I stayed at the First Hotel Reisen Oct.16-18 on a business trip. Allow me to first say that Stockholm is very beautiful, plenty of sights, charming, friendly, the food is great, and they all speak English! Now for the Hotel review:

Although I liked the hotel, there are some issues that some might find minor, while others might consider them a deal breaker. Let me break them down between the Good and the Bad.

First with the Good:
The location is great. The hotel is located next to the water, close to the Old City and within walking distance to all the great sights, shopping, Palace, restaurants, cheesy gift shops, everything!

The hotel was very clean. It offers a spa, hot and cold pool, gym, and all the amenities you expect from a nice hotel.

The hotel restaurant was very good and the breakfast was free. It was of great quality Scandinavian type breakfast, with plenty of meats, cheeses, fruits, cereals, breads, along with a few hot items to satisfy us Yankees. I ate there for dinner once and it was very good.

The wireless internet was also free. They give you 24 hour vouchers for each day you stay, so be sure to ask for all your vouchers when you check in or you’ll end up running down to the lobby when your internet stops working.

The staff was also very friendly, (although one of them gave me change for a 500 Krona and one of the bills was an out of circulation bill without the silver strip, which is no longer used and worthless, and they would not take it back!) Oh well, out of 100 Krona. I suppose this could be in the Bad part of the review, but I like to believe this was one employee’s oversight and not worth fretting.

Now for the Bad:
The rooms were tiny, the décor was dated. The room barely had enough room for the bed and a desk, much less room for my suitcase (I included a picture.) Thank God I was traveling alone. The TV set was only 13” and offered local programming along with some English speaking channels. I stayed in a room with an alley view and had to keep my curtains closed the entire stay since the building adjacent to this hotel had its windows facing directly into the rooms.

The price for the room was expensive. For the type of room, I believe $300.00 was a bit steep. Yes the location was great, but really, $300.00 for a closet? I know it’s Europe and rooms tend to be small and pricey, but I believe in the future I will stay a little further away and do a little more walking.

All and all I had a great stay, the city more than made up for what the room lacked in size. If I could offer a few suggestions to those who visit Stockholm for the first time: The people are great, the city is beautiful, and the food is fantastic, but the shopping is very expensive!. Bring plenty of money if the loved ones back home expect a gift. If you’re an American, be prepared to do a lot of walking. If you are European, everything is within walking distance.

Safe Travels
Fluter

I chose the hotel for its location in the Old Town having visited Stockholm on holiday previously. This time it was a business trip and my partner joined me. We booked through booking.com and stayed for 4 nights.
We liked the size of the room (large) with sofa seating area (a little shabby but not too bad) and also a nice balcony for sitting out with a view over the medieval rooftops of Gamla Stan (good for the smoker since all the inside space is non-smoking). We had an executive room and having seen some standard room sizes in Stockholm previously I think it was good value for money to pay extra. We had a kettle in the room (horrible Nescafe sachets and tea selection, so we bought our own tea bags from a nearby shop). The bathroom was particularly clean and bedding/towels were changed daily. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast a lot, but did not eat other meals in the hotel as there was nothing vegetarian on the menu. I'd happily stay here again as I love the location so much.

This comment shows that the Hotel Reisen does not uphold its written agreement to pay commission to travel agents when reservations are made at their hotel. I had clients staying at the hotel August 16 - 19, 2010 in a jacuzzi suite. Numerous requests for payment of commission to the accounting department, the reservations manager, and even the General Manager have been ignored. As agents we work very hard and we should receive the commission offered by the hotel for our services.
Elisabeth

My partner and I stayed at First Hotel Reisen in August 2011. We had made our reservation through the hotel's website requesting a room on a high floor. We arrived at the hotel in the early morning and our room was ready. We were delighted to have been given a room on the top floor with a wonderful water view. The room, bed and bathroom were quite acceptable. One morning we woke up to no hot water, however, it was fixed within an hour. Buffet breakfast was plentiful with lots of choices. We would stay here again.