Ion City Hotel, Reykjavik, a Member of Design Hotels

Great staff and location

Our favorite part of this hotel was the location, although everything else was also terrific. It is located on the primary restaurant and shopping street, much of which is a pedestrian mall, and is minutes walk from the water and the famous church. The room was very, very comfortable and the bathroom spacious. Our only struggle was to understand the lighting . . . all switches were dimmable but didn't turn the lights off - you had to double click the wall switch to turn the lights off. We loved our stay here.

We had an overall disappointing stay at ion city, despite high hopes and price tag. Arrival was fairly easy although the entrance is very tucked away, luckily our taxi driver pointed us in the right direction (be aware that the street is pedestrian and cycles only). We received a welcome drink which was nice, but that was pretty much where the welcoming atmosphere and experience ended for us. The room itself was okay but lacking some amenities, there wasn’t really anything you wouldn’t get in a cheaper hotel other than nespresso machine accompanied by pods that had no description on. It was underwhelming for the price, but fine. Not far off a premier inn to be honest. That was until the evening hit. The hotel is VERY close to a bar that is open until 3am and has live music every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And it is LOUD. The noise wasn’t helped by the fact that our window was broken and had a large gap in the bottom corner between the window and the frame. The hotel offered us earplugs and moved us to another room the next day (luckily our two remaining nights fell on the few days when the there isn’t a band next door, I’d be surprised if any room was free from noise on the live music nights) but the receptionist denied the window was broken (you could literally feel the wind coming through and see light!) and generally made us feel like we’d been a huge inconvenience for complaining for the rest of our stay. We also asked for help booking a taxi and were told “just call one”. Although the location is handy for getting around, it’s also the hotel’s downfall due to the noise. Reykjavik is a fairly small place, so it’s not essential to stay on the main pedestrian street, next time we’ll go a few streets out to a quieter spot.

This hotel was fab. Little tricky to find but once here very posh! We had a superior junior room with a sauna on the balcony. Such a lovely way to spend an hour in between day trips You have one large sliding door so view is gorgeous no need to close curtain and it’s so private. Shower lovely too. All good would definitely recommend.

The woman at the front desk was amazing, friendly and very helpful!