Hotel berhampiran Church of Hallgrímur, Reykjavíkurborg

Kex… Ugh such a frustrating review to write. I really wanted to like the Kex hostel it has its good points, but overall was the worst hostel stay I have had in Iceland. I’ll give you my very detailed opinion. The Bad… -Lacking in the toilet paper department!!! We were on floor 4 there were several private bathrooms with showers and also separate locker room style bathrooms. At 7:30 AM I ran to the bathroom after finishing my business realized there was no TP! Ugh. Anyway afterwards I looked through the different open stalls with toilets. Only 3 toilets on the whole 4th floor had TP! To me having adequate TP is an essential thing. The bathrooms weren’t restocked until 10AM ish. And we aren’t even in peak tourist season. We mentioned the issue to the staff and they said “just call next time you need something” kinda hard to “just call” when you have already done your business in the bathroom and you need something to wipe with! They need to have staff check the bathrooms more frequently. -The kitchen is sad in the “equipment” department. One of the reasons we stay at hostels is to cook our own food. Maybe they are trying to push buying food from their restaurant. I get that they get a lot of traffic. But the cooking pan selection is -Terrible- nasty old pans that the thrift shop would discard. Janky handles, and interior coating mega gouged out. Don’t come here expecting to cook at least on level 4. -No way to make coffee!!! Again they probably want you to pay for their breakfast. But there is no option to make coffee. No coffee pot, machine, or way to make a filter pour over etc. Don’t bring coffee grounds expecting to make your morning brew. There was an electric kettle, but again no way to make coffee unless you brought instant. -The showers need a good bleach and scrub. The walls had black mold growing on them. Considering the fact that Kex was our most expensive hostel in Iceland (we paid 20,906 for a private double, with linens, and shared bathrooms…or $153 US) compare Kex to the Svjarborg in Stykkisholmer $90 US or Halfdan HI Hostel $63 US ( in both we had a private double & shared bath) but both were awesome and had a fully equipped kitchen with decent quality pots, options to make coffee, and plenty of toilet paper. I understand that being in the city we can expect to pay more. BUT I expect that price to include: -enough toilet paper -a means to make coffee -decent cookware. The good… -The location is great. Easy walking distance to the main shops/streets. And the ocean right across the highway. -Awesome “vibe” cool decor, lots of couches/lounge areas. -Entertaining/Social. In the evening there was group song trivia in the main area, and in another a live band. -Our room a private double with shared bathroom was large, and we slept well. (Note: I have never stayed in a “quiet” hostel so I always travel with a sleep soundtrack on my phone and a melatonin) -The staff was all polite In conclusion, I have traveled on 4 contine

For budget travellers choosing budget double rooms - the services worth the price paid! nicely located at the side of city centre & great choices of budget continental breakfast

If possible avoid the rooms at the front as the buses come and go all night so was regularly woken. Bed was clean and comfortable, everywhere except the twin rooms appeared to be bunks. There are far too many rooms and people for the size of the kitchen, which by the way was pretty revolting and very hot. No room in the fridge to store stuff, bring your own knives, forks, spoons, glasses and mugs. However there were plenty of saucepans and frying pans, plates and bowls (people were reduced to drinking tea from the cereal bowls) Reported this to reception but no one appeared to care and nothing improved during our stay accept for a bottle of washing up liquid appearing. Number of bathrooms was just about adequate, they were cleaned but depending on the users did get pretty disgusting at times. Locks on them were hit or miss. Bar area was nice enough, but not cosy or welcoming, no food available just crisps and vending machine. Walk to town was about 20 minutes and seemed safe. I have nothing in the area to compare this to as didn't stay anywhere else, but wouldn't really recommend.

Entrance to the guesthouse is via glassdoors; need to press the buzzer to be let in. Click on elevator button for 3rd Floor lobby.; Immediately right, the office is there man'd by owner (Migrated to iceland 20+ years) Showed around by the guesthouse manager + wifi connection PW pasted on the wall next to the manager room. Layout of area = typical of a shared bathroom/toilet guesthouse. Furniture: if you ever want to experience all things IKEA, this entire hostel Tables, Chairs, Cupboards, toiletries, bed frame, curtains, sink...etc etc are 99% Ikea , even the bed covers and mattress (spring coiled) are from Ikea. Single room size: Enough to park a large size sedan with enough room for your to cycle around on a unicycle, My room came with a sink/ mirror, cupboard (1.5metre wide), single bed with spring pocket, side table with lamps. Heated metal next to bed for cosy night. Toilet is clean and acceptable - no piss stains or poopy smells ( i suspect it is cleaned often). Shower area is lowly lit for some showers and some are larger with mirrors (brightly lit) - best to check which showers you want to use. Some shower room tiles seem to be covered with ”slime” but further check - seem to be covered with sulphur scales.. Water shower smells like rotten egg but its natural sulphur volcanic water occuring and gets some time to get used to it. (yicks) 101 Guesthouse is centrally located near 24/7 Grocers called 1011 which is similar to 7-Eleven (Food drinks, fresh fruits, bananas, bread, ham, cheese (enough stuff for family outing). Apart from grocers, it is next to bustop 10 which is listed in the tourist pickup point if you want to travel to see geysars or hiking tracks. there are about 9 Asian restaurants located within 10-150meters of the area; they are always fully packed - expect some noise from them during meal times . Asia restaurants = Vietnamese, Laos, Middle east, Burger joints, Pizza, italian, Japanese). Wifi connection in rooms are very weak - very strong in the pantry area. Fast for Zoom calls and games. Pantry: large Fridge, electric portable stove, many many plates, 2 pairs of fork / spoons, at least 20 teaspoons. Only 1 small bowl, electric kettle, TV. Clean tables and floor / chairs. Pantry need more bowls and spoons for cereal (owners do take note)

The hotel appears to be quite new, as there was a slight smell of fresh paint. The reception staff were friendly, and spoke good English. The hotel layout is a bit odd, we stayed on the second floor, which meant you left reception and into a corridor outside, back into the building for the lifts and stairs, we walked to the second floor, then outside again along a corridor, then back into the building, up another flight of stairs and into the block where our room was. The room view was the carpark, the room was compact, and the toilet/shower very small. The beds were very comfortable and the the room was clean, the room had a TV which had some English channels and a kettle and fridge. The room did not have a hair dryer, and when we asked for one the staff were unable to locate one. There is no ironing board/Iron in the room. The room lighting was very poor. The hotel does not have a restaurant or bar, however there is a Cafe across the road which is open from 7.30am, and has free refills of coffee. The walk into town is around 30 minutes, or a cab will cost you around £14. Having said all of that, it was a great basic but clean base to stay.

Location is very good. Walking distance to all places. Rooms are small but ok. We stayed 3 nights. First night we arrived 2 am and was put in a strange room in the next adjacent building which had no elevator to join. We had big bags traveling from very far to reach Iceland. Immediately I notified trip.com assistant and also ask to change room which was done next morning. Thank you to the hotel & trip.com The reception staff was very nice and helpful Breakfast was good enough

The guesthouse itself was nice enough. Note that if you stay in one of the economy rooms, you will only have access to one bathroom per 5 rooms (unless you are willing to walk back to the main house and use one of the bathrooms there). This was not an issue during my stay, but I woke up super early to avoid it becoming an issue. The real issue for me was the lack of communication. I ended up needing to spend an extra 50 dollars on long distance calls because this business failed to check their email or Facebook messages. On top of that, I had to call twice because I was given incorrect information the first time. Note that booking this property is a risk if you book through a third party (Expedia etc) because you may not receive the email with instructions on how to check in (this is why I had to call repeatedly after they failed to answer my emails).

This is a good option if you don’t want to stay in Reykjavík centre and just a few minutes drive out, but in a very secluded location through an upmarket residential area and down on a little peninsula on its own. It is so quiet. There are cosy basic rooms or superior rooms. I’d booked a standard triple room and when we arrived we found it was under the rooftop hot tub and sauna and feared noise so we called the number given for assistance and requested a room change. We had to upgrade however are so glad we did as the superior room had a sea view and was so much bigger. It was organised within minutes and extra bedding bought over for the sofa bed and we paid the additional cost over the phone. Great service thank you. I would definitely recommend the superior room, however we didn’t hear any noise fr the hot tub at all so I think people are very respectful. It’s a really quirky quiet place without any service such as reception bar breakfast etc but would happily stay again. Got a great sunset view and I imagine if Aurora played ball it would be stunning here. There is no check in, rooms are left unlocked so it’s very easy.

Hotel staff are lovely and very friendly. Rooms are very comfortable. Food is terrific and the lobby is impressive.