When you check into a hotel late in the evening and have to check out again right after breakfast, it can feel like you’re simply renting a bed.
The Andersen Hotel, a stylish 73-room boutique lodging in Copenhagen, aims to give you more value for your kroner. Since opening in May in Denmark’s capital city, the hotel has been offering guests a new idea they’re calling “Concept 24.” Here’s the scoop:
When you check into your room, it’s yours for 24 hours. Period. If you check in at 5 pm Monday, you can keep your room till 5 pm Tuesday. Arrive at 10 in the morning? You don’t have to wait until an arbitrary “check-in time;” your room should be ready, and it’s yours until the next day.
General Manager Karen Nedergaard acknowledges that the concept is still relatively untested, and during occasional busy times, your room might not be available the moment you arrive. If you do have to wait, you can have a drink in the lobby lounge, check your e-mail on the guest computer, or browse one of the books on contemporary design that the hotel keeps on hand for guests.
In revamping this early-1900s, six-story former apartment building, the Andersen’s design team has decorated both the guest rooms and the public spaces with vibrant colors and design-conscious elements large and small, from bold graphics to designer coat hooks to useful features like bedside reading lamps and well-lit bathroom mirrors.
The standard rooms are petite by North American standards, but armoires, desks, flat-screen TVs, mini-fridges, and comfy chairs are all efficiently arranged in the compact yet bright spaces. The superior rooms are slightly larger, and six junior suites, with a sofa bed, are a bit bigger still.
During the summer high season, double room rack rates start at DKK 1,225 (US$200).
Wi-Fi is complimentary throughout the hotel. The property has no air-conditioning, although in temperate Copenhagen, it’s rarely an essential. While there are no fitness facilities either, you can rent one of the hotel bikes to pedal around town like the locals do. The knowledgeable staff can suggest cycling routes, as well as places to eat and things to see nearby.
The location in the hip and gentrifying Vesterbro neighborhood is convenient, a short walk from Copenhagen’s central train station and the famous Tivoli amusement park. You might pass the occasional sex shop — for some years, Vesterbro was the city’s red light district — but many of the former residential buildings, like the Andersen, are now small hotels, and trendy restaurants occupy a number of the former factories.
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You can start your day with an ample breakfast buffet, served in the brilliantly rose-toned breakfast room. Staff deliver a tall pot of coffee to your table, while you help yourself to the buffet that runs the gamut from Danish specialties like pickled herring and dense rye bread, to fruits, yogurts, cheeses, and fresh pastries.
But don’t rush. At the Andersen Hotel, even if you don’t wake up for your morning meal, your room is still yours for 24 hours.
Check prices online at Booking.com.
Hotel review by Vancouver-based travel, food, and feature writer Carolyn B. Heller, author of the new travel guide, Moon Handbooks: Ontario, who also blogs about her culinary adventures at WanderFood. Large guest room and breakfast room photos courtesy of the Andersen Hotel. Smaller guest room photos © Carolyn B. Heller. I paid a discounted media rate for my stay at the Andersen Hotel.
