*Header image credits to Ruby Lucy Hotel
So it was going to be New Year’s Eve, we didn’t have any plans but we also didn’t want to just spend it in our tiny studio apartment. We thought why not try to book a hotel to spend the night! It’s rather last minute and, as you can imagine, it was really difficult to find a good hotel deal in central London this late. I was desperately searching through the internet to no avail. After a couple of frustrating hours of struggling to find the perfect hotel, just right I was about to call it a night and give up on the idea, Ruby Lucy Hotel popped up on my search and it sealed the deal.
Ruby Lucy Hotel had literally just officially opened for booking that night so we were just really lucky! If I had given up a few minutes before, we would’ve completely missed it. What ticked the boxes for us is that it seemed to be in a central enough location (close enough if we wanted to see the fireworks), it’s modernly designed, and the prices are reasonable. Since it had literally just opened its doors to the public, we appreciated that there might be some teething issues and we’re okay with that. In this post, we’ll be giving our honest review and rating of our stay at the hotel.
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The Ruby Hotels: A Lean Luxury Philosophy
The Ruby Lucy Hotel London is part of the Ruby Hotels group, which is a Munich-based German hotel group running with a “lean luxury” philosophy. They’ve got a number of hotels across Germany, as well as Austria and Switzerland. The Ruby Lucy Hotel is their first opening in a non-German speaking country and they are also planning to open a second London hotel in Notting Hill in the near future as well.
Hotel Review: Ruby Lucy Hotel
Date of stay: December 2019
Room type: Economy Double Room
Length of stay: 1 night
Room & Amenities
For an Economy Double Room, by London standards, we’re surprised to find the room more spacious than expected. It’s not huge, obviously, but it’s not a shoebox. The room is quite stylishly designed and follows a bright and minimalistic interior. It’s simple but showcased a good hint of sophistication.
Walking in, you’d find the wardrobe and safe next to the door. There’s a full-length mirror behind the door as well. On one side, there’s the sink along with the tablespace, and on the other side is the toilet plus a walk-in shower. There is a little stool and working space along the table bar. At the end of it hangs a flat-screen TV right opposite a large double bed, which was luxuriously comfortable to sleep in and featured quality bedding.
The main piece of the room ought to be the Marshall speakers and guitar amp in the room. This is available in every room at the Ruby Lucy Hotel and they add a unique character to the room. We tested the speakers out and they do work quite well! Don’t worry about loud music in the room though as the rooms are all sound-proof.
Each room is well-equipped with clean towels, a hairdryer, and toiletries, including shampoo, shower gel, hair conditioner, soap, and body lotion. The toiletries are from their house brand named Soul Elixir and they smell lovely! The only thing missing, I’d say, are toothbrushes though they do have mouth-rinsing glasses.
Location
The hotel is situated in Waterloo at the Lower Marsh, which is quite near the London Eye. To show you how close it is, the roads outside the hotel had been blocked for the fireworks after 10 pm and we actually managed to see glimpses of the fireworks from our room!
It’s generally easy for sightseeing if you’re travelling to London – not only are you near the London Eye but you’re also near the Westminster Bridge to reach the likes of Big Ben and the Parliament. It’s also very easy to just cross either the Waterloo Bridge to Covent Garden or the Golden Jubilee Bridge to reach Embankment. If you need to take the underground or trains, Waterloo station is practically next door as well. There might not be a lot of restaurants & cafes in the immediate area, but there are plenty of options just across the river and the South Bank Street Food Market is also just a few steps away from the hotel.
Looking for food options nearby? Check these places out:
- Covent Garden Halal Food Guide
- London Soho Halal Food Guide
Style & Facilities
As already mentioned, the hotel follows a “lean luxury” philosophy, which means laidback comfort and stylish characters over formalities. We loved the concept as it’s simple, not too over the top, but without compromising on quality.
On each floor, there is a vending machine and there are both hot water and drinking tap water available. However, during our visit, which is only their second day of opening, none of them was working yet. The ground floor area is the bar & cafe that serves breakfast daily and drinks throughout the day. We didn’t try anything from there during our stay so won’t be able to provide a review.
Service
The whole check-in and check-out processes were really quick which are super convenient if you’re on the go. We didn’t require much staff attention over our one-night stay so couldn’t comment much on the service. But overall, we were greeted with smiley faces and people had been polite.
Value for Money
For NYE, we paid £261 a night for the Economy Double Room. On regular days, it’s about £130-160 a night. Given its location, it’s not a bad price compared to all the other ones around central London. The luxury and comfort are definitely of good value for money.
Overall Ratings
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Overall Rating
Summary
Affordable luxury comfort at the heart of central London.