Clarion Hotel® Copenhagen Airport

The hotel is nice enough. It was previously a Hilton and better servicewise. Now it is a middle of the road hotel in a building that is better than that. Location is good for stopover i Copenhagen airport. Parking is expensive and restaurant also.. TV channel is mostly danish, norwegian, swedish and german. No CNN, but BBc and Al Jazeera, if you are into that..

Dated and worn room furnishings, dirty carpets, mediocre breakfast offerings. Check out the dilapidated sink faucet (pic). All shamelessly priced at 320 USD/night. Not even a bottle of water offered free of charge. Dirty water kettle. No coffee machine. Yes, I did notice the instant coffee sachets.

It is supposed to for those layovers that have you spend the night next to or inside the airport. On the surface this meets the needs. A few steps from the metro stop and the access to the airport is a breeze. Very convenient. However, the room itself was disappointing. The sink should probably be replaced or just requires a deep cleaning. The toilet was clean, but could also use a rust remover. Those are things I can usually overlook for such a short stay. A clean and easy shower and zero hazards when putting on my shoes should not be negotiable. We had an early flight out from Copenhagen this morning. This meant that we had to get an even earlier start to get ready.  The shower did not drain very well. In fact, you could only let the water run for about 30 seconds before the water would pool at the feet. With very little time, we used the shower in a creative way and eventually needed to use the tub. This is challenging as I have a bad back. I was going to call and complain to the front desk, but with little time, we decided to let the front desk clerk know when we checked out. Also, there is a small stool near the window. That small stool has an exposed and sharp piece of metal coming off the base. I almost cut myself as I sat down to put on my shoe.  I let the clerk know as we checked out. He seemed to not care in the slightest. He didn't apologize nor did he make any gesture to make up for the inconvenience or even for letting them know that there are issues with Room 1224 at the Clarion Copenhagen.

we stayed there a few years ago when it was a hilton. The quality has slipped a little bit and now they have self serve check in check out kiosks. The food at dinner was way overpriced even for an airport hotel. Bed was comfy and room was clean. The floor setup is a bit odd but easy to get used to. didn't have breakfast since we had an early morning flight.

Previously, and yes - probably stayed 30 times here so can relate, always very happy with standards, service and general quality of all amenities within the hotel. This time I clearly notice something has changed. When checking in I’m greeted with a cool smile and the process becomes quite mechanical, no small talk, no personality, no recognition just ‘we don’t accept ApplePay, don’t you have a physical card’? Anyway, I can live with that - I do cope with people having a less good day or similar. When stepping to the elevator bank I’m struck by how the once very stately Hilton interior has slowly been degrading and not sure what the positioning of the hotel is supposed to be. Is it a quick in-and-out social hang out for youngster or is it the 5-star airport hotel it once were or is it anything in between. Or does it only rely on daytime conference guests? Who knows, not sure the hotel knows either with its new branding of the different outlets pulling in all directions. The rooms are still the hotels strongest feature with splendid views in all directions. Bathrooms from build year so they do start looking a bit long in the tooth, dirty or yellow grits where tiled etc. Don’t get me wrong though, still comfy and alright. Ok, let’s not beat around the bush. Went down for food in the hotel restaurant. That proved to be an ordeal. Firstly, obviously understaffed and generally with less trained personnel it seemed, working quite inefficiently. Took a while to get a table and took a while to order. Getting the food took en eternity. Ordered a soup that was uneatable, bland and diluted into something resembling wall paper glue. Probably a reheat many times over. Sent it out and the waiters only comment was ‘weird’. Asking what he meant, he said it’s usually good. Ok, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Second dish was supposed to be an Italian pizza bianco. Enter, thick slab of bread (American pan-pizza style) with some sort of finely chopped meat sprinkled on top (unsure what it was actually), roasted peppers and halved, cold cherry tomatoes. Some of the topping was eatable, less so the bread part. When sending this out too, I did tell the waiter that this very much resembled a factory made bun straight from the freezer - something he acknowledged. In fairness, in the end I only ended up paying for my bottle of water. Still hungry though and in luck my next door neighbour is a big, international airport with lots of food outlets. Back to my initial point though. Doesn’t this hotel, with its excellent location, deserve to be brought back up to standard. I for sure think so and will be sure to come back to check on, what can be said for the moment, a fallen star.