I have stayed a few times at Gabelshus, hoping to make this my regular place in Oslo. I normally stay 3-5 nights, and appreciate a good hotel when I see one. Hotel Gabelshus is within walking distance to the city centre (20 minutes) and a tram service takes you there in 6-7 minutes. Tickets can be bought at the kiosk (Narvesen) just down the road from the hotel.

Gabelshus has a friendly, cosy atmosphere. They serve an evening meal free of charge, free parking in their back yard and almost half of their rooms are done over, providing up to date standards in rooms and bathrooms. Make sure you get one of the newer rooms, as you would not appreciate standing in a 1980's shower in the morning when hot and cold water are arguing over which one should come out of the shower head. They will certainly not come out at the same time...

Gabelshus was fine during summer and early autumn, but come December, the duvets are not changed and are too thin for the mere 17*C temperature they keep in the rooms. Newer rooms has heated floors in the bathrooms (temperature aprox 21*C in bathrooms), but expect to start freezing as you go to bed, and it will not end until you are back in your clothes in the morning.

Some of the staff are highly experienced and provides a great service. Others seem to be hired help as they do not even know the rooms or other facilities.

Gabelshus gives a good first impression, but it turns out to be a wanna-be place. At rather lofty prices, I find it hard to give them three stars, but they still get them for their effort.

The rooms are on the small side, but perfectly workable. The first room we had was a bit older and all the lights were on a master switch - annoying since the two of us adapted differently to the time change. The staff kindly found us another room. We could turn on one light at a time which worked better for us. This room seemed bigger, but the bathroom was very small. I don't know if all of the rooms are different on just the first one we had.
The hotel is in a quiet part of town, and the rooms were very quiet! The bathroom floors were heated, which was wonderful. The wireless internet worked well and was quite fast - much better than most free internet. The breakfast was excellent with a wide variety of foods - lots of herring, yoghurt, cold cutes, scrambled egg, sausage, breads and jams. Coffee, chocolate and tea were available 24/7 from a machine in the dining area. The light evening snack was wonderful when I was just too tired to go out and find something for supper.
Finally, the staff was always helpful and pleasant. All-in-all this hotel is a winner. The only way this hotel would score higher with me is if it cost less. However, it was not at all out of line with other hotels in Oslo.

This hotels pretends to be a higher-scale boutique hotel and charges like one, but is somehwat closer to an average roadside motel. It may look lovely on the outside but looks can deceive...
My husband and I were assigned to a small room in the old part of the hotel. The walls of the corridor had flaking paint and bits of concrete coming off, and our room smelt foul because of, it turned out, some very sour pillows in the bed. We were then given another room in the same part. This room didn't smell sour but had more of a mouldy scent to it (the bathroom being the prime suspect) and the bathroom was so tiny that we banged our heads in the sink every time we sat on the toilet. The room wasn't exactly soundproof either as we were awakened 3 times (!) during one night by some couple in the same corridor having loud sex!

As for breakfast? Pretty average, nothing special, more canteen style really. They claimed to be fully booked that weekend (hence we couldn't upgrade to one of their newer rooms) and had still only one (!) waiter during peak breakfast hour. People were lining up for tables while he ran around trying to clean up cups and plates and mess, while not having time to attend to refilling of coffee machines etc etc.

And service? Seemed like the reception staff was hired for the weekend from the nearest high school. We arrived back at our room after a full day in the city and realised our room wasn't made yet. When we asked about it we were told they had forgotten our room and would attend to it soon. When my husband asked them to do this when we were going out for dinner in a couple of hours he was told that the cleaning staff was about to leave so if we wanted our room cleaned, we would have to do it then. Isn't it amazing that a hotel this size doesn't have some cleaning staff available after 4 pm?

As for location, great!

Great place. The best hotel in Oslo.
A true " feelgood" place. The receptionist Einar is a Star.