Svanstein Lodge

Service was very accommodating despite the challenging business conditions. These are good little cabins, and be sure to book one with a kitchenette since C19 means the restaurant has to be closed. They also run Svanstein Ski and can help with anything related to it. It’s a great place to ski that doesn’t get enough recognition.

The cabins are superb, and the surroundings are beautiful. We saw a bit of the Northern Lights and still managed to have fun with friends, thanks to the wife’s hospitality. I do appreciate the effort she made for us, even though I’m still shocked by how the owner treated us. He was very unfriendly and unprofessional, and blamed a Chinese group for his own mistake. The other staff, including his wife, did everything they could to help us avoid being stranded, and the wife drove us back and forth to a nearby ski hostel so we could celebrate New Year’s at their lodge and take our things to the hostel. We arrived as a large group on New Year’s Eve. The staff apparently made an administrative mistake and thought we were 77 people, though we had booked and received confirmation for 99. They only had space for 55, leaving 32 of us without a place to stay. They had given away our cabins and treated us rudely. Our bus drivers had reached the legal limit for driving hours and couldn’t drive any more. As compensation, the owners decided to take us to another hotel, but their small vehicle could seat only four people. The wife spent two hours driving back and forth while the husband walked away and refused to help. It looked like our New Year’s Eve was going to be ruined. I’m giving 2 stars instead of 3 because the hostel we ended up at wasn’t anywhere near as good as the cabins at their lodge. I saw the cabins, and they’re superb.

Lotta and the rest of the staff were nice and tried their best to help us, so kudos to them. Lotta especially worked hard to find a solution after our rooms had been given away. We came with a large group, were left without sleeping space for 32 people, and waited for over 4 hours. The owner was rude and seemed to think it was our fault and our problem. The solution was a "hotel" an hour’s walk from Svanstein Lodge. Lotta had to drive people there four at a time, leaving others waiting for 2 hours. There were so many problems with this stay. It does seem like there are some administrative problems, but hats off to Lotta and the staff for trying their best.

This winter we booked a snowmobile trip for a group of friends through their website, then called to confirm. They said the website had made an error and there were no activities because of covid 19, but there hadn’t been anything on the site to let us know. They said they’d refund us, but despite our calls and follow-ups, they never did and eventually ghosted us.