Radisson Blu Polar Hotel, Spitsbergen — Hotel in Spitsbergen

We spent 2 nights at the Radisson recently. The one thing I can say which is positive is that the staff are wonderful and are credit to the hotel.

The downsides, I know Longyearbyen is expensive but the rooms are very basic. Our first room had heating that didn't work. We reported this and then went out and returned and it was not fixed although the issue had been logged with maintenance. We were asked if we wanted to change rooms which we did as we were feeling ill and shivery so no heating wasn't an option. The second room did have heating but after the first night we discovered a problem on the opposite end was that it had one temperature, hot! No matter where the temperature knobs were set at the temperature didn’t change so we ended up turning the radiator off completely.

There was no plug for the bath in the second room so had to go and retrieve the plug from our first room with no heating which we luckily still had a card for.

The biggest disappointment was the walrus safari tour we booked through the hotel, a trip they actively promote on the hotel website. The marketing for this noted a colony of walrus and we were really excited to go out in the summer sun from 7 til 11pm. I would recommend not booking this trip which I believe is provided through Hurtigruten and the hotel really should not be promoting this. It was really poor and after excellent trips to Coal Mine 3 and Barentsburg this really stuck out as just awful. First off, we didn't even get picked up until 7.30pm because, I believe, they needed to do two separate journeys to get all guests. By time we had all boarded the boat and set off time was already passing. The driver and the guide didn't seem particularly interested or informative. The guide started giving us info on Longyearbyen and coal mining (inaccurate information at that about the number of mines open) which didn't feel particularly relevant to the trip we were doing when instead, given it was a WALRUS SAFARI it may have been more helpful to have given info on walruses, no information was given on walruses, their habit etc! We saw 1 walrus and it seemed then the guide was satisfied they had done their job and lost interest and made no further effort. The driver was more interested in chewing his tobacco and madly swinging the steering wheel from left to right so viciously which didn't seem to do much to help make a nice journey back. We were back at the hotel well before 11pm so don't feel we got good value...

I was fortunate to pick this place as my base in Longyearbyen.

Given the complexities of setting up a hotel and running one in the arctic, this hotel is fantastic. It's probably the best out there.

1 - The staff are super helpful and responsive. Right from before my arrival to my entire stay, the team online was super responsive and helpful with all possible queries one could have. I must give a special shout out to Jakob, Olga and Antonina at the front desk who are also part of the customer service team. Super accessible, responsive, professional and courteous - throughout.

The check-in process was smooth and quick. If you inform them in advance, they make sure to do their best to keep everything ready, including giving an early check-in. I didn't get the specific room we'd discussed for the first two nights (although I got the room grade I'd paid for) and they were apologetic - and moved me from the 3rd day onwards (including shifting my bags while I was away). Super nice of them.\

The rooms - at least the one bedroom suite ones - have stunning views (beautiful and memorable ones) and are spacious, comfortable and have enough space to lounge around. Again, given the arctic there are flaws and gaps (lights not working et al), but nothing that would ruin the stay.

The location is a 10 minute drive (max) from the airport. Taxis come within 5-10 minutes. And the Co-Op is a 5 minute walk away, as are the museums, cafes and restaurants. It's in a great spot. The end of Longyearbyen is an 8-10 minute and the famous sign with the polar bear is just a 20-25 minute walk.

WiFi is as good as it can be. Had no issues.

In the summer, carry a fan! :) I stayed in September so it wasn't bad - if the windows can open, when you need some fresh air. The insulated walls could make the rooms hot. If you get the one bedroom suites, open the windows up and enjoy.

They lack a phone in the rooms. But understand that's difficult up there! There could be a tech solution to summon housekeeping or ask a question to make it faster vs call them (from an international number for tourists). The room cleaning could be better - didn't notice the cleaners vacuum once. And some rooms have stairs - worth noting for those with mobility issues. Those are minor gripes though.

Would I stay again? Oh, definitely. Cannot wait :) And my kudos to the front desk...

Please stay elsewhere, do not waste your money at this fake 4 star. It is more like a 3 star at best.

So the good points - the reception staff were very friendly, the rooms were a good size, the room facilities were acceptable. Breakfast was as expected.

The bad points - we were locked out of our room on the second day and had to go back and forward multiple times between reception and the room to get it sorted. We were located in a separate building to reception so this was a great inconvenience. The housekeeping staff seemed to turn up when they wanted, or not at all! It was really disorganised and they always seemed to come when we were in the room, sometimes 9am or maybe 4pm! The hot tub was disgusting. We could only use it half of the days that we stayed because it was either 24C or green, full of foam, or scum around the edges. I don’t know how they are allowed to let public bathe in it. And be prepared that in the sauna sometimes people are clothed, sometimes they are not. There is no rule and it is a mixed sauna, so there should be a rule. The water bucket in the sauna was also leaking, these facilities were well below the standard we expected. The water in the rooms was boiling hot and a couple of times I burned my hands not knowing this. The rooms were too hot also, even when we left the windows open all day it was still 23C. The beds were 2 single beds pushed together, and the bedding was uncomfortable, with only one pillow each, thin cheap duvets, and the mattress was maybe 3“ thick maximum. When we did check into the room housekeeping had left a used cotton bud on the floor - pretty gross. Housekeeping also left a dirty cloth on one of our hiking rucksacks, we did tell reception but they didn’t seem to care. Housekeeping also took away one of our towels so we had to take one from their trolley. The towels were also poor quality - like sandpaper. The WiFi was intermittent and not password secure.

Given what we paid for this hotel we expected a lot better

We actually stayed in another hotel 1 night which was much cheaper and was...