Hotel berhampiran The Árni Magnússon Institute, Reykjavik

My sister and I stayed here for two nights at the end of our Iceland holiday. Centrally located just a 5-minute walk from the Hallgrimskirkja and a 20-minute stroll from the harbour. I had been a bit worried about parking so I had emailed the hotel in advance to ask and got a very prompt response. It was astoundingly easy to park close by and we got a lovely friendly welcome from the hotel staff; in fact all the staff we met were really friendly and chatty. The room was a reasonable size (initially made up as a double but this was swiftly altered to a twin while we were out whale-watching) and had everything you need (including a fridge). It was a bit stuffy in the room, even with the little window open so we had the room door propped open for a while but, as I think Iceland was experiencing record hot weather at the time perhaps it's not fair to criticise! Our room was on the first floor but we didn't experience any of the noise from the restaurant/bar that some other reviews have mentioned. Would definitely recommend as a good location for a stay in Reykjavik.

We had an extremely pleasant stay and will definitely consider this hotel again the next time. Great location, friendly staff and the room had everything we needed. The free coffee & tea in the lobby was a very nice touch too, especially in a city as expensive as Reykjavik! I also appreciated that guests are giving the opportunity to opt out of room cleaning and are given a drink voucher for the hotel bar in return.

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

This one is somewhat tough to review. Service was 1-star. We received no instructions to enter and had to spend a fair amount of time on the phone (at costly international rates) to receive instructions. The instructions we received were not detailed enough. They did not mention entering through the restaurant to get to the first-floor rooms. Rooms on the second floor do not have to do this. The room itself was okay to decent. The kitchenette was nice, but the dishes were in the dishwasher when we arrived. The room lacked commonplace security features like an interior deadbolt, security chain, or a peephole. Combined with the strange way to enter the ”hotel” this made us feel uneasy. The fact that this hotel is not staffed and entry is through code would have been fine if detailed instructions were provided. Plenty of AirBnBs do this well. For the price, this would be much better value if they had better customer service and detailed instructions along with some additional security features. As it is I wouldn't recommend.

I really liked this place, a friend recommended it and it didn’t disappoint. it was very clean and the staff helpful and nice/always smiling. I chose a 6-bed room and made a lot of girl friends in one week staying there! It’s close to the city centre and it has a lovely view on the church (not all the rooms I reckon!) . It was warm inside and given my long stay they offered fresh towels/bed sheets which I refused since I was mostly out all day. I’m not sure I liked the fact a male would take care of the turndown service since because of that I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping or lying down in my pj or underwear, maybe being that a female dorm I would’ve sent a lady to knock first and THEN anybody else, but it wasn’t the end of the world! I’ll surely book here should I visit Reykjavik again!

The hostel was clean and warm, the rooms were well laid out, with a safe for each person. It's such an odd looking building, but that's definitely part of the charm! The large kitchen/common area looks cool both from within and from the street looking up at it: the huge windows, and the warm coloured, up-lit walls make it so cosy! The hostel is spitting distance from Hallgrimskirkja, you can see it from the common room windows. This means you're in the heart of the city - great if you have no transport! It does mean you're in the heart of the tourist traps too... so any shop nearby (with the exception of Kronan stores) will be more expensive than those further afield. The staff leave you to do your own thing, the cleaners are all super friendly, the showers are always hot, and in decent condition. It really exceeded my expectations. I might have wished for an onsite bar or cafe for socializing, but everything is so expensive in Iceland that I was glad of the lack of temptation! And if you do need that sort of diversion, the B47 Hostel, which occupies the lower floors of the same building, has something like that. I'm sure it would have been okay to use it.

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.

Good room at a reasonable price. It is a short walk to downtown and the staff was friendly and helpful. I will be staying here again before I fly out of the country.

When we return to Iceland, we will most likely look first at staying here. It was very clean and comfortable, the people at the front desk were super helpful, the lobby was beautiful, and we enjoyed the free garage parking very much. We stayed here our last night before flying back home, and we had to leave at 6am so we were unable to enjoy the complimentary breakfast, but they did have coffee and pastries waiting for us in the lobby before we departed. The location was just a short 5 minute drive to the center of town, and the person at the check-in desk gave us very good directions for parking and even made a great dinner reservation for us at the Seafood Grill. We had a wonderful time.

This was our first stop when we arrived in Iceland and this was our last at the end of our holiday. It was a great place to get us to get ready for our road trip. The location is in the quiet of the suburbs with very easy access to Perlan and the city centre. The room itself is nice and big, very modern, spacious, and colourfully decorated. The room came with a microwave, cutlery, pots, kettle, dishwasher, stove top, and Smart TV. The bed was very comfortable. The bathroom was clean and had fluffy towels. Grocery shop (Bonus) located across the street for those who are self-catering. There was plenty of parking outside for our rental car. We had cause to call the apartments before we arrived, and they were super helpful and confirmed by email within the hour. The apartments are also situated to provide easy access back to the airport. Very reasonably priced by Icelandic prices, especially as they are in the suburbs of the Capital. Overall, very happy with our stay and would stay again.