R13 - A Townhouse Hotel

The price was reasonable for a place in a nice location, and being able to cook was a big help while traveling in Iceland. The whole setup is self-service, though, so it won't suit everyone.

The room was damp smelling, and the strong shower flooded the bathroom floor. It also had that stale food smell when we arrived, and it never went away. The area feels dreary and empty, about a 20-minute bus ride from the city center, and good luck finding a coffee shop in the morning. I previously stayed in an Airbnb near the harbor that was bigger, cleaner, cheaper, and much better located. Avoid this place. There are a couple of good points: the bed was very comfortable and the shower had strong water pressure. But this doesn't feel like a proper hotel. There's no reception, and somehow a building this size has nowhere to store luggage. With a 3 p.m. check-in and little flexibility, that's a pain for tourists arriving with bags. It feels like student housing. Checkout is an ungenerous 10 a.m., and the expensive late checkout option doesn't surprise me. Saving around £30 a night compared with other places gets you a far inferior stay that doesn't justify the price.

After four days, our rooms still hadn't been cleaned, and there was literally no hotel staff around. There wasn't much room to unpack, and the toilet was on the small side. We ended up keeping our toothbrushes in the kitchen.

For the price, this was a really bad stay, and after several great hotels in Iceland, this one was a huge disappointment. Don't be taken in by the photos. The parking worked out: we first parked in front of a shutter store with signs threatening towing unless you were a customer, but after checking with the store, they let us stay there. Future guests can also park in front of the neighboring store or behind the hotel in the large lot. There's no staff on site, apparently by design. You create a key card on your phone using a device on a cluttered counter covered with coffee machines and random things. Wait until you're at the counter to generate it, or someone else might accidentally make your card. The room numbers are tiny, hard to spot, and there are no signs pointing the way. We were on the first floor, but after taking the elevator and pressing 1, it said floor 2. Confusing, but we made it. We booked the Deluxe Bunk Bed room. It looked stylish, but wasn't practical at all: no bathroom shelves for toiletries, no nightstands, broken blinds, and a trash can right in front of the entrance door. Housekeeping showed up without warning because there are no 'do not disturb' signs. They barely made the bed and emptied the trash, which was poor service. There's no safe, so keep valuables in your suitcase or take them with you. At night you need a code to get into the hotel, but it still felt shady, since anyone can wander the halls. The industrial area location made it feel even sketchier, and it's quite far from the city center.