Clarion Hotel® The Edge

This hotel used to be the best in Tromsoe, and our favourite "cottage" in the "Paris of the North", but not any more. The staff is allways great and welcoming and the hotel look good, from the outside. The sofa in the bar area really needs to be changed. Our room had dirty spots on a lot of places. The sink in the bathroom had stains that looked like blood, and we removed it easy with paper and water. The bed area had stains that I will not gess the content of, and the windows were greasy on the inside. We tryed to contact the hotel after our visit, but got no reply. The staff should have used the corona-time to clean the place thoroghly. We will find another hotel to visit in Tromsoe in the future.

Hotel is well situated, clean and modern. Single room was only about 2,2 m wide and not very practical. No arm chair, very unpractical (under 20 cm wide) sink, no place to hang a towel. Silent room, good bed. Slow service in reception. Expensive parking and quite long walking distance to city parking garage.

The family rooms are those up to the 7th stock, ending in 25. I do not know the other rooms, so must stick to reviewing such room. The room is not large, but large enough for two extra folding beds. (Why is this a family room? Because two extra beds fit in?) The bathroom is fine, but indeed the floor partly floods during showering, and why is there no space to hang the towels? Very inconvenient, esp. since "because of Covid" there is no room service. It is convenient to save money accordingly; but sad to abuse a pandemic as rationale. The room fridge is 1990-s filled with colas and the like, while most of Scandinavia has reverted to a more humane approach. One must realise, probably, that (this part of) Tromsø is a tourist area. And indeed, the location of the hotel is quite excellent. Everything in walking distance, and the rest is served with very frequent buses. Breakfast: it's OK, but sadly without omelette baking "because of Covid", and sadly a below-par dietary selection; even after requesting such during reservation. But friendly staff whose fault it isn't. That, for me, makes the whole breakfast below par, and indeed I'd always prefer the Scandic breakfasts, if the hotel is large enough that is. My rate, 3/5, indicates I would book again if there were no other choice. Checking, I'm not surprised the company behind Clarion is US-based, hospitality of which I recognise as share-centric rather than human-centric.

Our hotel experience was mostly good. The room was spacious, tidy and clean. Additionally we loved the interior design and lighting by Secto design and the cleansing products from Rituals, which added a luxurious feeling to our stay. Our bed was only made up for one person, although we booked a room for two - no major problem since we located a spare duvet in a cabinet. The bed was comfortable and the room was quiet, with no sounds from neighbouring rooms. Unfortunately, the breakfast was disappointing and not up to date, considering that more and more people are eating less or no meat/milk products and the fact that this hotel supposedly has one of the best breakfasts in town. As a person who does not eat meat I was disappointed to find few options in the breakfast area. Only one type of firm cheese (not specified which type), some jelly/chocholate spreads, beans, some vegetables and boiled eggs pretty much sums it up if you wanted bread related food. No warm vegan friendly options. I would have loved a fried egg, but the fried eggs all had bacon on top (could have easily been solved by serving bacon on a separate plate instead). If you wanted cereals, there were some different types and toppings to choose from, but I wish there had been a higher variety of nuts besides just almonds (ex hazelnuts or walnuts). Apart from that there was a cold porridge available (with barely no topping), which tasted like it contained milk. There should be a vegan friendly option available, for example a chia pudding with coconut/almond milk. All in all, thumbs down if you want a vegetarian/vegan friendly breakfast. When trying to check out using the contactless option the hotel tried charging me again, despite me already paying for the stay upon check-in. So be careful to avoid paying for the stay twice.

Stayed here for 3 night during short visit to Tromso. After arrival, we were given deluxe room on 12th floor, but we rejected it, as the bed was the most soft bed ever. One of the staff members (not front desk, but lady from housekeeping) went to check some other rooms, and after an hour we moved to 8th floor, as the bed has not yet been replaced with softest foam mattress on the planet and was a bit harder, but not substantially. As both me and wifey are having back pain problems, we had really hard time sleeping there for three nights, as those foam soft mattresses are not healthy for your back at all, and sleep quality is just terrible, you basically are sleeping in a hole. Hotel also has no air condition, which was not problem on 8th floor, but would have been huge problem on 12th, as original room was quite hot. There are also removing phones from rooms, but our still had one, it just wasn't working. Bathroom design was terrible, as shower was separated from the toiler with just one glass divider, and was missing a door, so as a result, most of the bathroom was flooded after showering. I was shocked as no staff wore masks during our stay, and 90% of the guests also followed this "smart" practice, feeling the rest of us not very safe. Best part of the stay was breakfast, with many choices and good quality, but feeling was strange as almost all guests and all staff were moving around food without masks... not the best feeling, I can tell you. In theory, everybody should use app to secure time slot for breakfast, so we did; but in reality, I doubt that most guests are doing this, as no-one checked those reservations with us at all, and there were tons of people having breakfast at the exactly the same time. Would not stay in this hotel again even if they would pay me.