Hotel Svendborg

I remember the breakfasts most: so many delicious cheeses, breads, and pastries, and especially the bread with smoked salmon. It all felt unique and different from what I knew in Redhouse West Virginia, or even Germany. This was in mid-spring 1983. I was stationed in what was then called West Germany, in the modest town of Grafenwohr, and ended up in this cool town in Danmark, where I stayed at the hotel for almost two full weeks.

Right in the centre of Svendborg, this is a great hotel with very nice, well equipped rooms. The restaurant is superb, and I can highly recommend staying at Hotel Svendborg.

The location is excellent, and the staff were professional, though not especially friendly. I still can’t see how this is rated a four-star hotel. The room and breakfast left a lot to be desired. My check-in took a while, but the staff were pleasant. Walking in rather than booking through booking.com got me an okay price, about 20% off, and I had free parking and an electronic room pass. The corridors looked stuck in the 70s or 80s, and the decor seemed little changed since then. The room felt more like an unwelcoming hospital room or a welcoming prison cell. The furniture looked decades old and seemed randomly placed, with no clear purpose or Danish Design. The so-called double bed was two singles. I opened the window, which faced away from the street, but shut it after ten minutes because the room was directly above a half-metre-wide AC vent. It was so loud it might as well have been a vacuum cleaner. The bathroom also looked about 30 years old. The hardware was dated, and the soap smelled of cheap apple fragrance. The tap and shower had plenty of water and strong pressure, but at best it was lukewarm. Wide doors covered in hardened grey paint showed hundreds of fingerprints, and the bleak linoleum added to the feeling of being in a cell meant to be hosed down. You could hear people in the corridor as clearly as if they were in the room. There was no sound dampening in the doors. Breakfast was bland. I had two servings of scrambled eggs and bacon over about an hour, and both were completely cold. The buffet might have seemed innovative 25 years ago, but it doesn’t meet today’s standards.

The breakfast buffet had a good range of Danish treats, including ginger shots, along with tasty meats, cheeses, and fish. The staff took hygiene precautions seriously, and I felt safe. Parking behind the hotel was free and easy to use. We stopped here during a road trip on the way to Copenhagen, arriving very late, but the staff were friendly and professional. The hotel’s name was confusing: we had booked it as a Best Western, while the building itself only said Hotel Svendborg. It’s right in the city centre, which would have been nice to explore. Our room was a little dated, with no outlets near the beds and a strange smell, but those things weren’t a big deal for me. A good stay overall.