I stayed here as the result of a lack of adequate planning on my part. I had planned to stay at another hotel about 20Km away in a town called Skarnes but when I got there I found it was closed. This did give me a bit of a shock as I didn’t really relish staying in the car or driving all the way back to Oslo. I was quite surprised to find that the only hotel for miles (or kilometres if you are reading this in Metric) was so far away. Where I come from you just about every village has at least half a dozen hotels or guest houses. My Travel agent found this place at very short notice but I was absolutely HORRIFIED at the room rate. They charged me EUR 204,86 for just one night. I was told that this was a “hotel and spa,” so for this kind of money I was expecting something pretty damn special.

The hotel was not special, not even a little bit. The rooms were pokey and old fashioned. I didn’t like the first room and asked to be moved to another, which was only marginally better. I felt that the room would have been good value at EUR 70 and acceptable at EUR 100 but at EUR 204 it was a rip off. I could have got a nicer room in Oslo for less than this. The room rate did not include Internet usage, I had to buy a voucher but they forgot to put it on my bill. Do you know what? I didn’t bring that to their attention when I checked out; Go ahead and sue me!

It is said that everything is expensive in Norway. Well yes that is true but they were charging as much for this not so special hotel in a small town as I would expect to pay for a Hilton in the centre of a big city

I think it an exaggeration to call this a Spa. The pool was OK but nothing special. I have seen better pools in hotels that don’t claim to anything other than a hotel. The gym was abysmal! There are half a dozen fitness machines in a windowless dungeon 2 floors underground. The whole basement smelled as if the drains were playing up as well.

Feeling very hungry I went down to the bar. A piano player was tinkling away top an empty bar. No customer and no staff. After sitting at the bar waiting for a waiter I went out to see if I could find somebody on the front desk. Nobody there either. I then noticed that the door at the back of the bar was swinging open every so often. At first I thought this was a draught but when I peered around the door I notice that it was the waitress. She was sitting in the back chatting with the chef and occasionally flicking the door open to see if anyone had drifted in.

I eventually got served with a beer and a Steak. It has got to be said that it was one of the nicest steaks that I have ever had! Not cheap that’s true but it was delicious and tender and lovely. I did however feel that I was eating the steak in a bit of a vacuum. The piano player waltzed off as soon as I started eating, presumably to join the waitress and the chef for a chinwag. I felt that I had to order a beer every time I saw the waitress as it might be my last chance. I only had 3 beers.

Next morning I had a similar experience when trying to check out. The breakfast (which was OK) was nicely laid out but there were no staff anywhere to be seen. After eating breakfast I tried to find a staff member to check out but there was nobody on the desk, just a sign on the desk saying “back in 5 minutes.” Yeah Right!

I had to accost one of the cleaners who dashed off and came back with somebody to check me out. Interestingly the cleaners were standing around chatting rather than actually cleaning. The staff seemed to be very chatty, just a shame I could not speak Norwegian and join in. The staff were friendly polite and helpful when they did arrive but I just got the impression that they were all busily occupied doing something else and had to stop doing that to come and take my money.

I would not recommend this place, much better to stay in Oslo.

The overall service was found to be very good. Worth mentioning are:
1) Express check-in service-
Check in time just takes about 2 mins. All you should have is a valid online booking and state your name! Voila! your room is ready for you!
For me and my other colleagues, it just took 2 mins for check-in time. Thats the shortest check-in time I've ever found!!

2) Room-
Rooms are small and cozy and extremely comfortable for short stays. They are not spacious so would not be very ideal for stays longer than 2 weeks. Please make sure what type of beds (queen size or twin) as per preference. Also, due to small and compact room size, more than one person per room would be conjusted.
However, as this the only hotel in the town of Kongsvinger, you may have no other alternative options.
It is recommended to plan vacations here in summer/spring time.

3) Location and amenities:
Hotel is in a very picturesque location, overlooking the Gloma river on the front side and a beautiful courtyard on the back side.
Options for reastaurants and grocers/shopping complexes are also ample. However, just make sure about the timings of the malls as they are open for limited times on saturdays and closed on Sundays.
Hotel amenities are limited, each of them as mentioned below:
1) Internet: Scratch cards for 4 hours/12 hours/24 hours are available. The time duration starts from first time you login, irrespective of your actual hours of usage.
2) Laundry: No laundry services are available at the hotel, although hotel can arrange a call to an outside vendor who can pick up your laundry for you and deliver it back. However, the laundry takes 4 days to return. So ensure that you are well-planned in advance, have enough clothes in case stay is long or have enough detergent to do the same on your own.
3) Ironing: Hotel has facilities to provide an ironing board and iron, however, the same can be unavailable at times. Plan in advance in case you need an iron.
4) Gym, spa and swimming facilities:
Gym floor space is small, equipments are one each. However, the same is well-kept and maintained.
Spa facilities are very popular and in demand
Swimming pool is small (for 2 persons at a time for a full stretch of swimming)
5) Bar, restaurant (with limited options), party hall and conference room amenities are also available.

Stays are very calm, quiet and relaxed. This is the best about the location and about the hotel.
The only unsatisfactory point is value for price. The room rates (and internet charges) are very high (which is expected for everything in Norway), but, comparatively, hotels in cities (like Oslo) offer much more at same rates.