Best Western Ritz, Arhus

...the price required was the Best Western Ritz - the name sounds great but a colleague of mine had stayed here a couple of years ago and didn't give it a glowing recommendation.

The name suggests a mix of old glamour and modern chain marketing, and indeed that seems to be the case. The Ritz is located very centrally, housed in an imposing four-storey building on Banegaardspladsen, just a minute's walk away from the central train station ...
...of the Best Western group, the facade and main entrance still hark back to better days and you might half-expect a concierge to be waiting to take your bags as you step out of the taxi and approach the building. The reception area is well-appointed with marble floors and leather sofas, and you are welcomed by friendly English-speaking staff who are happy to provide you access details for the new, free wireless internet service that the hotel provides. ... more

Returning to Aarhus, there was no chance I was ever going to check back into the Hotel Mercur (see my review from April 2008 to read just why you should steer well clear) so I had to get searching for somewhere else. Denmark's second city seems to suffer from a lack of hotel accommodation and even when booking well in advance, the choice is somewhat restricted, especially if you're travelling on a budget that doesn't allow you to spend more than 130EUR per night. In most countries, that wouldn't be a problem but Denmark is a very expensive place to visit and it can be a bit of a struggle to find rooms under this price limit. The only hotel I could find with rooms available at the price required was the Best Western Ritz - the name sounds great but a colleague of mine had stayed here a couple of years ago and didn't give it a glowing recommendation.

The name suggests a mix of old glamour and modern chain marketing, and indeed that seems to be the case. The Ritz is located very centrally, housed in an imposing four-storey building on Banegaardspladsen, just a minute's walk away from the central train station in Aarhus. Although this hotel has long since been part of the Best Western group, the facade and main entrance still hark back to better days and you might half-expect a concierge to be waiting to take your bags as you step out of the taxi and approach the building. The reception area is well-appointed with marble floors and leather sofas, and you are welcomed by friendly English-speaking staff who are happy to provide you access details for the new, free wireless internet service that the hotel provides.

Directly to the left of the reception desk, the squared spiral staircase encircles the vintage lift - as always, handy if you've got heavy baggage but it's not a high-speed contraption so it's often quicker to walk up the stairs anyway. The corridors on each floor also seem to reflect the sense of faded glamour that permeates the whole building - the paint is peeling away in the occasional place, the carpets a little bit worn, and there was a mysterious (if small) hole in the wall just outside my room. The doors are still fitted with old-fashioned key locks - now, in general I'm a fan of this as I always seem to struggle with modern keycards (it seems to be a game of chance working out how to swipe them at the right speed or angle to get the door to open) so it's a refreshing change to still have a key on a very chunky hotel keyring here. However, the odd thing is that you have to remember to physically lock your room door when leaving, from the outside. I have become so used to hotel rooms locking automatically as soon as the door is closed that I had to think twice when leaving my room for the first time... but it's not exactly a major minus point.

The room itself smelled a bit musty (despite booking a non-smoking room, there was an ashtray sitting proudly on the bedside table) but the windows were open to air it properly. The advantage of being in an older building is that the rooms have fantastic high ceilings, with lights suspended on long cables - this means that, although the rooms are a little on the small side, you don't notice this as much because the high ceilings add to the feeling of space. The furnishings in the rooms are perfectly adequate - immediately after the door, there is an alcove with a few coathangers in it, and the room contained a bed, desk, chair, a couple of lamps and a telephone. The flat screen TV is set up to receive channels from all over Europe - including the two state channels from Germany, BBC World, BBC Prime and CNN (as well as Viasat Sports which seemed to show English football every day). Nothing out of the ordinary really, but then again do you really need much more than that in a hotel room?

The bathrooms have in the hotel have been renovated in the last couple of years and, although you definitely don't have room to swing a cat in there, they are clean and perfectly acceptable, with room enough for toilet, basin and shower cabin in the corner. There is no minibar or fridge in the room, but according to the information folder on the desk, cold drinks and crisps etc. are available from reception around the clock. However, you do pay a premium for having that service available (35DKK/4.50EUR for a beer, for example) - I recommend wandering round the corner to the Seven-Eleven store as cold drinks and snacks are much more affordable there!

The ground floor of the hotel also houses the restaurant, with room for 60 guests at any one time - breakfast is served from 7-10am each day (no different serving times on Sundays) and consists of a good continental buffet. The food on offer is all of high quality and there is plenty of it too: Fresh bread, cold cuts, cheeses, cereal, yoghurt, fresh fruit and juices, coffee and tea, and also some hot food as well (scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages of course). The same room becomes Restaurant René in the evenings - a high-class French/Danish restaurant that apparently offers 'an unparalleled gastronomic journey', although I didn't try it out myself so can't confirm or deny that!

As mentioned above, the hotel is very easy to get to - if you find the train station, you can't miss it. This makes it ideally-placed for travellers arriving by train of course, but also for anyone who flies to Aarhus, as the airport bus service drops passengers off at the train station. Billund airport is also not far away (approx. 70km from Aarhus) but the airport bus from here unfortunately doesn't stop at the station; passengers alight instead at the Radisson SAS hotel. This is only 5-10 minutes' walk away from the Best Western, but still a little inconvenient.

All in all, the Best Western Ritz offers perfectably acceptable service, standard rooms and a decent breakfast (and although the Ciao listing says it has one star, in fact it boasts three) - it's nothing out of the ordinary, but it's clean and (by Danish standards) offers some relatively affordable accommodation in the city centre, and there's no reason not to recommend it if you're travelling to Aarhus.

Restaurant René: http://www.visitaarhus.com/international/en-gb/menu/turist/spis-drik-shop/r estaurants/restauranter/produktside.htm?CallerUrl=/&id=12207 

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