Hotel Phoenix — Hotel in Reykjavik

Throughout my decades of travel to 60+ countries, I’ve never experienced such disturbing behavior from a lodging proprietor, to the point of feeling genuinely unsafe in this man’s presence. I believe his name is Steindor Ivarsson (since he refused to tell me when asked), the self-described owner of this small 9-room B&B. Instead of treating guests with even a modicum of civility or respect, you are “greeted” in a most unwelcoming manner, & he becomes visibly upset by any reasonable request no matter how minor, which he then escalates to emotional hostility & vicious verbal abuse.||||My experience at this B&B unfolded as follows. 1) During my first interaction with him, he became visibly annoyed when I gently moved a ceramic tray holding creamer/sugar pots from the edge of the small 2-person breakfast table (to avoid accidentally knocking it off) to a clear space at the center of the table. He immediately came over &, with a wordless scowl, returned it to the edge of table. 2) Before going back upstairs to my room, I graciously mentioned that I didn’t need housekeeping service that day, at which he became seriously aggravated & insisted that I explain why. (I hadn’t used anything yet that would need to be cleaned or replaced.) 3) When my room safe kept malfunctioning, after precisely following the operating instructions, I asked for assistance to get it open (twice), during which he derided me for not following the directions, even though he couldn’t get it to work either & had to use his master key (twice). 4) While in my room working on the safe, he falsely accused me of trying to steal one of the bathroom towels, saying he saw me rolling it up to put in my backpack. When I calmly responded that was not the case (I was actually rolling it to use in the room as lumbar support when sitting in bed), he yelled at me, “You’re the rudest person I have ever met in my life,” as he slammed the door & walked out. 5) That evening, after I’d returned from day-long tour, he literally threw my room key at me at the front counter. 6) I’d decided to sacrifice the included breakfast the next (last) morning, as I wasn’t about to subject myself to more of his inappropriate behavior. 7) When I came down to check out, he grabbed the room key & went right back upstairs to “check the room,” rudely, & wrongly, implying I had stolen items. He then brought down my bags (they apparently don’t want guests taking luggage up & down the stairs themselves), roughly dropped them by the front door & literally raged at me, “GET OUT of my hotel,” “Take your bags & go, NOW,” & “I never want you in my hotel again.”||||If I had been able to find another place to stay the last night, I would have immediately left. I was particularly concerned about his unpredictable unbalanced behavior that night, especially since he had a master key to the guest rooms. I have no doubt that he will angrily respond to this feedback, which describes his pattern of unwarranted behavioral instability toward guests, in an attempt to discredit me, as he has threatened to do. ||||I take no pleasure in writing this review, as this man is obviously suffering emotionally, & I honestly hope he gets the gets the treatment he so clearly needs. As a healthcare professional & avid traveler, my only objective is to warn others of his terrifying & disrespectful conduct, so as to not become unwitting victims of his unbalanced, unprovoked, & unpredictable explosive outbursts & verbal attacks towards guests, who reasonably assumed they were paying for a calm & comfortable stay, with no inkling that they may be at risk of being subjected to this kind of abuse.||||With this being my long-anticipated first trip to Iceland, after having been treated with this type of emotional hostility & verbal abuse it will likely be my last. Lodging proprietors, by virtue of their jobs that put them in ongoing professional contact with visitors, ideally function as frontline goodwill ambassadors representing the city/country to tourists who come to spend their hard-earned vacation time & money. The city/national tourist boards need to seriously look into this egregious type of behavior that, if allowed to continue, will ultimately negatively impact Iceland’s tourism industry.||||Note: If I had been able to interact exclusively with the friendly & extremely helpful other gentleman working there, who has also been referred to in other reviews as the “night guy” & “night manager,” & who I believe is a business partner/co-owner of this facility, I would have given this place a glowing 5-star review. He was very welcoming when checking me in the evening I arrived, as well as politely informative regarding the multitude of guest “rules” (that I sensed he didn’t necessarily agree with). The only other time I was fortunate enough to interact with him, he voluntarily provided lots of valuable tips & pointed out important local idiosyncrasies relevant to flight departure from Keflavik Airport, use of the public transit system, as well as offering great recommendations. He always treated me with kindness, respect, &...

Stayed here for almost two weeks and it's one of the WORST hotels in my life! I bought into reviews about rooms, location and breakfast, but there's a distinct pattern in all negative reviews and I had to experience it all myself.

The good: rooms are generally clean and historically stylish there's central heating even in summer if it's cold outside there're blackout curtains (which don't block the light on the window sides, but better than nothing) the whole hotel is like a small antique museum with paintings, statues, etc. located 2 min from Hlemmur, where most of the tour pick ups takes place.

The terrible: hotel is run by two overcontrolling elderly men who are VERY RUDE and hostile Hence, they set insane rules and don't outline all of them in advance not to repel clients in advance. Examples: you can't have a boiler or an electric cattle in your room, and they don't serve any tea/coffee outside breakfast at all no microwave or snacks outside breakfast no children or visitors you have to leave the key anytime you leave the hotel the non-free Wifi is badly slow

the breakfast is the same every day, very limited and mediocre. No buffet, no additions. It's small and you leave still being hungry. one of the hosts tried to control how I ate my breakfast and where I put my possessions!

they take all the details (incl. CVV) of your credit card (and it's only possible to pay with a credit card) even though you already payed for it on booking.com. So in principle they can charge whatever they want on your card any number of times. I had to block it immediately after arrival.

if you get a room facing the street, the location is horrible! There're trucks, motorbikes and buses driving by from 5.00 am. IMPOSSIBLE TO SLEEP.

blackout curtains don't block the light on the window sides scarce shower gel / shampoo amount in the room

Overall: THEIR TERRIBLY RUDE ATTITUDE WILL RUIN...

A lovely gem of a place, more B&B than hotel, rather quirky. The two gentlemen running the place are lovely, one with a wicked sense of humour, the other a little more relaxed. Perfect answers were given to my many questions and I felt welcomed and instantly at home. Booked a single room but was given a double (with a single duvet strangely) but was glad to have the double. Fairly busy street outside but no problems for me living in London, England and heard nothing woth windows closed. Adequate facilities; when in Reykjavik you are out all day so nothing else needed. Bathroom compact. Free local calls. Excellent breakfast. Frankly the cleanest place I have ever stayed at, absolutely spotless! Breakfast was perfect, Skyr was awesome 😍 Some may find the lack of coffe/tea facilities in room a problem and the rules a little rigid - like having to hand the key in when going out, not having access to a microwave or crockery/cutlery a problem, but these were not major issues for me as I was out for up to 14 hours a day. Location is brilliant, 5-10 min walk to downtown, 2min walk to bus stop #13 , pick up point for majority of tours and airport shuttles, grocery stores and restaurants very close by. I would happily stay here again on my next visit to Reykjavik for those little personal touches, and I will look to book there again. Recommended as overall great value for the money paid (for Reykjavik) and in comparison to many other places I have stayed...