The German hotel group known for its “affordable luxury” concept has chosen Marseille as the location for its first establishment in France. The project, located on Boulevard des Dames, involves transforming an old office building into a modern 4-star hotel. The opening is scheduled for late 2025.
The future Ruby hotel in Marseille, covering an area of 7,582 m², will offer 237 rooms. The group focuses on “lean luxury,” combining high-end services with affordable prices, emphasizing technology and modern amenities. Key features include a 300 m² rooftop bar with sea views, open 24/7. The hotel will also have a restaurant and a 945 m² coworking space spread over three floors, aiming to attract a young, active clientele.
A strategic location in the heart of the city
The project is located in a rapidly transforming district, between the Euromed, Joliette, and the historic Panier neighborhoods. The building’s owner, La Française, is capitalizing on the city’s growth dynamics, particularly the ongoing renovation of Boulevard des Dames, and sees Marseille as a key city for its future projects.
Marseille: A high-potential city for Ruby Hotels
According to Julian Mörs, development director at Ruby Hotels, Marseille offers enormous potential for the group, thanks to its growth in both business and leisure tourism. This project in Marseille marks a significant step in Ruby Hotels’ expansion in France and the development of its accessible luxury concept, in line with the expectations of modern travelers.
A project in line with current tourism trends
With this project, Ruby Hotels aims to position itself as an affordable but high-end alternative. Marseille, with its dynamic atmosphere and tourism potential, becomes a strategic location for the group, which plans to expand into other major French cities in the future.
What is Ruby Hotels’ Lean Luxury concept?
In an interview with Hospitality ON, Julian Mörs, Ruby Hotels’ development director, explains this concept.
Ruby’s “Lean Luxury” concept was developed as a ‘best-of’ of the hotel industry at that time, with a very clear focus on the essentials of a luxury hotel, paired with innovative systems and digital processes to be able to offer an outstanding price-performance ratio. At the same time, we always had the real estate market with vacant or underinvested office spaces in mind when designing the concept. Thus, we combined the essentials of a city luxury hotel with a flexible room geometry and partly modular construction method, so as not to have to rely on new buildings, but instead chose the sustainable way of converting existing properties into hotels even back then.
In 2016, we developed and launched the Ruby Workspaces concept, and in 2018, we developed special room types adapted to the deep spaces of shopping centers, which are often more challenging to repurpose. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we focused intensively on the leisure market and worked on further developing our hotel concept.
Expansion plans ahead
Ruby Hotels plans to open several new establishments in the coming years, marking the brand’s entry into France. The chain, which currently operates 16 hotels and 5 workspaces in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, and the Netherlands), is set to expand its presence with new hotels in Stuttgart, London, Florence, Dublin, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, and Rome. Many of these hotels will include Ruby-connected workspaces.
Ruby Hotels focuses on major European cities with strong demand for overnight stays in both leisure and business sectors. These cities attract budget-conscious travelers looking for high-end design, central locations, and quality service. In addition, the chain is working on its first projects in the leisure segment and plans to develop new concepts in the coming years.
Photo credit: Architect’s perspective: GENSLER / CLAIRE FATOSME AND CHRISTIAN LEFEVRE
