I stayed in Cork’s smallest hotel room — here’s how I got on
If you’re planning a trip to Cork City anytime soon, you wouldn’t want to be short a few pound.
A quick Booking.com search for a room for one person on a random Saturday night this month in Cork’s city center returns rooms priced between €199 and €340. Searching for the same night, September 17, on Hotels.com, I am offered rooms priced at between €199 and €361. None of these are suites.
The astronomical price of staying overnight in a hotel in the city — which is the equivalent of more than a week’s rent for some — left me in an all-over sweat recently, as I had a commitment in the city and I am not on a TD salary. Enter, REZz.
Opened last summer, the funky building on MacCurtain Street/York Hill is the city’s first microsleeper, and treds the line somewhere between a budget hotel and hostel. It offers three room sizes, from Teeny-Tiny, to Tight Fit and Just Right. The smallest room is 10sqm.
And it was my home for the night on Saturday. Here’s how I got on.
I was pleasantly surprised when I rocked up to REZz’s brightly adorned premises. With a striking purple and blue exterior, it’s inviting from the outside and once I squeeze in the partially opened front door (start how you mean to go on I guess), check-in is a breeze. I am made aware of the fact I will need my keycard to gain entry to the main building after 10pm, and to access the lift to my floor, but other than that, it’s away you go.
When I get to my 10sqm room, which was priced at €109 on the Saturday night in question, my first thought is “this isn’t so bad.” As a 24-year-old who isn’t long out of the days of dire college rooms, I am used to the feeling of being slightly claustrophobic as standard. I’ve also previously stayed in The Devlin Hotel in Ranelagh with my partner, which was just 12 sqm for a double bed room for two. So, I am mostly just grateful it’s me, and me alone, tonight.
Unlike The Devlin, which packed a Mini Fridge, a Nespresso Machine, a hairdryer and other such necessities in to the small space, however, my Teeny-Tiny REZz room is decidedly bare. There’s no kettle with accompanying teabags and UHT milk, or even a bottle of water. Ditto a hairdryer. You can forget an iron or desk and table, which usually come standard in hotels these days.
What you do get is a Multi-Channel 50″ Smart TV mounted on the wall at the end of your bed, and a power shower with a rainfall head, which I wasn’t expecting. I’ve paid a lot more, for a lot less. Bathroom essentials like soap and shower gel are also provided, as is high-speed wifi.
Overall, I only spent about 8 hours (including sleeping) in the REZz – which I think is exactly the kind of stay this hotel/hostel is catering to.
I arrived late Saturday evening and was out the door in a space of a half hour. I didn’t return to my room until 3:30am, by which time most of the noise I might have expected to hear from the side street my room looked out over, had died down. When I crawled in to bed, I was wrecked from a night on the town, and didn’t pay too much attention to how uncomfortable the bed was or how the duvet felt like paper.
In the morning, I skipped my shower due to the lack of a hairdryer or shower cap – though I am told a hairdryer was available on request. I am also parched, and don’t fancy drinking water from the tap in the sink, so I am in a hurry to get down to the bar downstairs for some fresh water. They do sell water, but it’s in a small glass bottle and €3. Gratefully, I accept a glass of tap water from the girl behind the bar instead.
The glass of tap water is my only experience of REZz’s food and drink offering, though some Influencers promoting the place on Instagram tell me the cocktails in the bar are “divine”. I would like to point out here that while their Insta-stays look great, none of these people appear to have stayed in the Teeny-Tiny room I did, which appears to be the most popular offering given its propensity to sell-out on the website.
For breakfast, there’s a Grab & Go offering priced at €7.50. Included is four items, which you can choose from an array of mini cereal boxes, fresh fruit yoghurts and pastries, and a hot drink.
Despite the fact I woke up with a crick in my neck, I would stay in Cork’s smallest hotel room again.
At €109, it was significantly cheaper than the other rooms on offer in Cork city on Saturday night. Do I think it was a fair price point for what I got? No. But, I also don’t think €200 – €300 is a fair price point for what other hotels were offering on the same night.
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