I’ll start by saying it is a beautiful property and the first place we saw Northern Lights, so it is very special in those ways. Unfortunately our experience was lackluster other than that. We travel quite a bit to luxury 5-star, $1000+/night resorts so we are comfortable with that price point, but expect a certain level of amenities and service that we didn’t find here. Everything just felt a bit chaotic and subpar. Here are a few examples:
Two people had to consult with each other on how to let us in the front gate and check us in, which lacked polish from the start. Regardless of the cost of the hotel, my confidence is low when your confidence is low. I think we were arrived early (although I’m not sure because not one communication stated check in time), but we were overly communicative that we may be arriving at 1pm due to weather but we were happy to wait in a lounge if needed. We were pleasantly surprised with 1pm access to our room, but the whole entry was as if they were confused by our presence.
Furthermore, rather standard items were missing from the rooms like hair conditioner, body lotion and bath slippers.
We decided to spend 48 hours on property to relax and enjoy the scenery, especially in the highly promoted hot tubs, after finding ourselves with two open days when The Retreat Hotel at Blue Lagoon cancelled our reservation due to the volcano. Considering the sun is only up for 4 hours per day this time of year, our timeframe to enjoy the outdoors was limited. We went to our hot tub around 12:15pm on our only full day there and it was cold. Long story short, we called multiple times for it to be heated and were told “30 minutes” every time for over two hours. Since this was how we planned on enjoying the sunny hours of our day, to spend half of it waiting around and feeling like a nuisance calling to ask for it to be functioning was frustrating.
Maybe the most disappointing part though was the dining. It’s a 3-course meal that no one explained to us, but through TripAdvisor we had learned was prix fixe and about $100 per person plus the cost of wine. It’s bizarre that no one at the hotel explains that, but we were researched enough that we declined dinner the first night because we have very specific dietary restrictions and we thought it only fair to give them 24 hours to accommodate them. Attached is a photo of the communication. After being assured there were no issues, we sat down to dinner to be told we’d both be having fish and venison (if you see the photos attached, you’ll see that was almost comical). When I kindly referenced our requests, the waitress got very defensive and started arguing that: 1) they don’t serve chicken; 2) we didn’t give them enough notice; 3) they can’t get beef in that area, etc. Finally they served my husband fried chicken gyoza as an entree (although one wonders where the chicken came from since they don’t serve chicken?). It was fine, but our dinner bill for 3 courses with wine was $500 USD to have fried gyoza that he could have gotten most anywhere for $10 or less. We each had 5 glasses of wine so I can only surmise they were $30 per glass, but I don't really know because all we saw was a total at the end. My meal was very good, but not out of the ordinary (asparagus soup, artic char and a brownie) and we enjoyed the wine, but please don’t charge fine dining prices if you can’t operate like a fine dining restaurant and accommodate requests given more than 24 hours in advance, especially when no other dining options are available on property. It’s a captive audience and apparently their way or nothing. The sommelier (I apologize, I forget the gentleman’s name) was really lovely and one of the service highlights.
If you stay here, I recommend nearby Vinstofa, Mika or Fridheimar for dinner instead.
Check out was equally lacking in service. The conversation was me smiling and saying that I was there to check out, her coldly stating that our $500 dinner was our only outstanding total then processing my card. No “how was everything?”, “did you enjoy your stay?”, “thank you” or even “have a good day”. It was almost bizarre how little personality existed with the majority of the staff.
Outside of the sommelier and seeing the northern lights, I would caution to manage your expectations staying here. We had been debating between going there or going south to Hótel Rangá and wound up regretting our choice overall.
