CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/15/2026

The analogue allure of Socialist Hotels

Armchair travelers and Sovietologists, rejoice! London-based FUEL Publishing has just released Socialist Hotels—the newest in FUEL's renowned Soviet design series—collecting 297 photographs by Elena Amabili, from Abkhazia to Uzbekistan. "Overnighting in some of the more dilapidated socialist hotels, usually beset with wiring and plumbing issues, is a bit like how I imagine sleeping in a museum would feel: not exactly comfortable but intriguing," essayist Caroline Eden writes. "And while many are best suited to those able to turn a blind eye to cracked walls and saggy furniture dating back decades there are other, if less obvious, benefits. These ageing hotels do not offer guests high-tech gadgetry such as touchscreen panels, key cards and Bluetooth speakers which, installed for convenience, often end up being infuriating and glitchy to use. Rather, the socialist hotel presents a satisfyingly analogue stay, even if that involves bringing your own bath plug as these were, and still are, seldom supplied. They are usually pleasingly solidly built, too, with significant weight and structure, meaning less chance of hearing your neighbors through thin walls, or enduring the sounds of heels on floorboards above you at night." Pictured here: Sevan Writers’ House, Sevan, Armenia; Hotel Avesto (former Hotel Oktyabrskaya), Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Hotel Cosmos, Moscow, Russia.