Stayed four nights at the Scandic Malmen while in town for a congress. Reception staff pleasant and reasonably efficient for check-in and out. Good breakfast - very broad selection of hot and cold buffet items - and I'd rate that as much better than average. Downstairs in the bars and reception the impression is trendy design - a bit 'W hotel-esque' as it were. Bar was very busy on Friday and Saturday night. Live DJ. Great cocktails - seemed very popular with younger locals rather than guests of the hotel. Certainly you can hear the music/beat from the bar up to at least the third floor of the hotel - so not for light sleepers and/or take your earplugs just in case. In contrast to the reception/bars the room I had was rather basic and a little dated. Certainly lacked the Scandinavian design I'd expected based on the ground floor. Shower (no bath) in quite a small bathroom. Blocked drain the first night nearly flooded the room - but give them their due, they fixed that as soon as I mentioned it. Towels a bit thin and worn - definitely not luxury. Poor wifi signal in my room - but it just about worked and it was free (included in the rate). Really liked the location. Right above T-banen stop so easy access to public transport, and only a short walk to Gamla Stan (old town). Sodermalm itself has lots of bars/restaurants and quite nice vibe to it.

The Scandic Malmen is in a busy location in Stockholm not too far from Old Town. Stylish lobby with a music based themed bar and club. Check in was nice and the front desk people were helpful. We were on the second floor.

Room is stylish and modern, beds were big enough, somewhat small but do-able. This was part of a tour and we didn't stay too long in the hotels and so didn't ask too much of them but we had two major issues. 1. The Shower has a really odd design where it wraps around you, I'm a tall person and I couldn't get it in it to shower without moving the door too far from the drain, thus if I wanted to actually take a shower I'd flood the bathroom. This was annoying and made showering a real chore.

The other issue, that aforementioned club. I question putting a concert club below a hotel, we could hear everything and it made it really tough to sleep. I have longtime hearing problems and even I heard this. Made it really difficult and was no fun.

So overall, just doesn't measure up, try somewhere else.

Well – first – the good points. The hotel is central and easy to get to with the metro to and from the central station. The breakfast is very good. The reception staff can be helpful and friendly when they put their mind to it. The bar is reasonably cool. The area is okay to hang around in if you’re travelling on your own or on business… it’s near all the little Stockholm ferries and the old town….

Second – the really annoying stuff. We stayed here four nights for a convention and for the price we paid – the Scandic Malmen was a rip off and falls REALLY REALLY far short of a alleged four star rating.
I think in the cold light of day, this hotel would struggle to get a 3 star rating.

The room we were give was a twin room, really tiny, really tiny beds (my 1990’s boarding school dorm bed was wider and more comfortable), ancient cruddy décor, draughty window, dismal curtains, dismal television, cruddy bathroom, no bath, shower screen hard and hopeless to manoeuvre which meant that when one of us wanted a shower we would inevitably flood the bathroom as the creaking glass screen was so ineffectual at separating the shower off the all in one bathroom. The room was cold, there was no provision of extra blankets in the room. The towels provided were hard and thin and a shoddy off white grey. I’ve had better towels provided in on a ferry crossing in the REALLY early 90’s. For the price we were paying we also thought that there would the usual hotel toiletries provided – you got nothing other then the bog standard shampoo/shower combo by the shower and handbasin. And the toilet paper….. well I’ve never run the risk of paper cut by using something that harsh in a four star hotel before.
The moment we got to the room – we immediately rang down to reception to see if we could change the room and they said they couldn’t change our room but for 800 Swedish Kroner we could get an up-grade. The dialogue for the next four days went like this:
Day 1
Us: Is there a possibility for us to change the room please?
Scandic Malmen Reception: No – but for 600 Swedish Kroner we can upgrade you
Day 2
Us: Is there a possibility for us to change the room please?
Scandic Malmen Reception: No – but for 400 Swedish Kroner we can upgrade you
Day 3
Us: Is there a possibility for us to change the room please?
Scandic Malmen Reception: No – but for 200 Swedish Kroner we can upgrade you
Etc – it was worse than a Texan standoff. ….

The bar was lively and with a jazz band – which for people who like that was great. What wound me up was the cocktail menu. Ok Sweden is expensive and I asked for the menu specifically to check the prices. The most reasonable drink I thought I had found was a campari – it said 20 below it – which I thought indicated the price. ….Cos that’s normally the way you read a menu. I was then presented with a bill of 80 Kroner – when I looked a bit alarmed at this, the barman said ‘Alcohol is very dear in Sweden’ Luckily I stopped myself from saying ‘No sh** Sherlock’ as I get the impression that would not have gone down well. The 20 below the Campari must have indicated the alcohol content and not price….. Next time – just put the price – please.

I did not get good value here and really would not want to stay in this hotel again. It was just shoddy and not worth the money. The thing was that because we had used 3rd party booking site – we came away with the impression that the hotel reception’s staff didn’t give a damn – even thought the price wasn’t really far off their rack rate. And when I now work out what we did pay – I’m horrified we were treated in such a manner. Scam-dic Malmen – seriously don’t bother.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Scandic Malmen. Based on other reviews, I knew to request a room on a high floor which they honored, but I was a little annoyed by the "upgrade offer" that they gave at check in. They basically tell you that the standard rooms are terrible and that you REALLY should do the upgrade- for a price of course. We paid it, but still... I hate when hotels do that. That being said, the upgraded room was very trendy and clean and we enjoyed it. The club downstairs is noticeable, but they provided us with free ear plugs when we asked where we could buy some and that made the noise much less noticeable. The free breakfast was the highlight! Full English breakfast, huge bread buffet, really nice continental choices (even liverwurst!) and a granola/ yogurt bar. I had no problem with getting what I wanted even though it was always busy. Also, the girl working the desk made us a recommendation and reservation at a restaurant down the street and we really appreciated it. Good value for the money in an expensive city!