I was originally given room 1411 on April 14 2009, and moved the next day to room 656, where I stayed until April 18. I was here to be a featured speaker at the GoOpen 2009 conference.
When this hotel was built in 1952, it must once have been one of Oslo's nicest hotels. While it still has its pretty parts - the lobby and the atrium, the rooms and some of the operation show a pervasive lack of attention to detail that makes this potentially nice hotel a mediocre one. I doubt that the discount Choice Hotels chain provides the budget for as much hospitality management as would be required to operate a nice hotel properly. The flaws are not in what they spend on the physical aspects of the property but in a lack of attention.
The public areas are pretty and the breakfast buffet in the atrium restraurant was generous.
Room 1411, though large, had not a single shelf or drawer for the storage of clothing and belongings. There was a phone-booth-sized niche where a set of drawers had obviously been intended to live, but it stood empty. This room also featured a glass-windowed door to the balcony without any window-covering, no curtain or shade, which places the occupant in view of the workers in the office building across the street. I moved a floor lamp in front of this door and hung a towel on the lamp, just to give myself some semblance of privacy. The balcony exists only for window-cleaners and perhaps fire escape, it does not seem to have been built to be of use to the guest. A large tile was knocked out on the outside of the bathtub over a the floor drain positioned oddly after some previous rennovation, providing an ugly opening for whatever small creatures wish to live in the wall. A cat could have fit through it. A cable modem lied on the floor by the desk, with video, telephone, and internet wires leading to and from it. Most hotels secure these things to the back of the video cabinet or underside of the desk to hide them.
I brought the failings of room 1411 to the attention of the counter man, who offered me an upgrade to room 656.
The two room suite, room 656, was indeed nicer, but also suffered from the lack of attention to detail. Although tea servings were present, there was no tea pot and I had to have housekeeping install one. The desktop electrical outlets and ethernet connection were non-functional. Wifi did work but required the use of scratch-cards provided by the management, which expired in four hours. The thermostat was positioned oddly, feet above the eye level of this tall customer, and offered settings only in Celsius degrees rather than both the Celsius and Farenheit scales provided by most modern hotel thermostats. The radiator was positioned behind the full-length window curtain, making it difficult to heat the room with the curtain closed to block the sunlight of Northern summer nights while sleeping.
There were incidents of inadequate shower hot water early in the morning on Friday and Saturday between 4 and 6 AM. For some reason there was actually more hot water available later in the morning. Saturday's incident included very cold water coming out of the hot tap, fortunately after the tub was already full of warm water. Of course I expect any hotel to offer uninterrupted hot water, as much as is desired.
As I came from breakfast to the lobby on Friday, the victim of a botched reservation was reduced to screaming at the counter man. I fled the altercation.
I have also stayed in the modest Scandic hotel attached to the Oslo central train station and Byporten shopping mall, a few steps away from the Clarion. Though much less presumptuous, it was more comfortable than the Clarion and I would prefer to book there in the future.