Hvedholm Slotshotel

The castle has charm and potential, but it badly needs updating and better management throughout. And there are far too many chairs. We booked Hvedholm Slotshotel for a special occasion, hoping for a royal stay. Instead, the room felt more like a dusty attic. Old carpets, dust everywhere, and so many random chairs they could have hosted a meeting for invisible guests. The curtains let the sunlight straight in, and the bathroom had so much mould I wondered how housekeeping missed it. There was no bottled water or basic toiletries, so bring your own. Breakfast was the same every morning: fake scrambled eggs and bacon, plus really bad coffee that tasted like it had been filtered repeatedly without fresh beans. Dinner was a guessing game. There was no menu online or at reception, and even the staff didn’t know what was being served, so we didn’t risk it.

There was nobody at reception when I arrived at 5pm, supposedly because it was “too late.” My room was tiny, with a very small bathroom, a smelly carpet and no blinds. The Wi-Fi didn’t work, and the breakfast didn’t start until 8am. The shower drain was blocked and flooded the room. Not recommended.

The grounds and lawns are lovely, and from outside Hvedholm Castle looks grand and peaceful, almost like a fairytale. Inside, though, the stale air and disinfectant smell hit as soon as we entered reception. It felt stuffy throughout the stay, and the ceilings had peeling paint. The whole place needs cleaning and better ventilation. I wouldn’t suggest looking above the doorframes, beds or shower unless you want to be disappointed. We were first put in a wing full of chairs and drawers, with heraldic crests on the walls. On closer look, the crests were badly enlarged .png images, and dead flies were trapped behind the glass. It felt like a fake Disney set. Our first room had five chairs for two people. We switched rooms, but the next one was just as stuffy. Eventually we got a room in the reception wing that seemed to have been vacuumed sometime in the past week. It had three chairs, five standing lamps and four huge vases on the windowsill, leaving little room to air it out. The room smelled as though it hadn’t been aired in years. The shower had black mold, the toilet seat was loose, the faucet had no spout, and the sink had no stopper, just an open drain. A health and safety notice wouldn’t have seemed out of place. We skipped the restaurant. There was no menu on display, and none of the QR codes worked. After seeing the condition of the room, we didn’t want to imagine what the kitchen was like. Breakfast the next morning was a very mediocre buffet that seemed aimed at retirees, more late '80s or early '90s than a modern hotel. I got curious and tried to climb the tower. You can get up there, but it may be the region’s largest fly graveyard. The view from the balcony is incredible if you’re willing to go out, though I’m not sure I was allowed up there. The railing only reached my hips, so it didn’t feel safe. So much wasted potential.

Hvedholm Castle may give you the beautiful castle room shown on the booking site, but you could instead end up in one of the odd, modest houses built later along the road up to the castle. We got one of those rooms and felt scammed. It was tiny and very basic, without even a bedside lamp on each side of the bed. The bed also blocked the bathroom door from opening all the way.