Absolutely—I’d include it in the section about the missing room amenities, as it really reinforces how odd the experience was.
I stayed at Ruby Lucy for two nights this week, paying £342 per night, and unfortunately it was one of the most disappointing hotel experiences I’ve had.
The first frustration came at check-in. Everything is centred around digital self check-in and creating your own room key. It’s not the warm welcome you’d expect at this price point, although I have to say the majority of the staff we encountered afterwards were genuinely lovely and very friendly.
The rooms are incredibly small, and for over £340 a night I simply couldn’t believe what was missing. There was no bottled water, no tea or coffee making facilities, no fridge, no iron or ironing board, and not even basic bathroom items such as cotton wool pads or buds.
When I questioned this, I was told, “That’s the concept.” Unfortunately, it’s a concept I just don’t understand. Having to get dressed every morning and walk down the corridor just to make an instant Nescafé coffee in a paper cup felt ridiculous for a hotel charging this kind of money. Even more bizarre was discovering that if you wanted to iron your clothes, you were expected to do so on an ironing board positioned in the corridor opposite the lifts. I genuinely couldn’t believe that guests paying over £340 a night were expected to stand ironing in a public hallway.
We moved to a slightly larger room for the second night, which was app