TL;DR: Spend your hard-earned money somewhere else. This hotel was definitively disappointing. I traveled to Reykjavik for business and while we usually stay at various hotels in the city, during this trip with summer travel season in full swing the only hotels we could find were the higher priced ones. As my colleagues and I are all Marriott elites, we opted to stay at the 101 Hotel - Design Hotel. Pretty much immediately after check in I regretted this decision. I should note that all of my opinions on the stay are in the harsh light of a 62,000 ISK ($470/€425) a night. First, there are no Marriott elite benefits at Design Hotels - let’s get that out of the way. I knew this going into it, that there would be no breakfast or late check outs, etc., but I wasn’t exactly prepared for the cold welcome we received nor the seemingly annoyed service throughout our stay. The staff were fine, but it really did seem like either they didn’t want to be there or they didn’t want *you* to be there. To the uninitiated this might have been seen as a standard Nordic reception, but in my various trips to Iceland I’ve only encountered pretty friendly hospitality staff. Icelanders are some of the most welcoming people I've met in my travels, so this was coldness was exceptional. The room was, again, fine. The hotel went to pains to explain how it was the height of Scandinavian and Nordic design, but frankly it was just a lot of black and white. And it was showing its age - the fixtures looked a bit worn and cheap, there were loads of scuff marks on the walls, and the bedside tables - two “cool” clear plastic designs, were scratched and marked up, so they appeared cheap. The room had a completely mirrored bathroom, which was entirely open to the rest of the room. Frankly, it would’ve been uncomfortable if I had even had my significant other staying with me - the room became incredibly hot and humid when you took a shower because there was no ventilation and no separation from the shower as well. The toilet was in it’s own cubicle, but closed off with a thin glass door - not exactly private. There are only two things that I am adamant about, truly, when it comes to hotels: coffee or tea options in the room for when I wake up, and plugs next to the bed. This hotel had neither. The room service began at 7am, but if you wanted coffee before that - say, if you were rising early for a long trek outside of Reykjavik - you were out of luck. You had the option of “renting” a coffee maker for 1500 ISK, in which you would receive a very specific amount of two coffee pods per night of your stay, no more. The plugs were particularly galling: the room, which was declared to be high design and the apex of luxury, lacked any sort of bedside plug, though there were wires from lamps and clocks being fed under the mattress to a hidden power *****. On top of that, the hotel was charging for everything: a disposable razor kit, usually provided complimentary by even the airportie
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