Hotel Q42

When everything works, a self-check-in hotel is great because you don't have to see anyone. Here you use an app to get into the room, but it may not work well on an older phone. For a longer stay, I'd ask for a key card, as we learned.

The room was huge, warm, clean, and comfortable, with a TV and facilities for making tea and coffee. The bathroom was large and well equipped for people with disabilities, and there was plenty of room to access it, though I can't speak from personal experience about accessibility needs. Q42 also replied promptly to our questions before the stay. We had trouble booking at first because neither my wife nor I had a QR-capable phone. There isn't a concierge or front desk, but they arranged for us to get in after hours. Kristiansand is small, so nearly everything is within easy walking distance. The zoo and water park are about 10 km east.

The room was spacious and nice, and we paid 1200 NOK for the first night before switching to another hotel at 1600 NOK. I liked the anonymous back entrance straight to the elevator, part of the Q42 concept. But a fresh, cheap hotel concept doesn't help when you're awake from 03:00 because the room feels short of oxygen. There was no adjustable air conditioning. Apparently it was controlled by the radiator, which was set to level 6. I changed it manually to "cold ø," but the airflow from the ceiling vent didn't change. The windows couldn't be opened, and the side panel beside one had a metal grate over it. The all-year duvets were much too thick.

A good experience overall, and we'll use it again. The room was clean and really nice, the location was okay, and the price seemed fair. The only drawback was that the TV remote batteries were dead, so we couldn't use the TV. Thumbs up.