Cheap, lovely helpful staff, good free breakfast, easy tram access
Disadvantages:
None that I could see, unless you're a pampered princess
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
My husband and I spent two nights in the Best Western Anker hotel in Oslo at the end of December 2006. We booked the hotel purely because it was the cheapest we could find at short notice (the hostels were all fully booked up). Oslo is a very expensive city, but we paid £115 altogether for two nights including breakfast, which was very reasonable indeed.
The hotel is located a ten minute walk from the main bus/train station in Oslo, which makes it very convenient to get to. We got directions at the bus station and found it quite straightforward to find the hotel. The area is very multi-cultural, and we were probably the only white people on the street as we walked, so there was a great variety of little shops and cafes along the way. Because it was over the New Year holiday, many of these were closed, but I imagine that a person could eat well and cheaply in the area.
Because the hotel is only rated a 2 star hotel, we didn't expect much, but we were pleasantly surprised by the facilities. On arrival, we were greeted by a very friendly and helpful receptionist, who explained about the all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast, and showed us to the lifts. There are two lifts, one of which is the old European style which does not have an inner door. It can be rather disconcerting to see the doors of each floor whizz past on the way up (we stayed on the top floor, so there were 12 doors to go past on the way up). But there is a motion sensor in the doorway of the lift which will stop it moving if somebody or something moves into the doorway, so nothing to worry about there.
Our room was a decent size, and very clean. There was a queen sized bed (with a foam topper over a spring mattress - so so soft and comforable!), a desk and chair, an armchair, tea/coffee making facilities, and a television. There were probably some spare blankets and laundry facilities too but we didn't look for or use those. The bathroom was small - just a sink, toilet, small storage space, and a shower with a curtain around it - but it was perfectly adequate for our needs. Somebody fussy might complain about the size of the bathroom, or lack of a bath and shower tub, but how many people luxuriate in a hotel bathtub anyway? And there is no need for a shower tub when the room has a waterproof floor and drain.
We had great views from our room over the city, and weren't bothered by noise from the street. A tram line runs right past the hotel, so I imagine that people on the lower floors may have noticed the noise more. We could hear it, but it wasn't loud enough to be annoying. We didn't hear any noise from other rooms on our floor.
In the morning, a free breakfast is served from 6am-10am on weekdays, and 7am-11am on weekends. It is buffet style - seat and serve yourself. There was a selection of hot and cold meats, fried potatoes, eggs (scrambled, hard-boiled, and soft-boiled), cheese, salad, fish, bread (and a toaster), cereal, a variety of fruit juices, tea, coffee, and some other foodstuffs I couldn't identify. Oslo is a very expensive city, so we stuffed ourselves at breakfast time so that we didn't have to buy any lunch! The hotel will also provide lunch boxes for a packed lunch from the buffet at a fixed price (I think it was 65 kr but that may be wrong).
There is also a small hotel bar, and reception sells a selection of drinks, wine, and snacks.
The staff on reception were all extremely pleasant and helpful. We got great directions and recommendations for places to go and things to see, and every question was answered with a smile. We would happily stay in the Best Western Anker hotel again, and would recommend it to anybody.
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