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This hotel has a beautiful location. That’s about all it has going for it. The staff is surly and the food is pretty horrible. Instead of a guest-centric attitude, their attitude seems to be “this is how it is, too bad”. Examples include: - kicking us out of the sauna because guests who are skiers are only allowed to use it from 4-6pm - refusing to put the local version of Nutella they have at breakfast out for waffles, despite multiple guest requests. Apparently because people would like it too much and they would “be going through loads of it”. Truly astonishing. - scolding guests for drinking cans of beer (in lieu of paying the exorbitant prices at the lodge) - hot tub only open two days a week. Water is filthy and lukewarm The food is tasteless and of low quality with no variety. Cod and boiled potatoes for dinner, the same yogurt and muesli for breakfast every day. So much so that we twice elected to leave and pay for expensive meals in Svolvaer just to avoid eating another dinner here. I can’t imagine coming here as a couple since the rooms are tiny and basic - glad I was here with some ski buddies as my wife would have insisted we leave based on the unfriendly attitude and poor food.

We stayed one night in one of the Rorbu faced on the sea and everything was perfect. Check-in at 15 in a winter afternoon under the snow. Cottage comfortable and clean, with a full-faced living on the sea on the private portal. The view alone is worth the living. Kitchen equipped. 2 comfortable rooms. Only the bathroom has a little disappointed but the rest largely makes it forget. The place is charming, one of the most beautiful of Lofoten. We also used the SPA (pay). Small but for private use for 1.30h with sauna and hot tubes with crazy views. A place where you would like to go back.

Prior to the pandemic we booked a waterfront Rorbu at Anker Brygge - our dream vacation to stay in a waterfront fishing cabin in Lofoten. Covid happened and plans got deferred. To their credit Anker Brygge extended our reservation twice (for 2 years) as we had paid for it in advance. We reconfirmed in writing on several occasions our arrival, and reconfirmed that what we had booked had not changed. However, upon arrival they confirmed our reservation, but announced they had decided to give our Rorbu to someone else, and then stuck us in one of the antiquated apartments above the bar. Just great in the land of the midnight sun when closing time for a bar is an uncertainty. What is particularly irksome is that we had reconfirmed the details of our reservation in writing, arrived first to the facility on day of checkin, spoke to the manager about the importance of Rorbu accommodation to our vacation plans - only to see guests arriving after us, and the next day, get assigned Rorbu and we were stuck in this crummy apartment. If they had been upfront with us to begin with, and told us they had no intention of ”really” honouring our reservation, we could have made a booking at one of the hundreds of other really wonderful Rorbu on Lofoton. Crummy, vacation wrecking, experience.

My visit to Lofoten was solely because of the Northern Lights. As a solo traveler. a central location, inexpensive, safe, clean are the key factors i base on for the hotel search. Fast Hotel’s convenient location, self-check in, are superb. But during my stay, from check-in till the next morning, the entrance door to my room could not be locked at all and i had to go out without locking my room. Till the next morning a young male employee promised to help fixing it. He did. Was and am grateful to him. On the second night, i ended up not searching for northern light but the LIGHT - electricity broke down and internet connection was also down - from before midnight till 01:29. - and the hotel main entrance door, usually remains closed and is to be opened via pin code - now the sensor is not working (it is now 03:45, still not working), making my plan of going out to observe the northern light and coming back to the hotel not possible. Somehow, during the wee hours at the lobby i met someone who works nearby and stays at the same hotel, taught me how to manully open the faulty main entrance glass door (just use hands, with slight force, to manually slide open the glass doors to both sides. It didn’t require much force at all.) While technical hiccups can be rectified, here is my suggestion to the Hotel - please install a light for writing desk. The whole room has only two side table bed lights. No general light for the room at all (there are recessed ceiling lights but switches cannot be found). At the writing desk, a light sauce is a must-have. That said, i still like the hotel a lot because of its location and self-check in, completely without a Reception counter/area - that is wonderful. G reat is also he closeness to the bus terminal (not noisy at all) is pivotal as the buses (running infrequently in Lofoten) are the “lifeline” for those who visit Lofoten without a rented car. As a solo traveller, i will want to come back to this (and/or similar) Fast Hotel. i like it. It is like a trusted friend, sometimes not feeling well, but a friend is a friend.

The location is good. The arrival and departure station of the red bus is right next to the hotel. The hotel is new. The rooms are large and comfortable. The breakfast is rich and worthy of a five-star standard. The dinner is also very delicious. There is coffee and water in the lobby. It is very convenient. In Swollen Vail is a good choice, but if you have plans to climb mountains, it’s a bit far.

Wow. A lovely hotel in Svolvaer with amazing views. I had two different uperior double rooms on the 9th floor: one looking south over the sea and the next day looking north across the town and mountains. I saw the northern lights from my room and indeed on both nights that I was on the Lofoten Islands. I’ll attach photos for you to compare which view you like best. Do be aware though that if you go on the south side, cruise liners and other ships dock very close by. The breakfast is fantastic.