View from the Room: Room Mate Bruno - Rotterdam
We have already added RoomMates to our minute list of boutique hotel chains. Indeed the last one to be added was a recent stay too.
Three stops from Rotterdam Central but more perfect than that, next to Foodhallen, the postcard-friendly Erasmus Bridge and the beautiful backdrop behind it plus wonderful neighbourhoods within walking distance. And the nearest metro is just a couple of minutes’ walk and the sight as you come up the escalator out into the open is one to behold.
For sure the Room Mates Bruno (named after an actual living person although I didn’t feel the need to research that) is an ultra-modern, plush, primary-coloured haven. They’ve made great use of an old port building adding some rooftop apartments so there is a wonderful contrast between the heritage brickwork and the paint factory explosion inside.
Considering we looked down to the main street from our 3rd-floor room, there was very little noise. Certainly, there was none coming from inside the building. I never heard a door close or a housekeeping trolly goes past and yet we passed in the corridor.
We picked a fully-equipped Standard room just to have that extra space for a five-night stay. I did move the sofa to a different wall so we had somewhere else to sit and see the wall-mounted TV rather than the large, comfy (2 joined together) bed. The light duvet is accompanied by four assorted pillows.
A very large desk next to a large sofa, which we felt suited another wall better, so we moved it.
Service
A solid welcome in the usual perfect European English that puts most Brits to shame. A kettle was happily supplied so we could have our own filter coffee bags. In fact, when on the first day there wasn’t one available I was introduced to the complimentary coffee machine in reception which also supplied hot (and cold) water. When filling up our travel cups to bring to the room on the first morning, staff were quick to find out if a kettle was now available. It was duly bought up to our room before our coffee had even brewed.
Bathroom
A modern, Spanish style - meaning a less than private toilet, and yet it all works. With no door to the bathroom itself, only the toilet cubicle has a frosted door. You still need to turn the telly up loud.
The bathtub is deep and spacious with controls taps on the long side, although you have to twist your body around to reach from the outside, fine once you are in.
The large shower is detachable for easy bath rinsing and there is space all around the tub for toiletries and mercifully, there is a towel rail under the sink where IT SHOULD BE.
Talking of which, full-sized shampoo, conditioner and shower gel are wall-mounted, although you need to stand up in the bath to reach to save it pumping straight out onto your face but narrowly missing your eye.
There are stacks of mostly paper sachets of body lotion, soaps and shower caps too.
The bathroom had two bath and two hand towels along with a bath mat and I found spares in a cupboard too. Towels were left untouched unless you put them on the floor in which case housekeeping replaced them.
Storage
The room has ample space and storage with a double wardrobe with 6 quality wooden hangers plus a floor-to-ceiling cupboard providing plenty of shelves next to a super large desk.
There is good size drawer and shelf on either bedside plus the large luggage shelf
There’s even space under the bed and the top of the wardrobe which went unused. I’d have liked coat hooks by the front door rather than placed by the mirror on the other side of the room.
A large desk area with a chair on which the pod coffee machine sat.
Thee is even a shelf under the bathroom sink and plenty of space around it.
Plug points/USB
Plenty everywhere that we needed including 2 USBs by the desk and 2 on one (my) side of the bed. There are sockets above both bedside tables too. There’s a toothbrush charge point in the bathroom
Mirror
A well lit large one in the bathroom plus a magnifying one on the left. There is a full length near a power socket on the opposite wall to the front door with lots of sweet messages written on it. These carried on to all the mirrors in the lifts too. Room Mates clearly wanted our spirits to be lifted while enjoying their hospitality.
Lights
Where they needed to be and easy to operate. It’s refreshing to find a hotel room where one does not need instructions for them. The bedside lights gave great light and in addition the obligatory bendy, reading lights. Still never get tired of them
Food & drink
We never had breakfast in the hotel as there were plenty of choices to keep us going around Rotterdam. The first-floor bar at this time was open Friday and Saturday nights only and we did take advantage of the £10 gift card we gained by reserving through Hotels.com. For in-room refreshment, two heavy tumblers in the bathroom plus 2 wine glasses
Amenities
Iron, board, hairdryer and lots of spare toiletries, loo rolls, towels (which got warmed up by the fridge in the next cupboard) and even a roll of bin bags. Sadly there were no bathrobes or slippers which would have come in handy.
Small pod coffee machine in the room plus a large one in reception.
Milk pots are supplied upon request.
Room service was reasonable although we didn’t need to use it.
A luggage store which is handy to unpack the smaller suitable and thereafter used as a space to store all the things we need when we leave the room: sunglasses, bags, masks, hats, etc.
Fridge includes a mini-bar but space for our water bottles too.
Safe
Air con which I never quite figured out but was able to turn off with a bit of fiddling.
Tissues
There are three lifts plus stairs which we mostly used to come down. The Room Mate has followed another trend of having a big open space in the middle so you can look down at all the floors - I’ve seen this in a couple of hotels in recent months
Right, where are all the Room Mates? We need to do this again.
June 2022
So we stayed in the hotel again, September 2023.
The service was somewhat different this time:
It took 4 people in out of our room a day to get the wi-fi working via a system reset.
The aircon never worked properly, it was freezing all the time and we consulted staff numerous times to address this. Even switching it off did not get the room to ‘room temperature’. After a couple of days they bought up a noisy heater, unfathomable as we wouldn't need heat at home in September! Thankfully warmer weather came.
The toiletries didn’t get replenished. At one point, I detached the shower gel from the wall and left it on the edge of the bath, then in the bath and it still never got filled, despite housekeeping doing a tidy up. On the third day, I had to call.
The bar wasn’t open so we weren’t able to enjoy our complimentary drinks as we did last time. We were offered anything from the mini-bar. Not the same though.
