would be more supple. But Maria was brilliant and I am determined to stop falling over, so I have signed up for lessons at home. I never thought a London hotel would prompt that: thank you, Rachel.

Double rooms from £170 per night; breakfast from £10