Best Western Hotel Arctic Eden

I have had this hotel on my to-visit-list for a while, but there have been some newer options in Kiruna I wanted to try first. Much to my surprise, I secured a great rate at the BW Hotel Arctic Eden for two nights at the end of July, so here are my thoughts:||The hotel overall is as can be expected from an older property in the mid-range. I got quite a small room, and a bathroom that was really.....small. Taking a shower was indeed a challenge, but with enough tenacity, anything goes! Breakfast is included and I would use the word lacklustre to describe their food options at the breakfast buffet. Parking options are limited and in very high demand around the hotel this time of the year, so bear this in mind if you travel by car. ||My favourite thing about this hotel were the lovely people they have working in the reception. They are truly service-minded and solution-oriented. They also greet you consistently and seem genuinely interested in providing a stellar level of service. ||Would I stay here again? Yes, with a great rate, absolutely. At the same/similar rate as the newer hotels in the new part of town? Probably not!|||Bottom-line: if you can secure a good deal, go for it!

I stayed at the hotel for one night. The reception staff was friendly, helpful, and had good local knowledge of Kiruna. I was first given a large, pleasant room, but it had not been cleaned after the previous guests. I was promptly moved to a smaller room, which, oddly, cost the same. The restaurant had an appealing menu with local beers and pizzas, but after waiting 5 minutes to be seated and over 10 minutes without being able to place an order, I chose to eat at a nearby fast food restaurant instead. Breakfast was good. A highlight is the large gym in the basement, with several well-equipped rooms — very impressive.

The rooms are small, old, dated, and not well kept (see the picture of the peeling fake-wood floor). However, what really makes this possibly the worst hotel I’ve ever dealt with is the fact that they shamelessly trick you into getting something different from what you paid for. I had a group of people, and two of the rooms I booked were supposed to have two twin beds. Well, they put my friends into rooms with one queen-size bed. When I complained, they showed me the small print that showed up after I made the reservation, in which, among many other things, they say they can’t guarantee room configuration requests (even though they allow you to pay for it). Now, here’s the thing: on Hotels.com, they can enter exactly how many rooms they have and the configuration, so when the rooms get booked, that configuration is no longer offered. In other words, they purposefully list rooms with one queen-size bed as having two twin beds. Picture yourself in this situation: you book a room that is listed as one configuration, and pay for it. However, when you arrive here, tired and looking forward to getting to your room, they tell you that what you paid for is not available, so you have no choice but to take what they will give you, or go through the hassle of cancellation, fight for a refund because you canceled in less than 24 hours, and still have to try to find another hotel in Kiruna. Would you want that? Well, that’s what you risk when you deal with this hotel. I’m in complete disbelief that I would run into this kind of dishonesty in Sweden, and even that Best Western allows a franchise to operate like this.

Overall a clean hotel. It’s more like a construction site and built like a maze. It’s not a premium hotel in any shape or form. It’s good for an overnight stay but that’s it. Pool wasn’t great and sauna was not great either. I will not be staying here again as the overall feel was bad. Bed’s uncomfortable, pillows lumpy, a lot of unfinished construction, hard to find yourself way around, felt like it’s located very off. It’s fairly clean and nothing major but I guess I was expecting something else.

The hotel was right in the heart of town. It is convenient to restaurants, although they have their own bar and restaurant within the hotel. The room is a spacious clean with an up-to-date bathroom in shower and plenty of parking. Everything you need to explore the surrounding area.

You may be tempted to take a cabin in the wilderness of Kiruna but if you are by train and want to escape the cold, this hotel is perfect. One of the best nights of sleep that I've had in Sweden has been on their extremely comfortable beds. The room is spacious and cozy with all the amenities that you'd need, including a TV which you can cast onto. The shower is lovely and warm with the option of two shower heads. The location is ideal too, only a 20 minute walk to the train station and easy to go out into nature if you fancy a nighttime Aurora walk. The staff were extremely helpful and friendly with our booking (I had to book on two separate bookings and we were able to keep our room). Last but not least, the facilities are great - the gym is huge and a bit of a maze but it has everything that you could want and the sauna and pool are absolutely lovely. Last but not least, the breakfast buffet included was lovely. The only downside is why prawns were put in the deviled eggs but there are other egg options so it's not the end of the world. Plenty of vegetarian options and even some vegan choices too.

First at all, the hotel layout is very confusing. I have to open 7 doors and many stairs with carry luggage from reception before reaching the room (no automatic door). Second, receptionists lack communication between shifts. I was booking one night through an online agent and extended 2 more nights directly. And in the morning I went to reception to update the key card, but in the afternoon I still got a call asking to check out, after explaining and checking the staff apologized for the mistake. Definitely have to update the key card again. Furthermore, I asked about a tour with a night shift sta6, he called the agency but couldn't confirm at that time so he told me to come here later. Then I came again the next morning, but the morning shift didn't know anything, no memo or trace. Third, the manner and service of staff is substandard if compared with other properties. Example: staff playing mobile phone at reception, maybe it's about work but no looking good. He should hide, not obviously seeing. Fourth, I was hanging signs 'please make up my room ' at the door. But when I came back the sign was still at the door and no one was clean. The reason is they've 3 housekeepers only, and fully booking!! Only the room and breakfast are good. At this price the guest should deserve better!

This was a great hotel. Really comfortable and cozy. The rooms were huge and had everything in it. The only problem was with the TV casting, not the casting per say, but the show was buffering all the time, so the internet was bad. The breakfast, however, really impressed me. Although it was not the biggest I've seen, the selection was really nice. They had everything from the standard English breakfasts to cottage cheese and oatmeal. So it was something for everyone's taste.