Grand Hotel Oslo — Restaurant in Oslo

My job is very physical, so over the last 2 years I have been taking myself away on solo city breaks when I need to recharge my batteries and want a breather from London life.

One of my close friends recently visited Olso and loved it, so a week ago I booked my flight and was so excited about my Norwegian adventure!

As a solo traveler, where I stay is super important to me, always opting for a 5-star hotel where you know you will be guaranteed safety, great service, a quiet room, and a good night's sleep. With a spa included in the facilities, The Grand Hotel seemed like the perfect place, so when I saw a great deal on Agoda, I booked it without hesitation.

First impressions:

The hotel from the outside and inside the lobby is absolutely stunning! The Christmas lights were gorgeous and everything had a touch of old world-class about it. I could not wait for this experience!

I checked in and got to my room and, unfortunately, the room was really disappointing. Firstly, it was absolutely freezing, the door had been left open to the balcony, and my room smelt of cigarettes. As it was 4• outside, you so look forward to a nice, cozy bedroom, but it was colder inside the room and the radiator took agesssss to heat up. The carpets were worn, stained and dirty. No automatic locking on the door. There were footprints on some of the wooden furniture and everything was just really dated. The hairdryer, no usb cable port for phone charging, empty lotion bottle, hot water that also took ages to heat up, it just didn’t even meet the basics of a 3 star.

However, the bed looked super comfy and the room was quiet, so as long as those things are good, I am happy, but there is no way I would have paid the full price for this room.

And then…

As I go to sleep at 1030pm, looking forward to a good sleep after being up since 3am that morning, I’m woken up at 11:30pm to the loudest base and drum kit pounding through my walls. I rang reception, and they informed me that there was an event going on until 1:30am… why on earth they chose to put guests directly underneath this at a 5-star hotel. I have no idea. After being on hold for 20 minutes, I am given a new room, and have to pack up everything, transport all my stuff in the middle of the night in my pyjamas without help from the 7th floor to the second floor. The room I was given was better than my current one, and there was now no sound, but still absolutely freezing.

Unfortunately, on top of this, although visually very serene, the spa was very dirty and the pool was closed for one of the days I was there. They did, however, discount entrance to the spa on this day.

The worst part was the staff, which I’m so sad about as they are usually a highlight of a 5-star experience. The lobby staff were always very cold and unfriendly, apart from the lady who checked me out on the last day. But generally, I was wondering if I was reading their energy wrong, and if it was just a difference of cultures, but everyone in restaurants and cafés was so nice, this place was the only place that wasn’t. People are human, and as someone who has worked in hosting a lot, I get that hotel work is tiring, but everyone here just seemed so cold all the time. The general vibe of the staff at the grand hotel was like the Plaza in Home Alone 2.

I absolutely loved Oslo, but this hotel was the only downside of my trip. I’m not sure if it’s because I got a deal and therefore my business was not worthy of receiving the true grand hotel experience, but either way, I still paid a lot of money and the fact it didn’t even meet the basic standards of what it promised is such a shame. I will not be returning to this hotel and advise solo travelers to look at booking the Amerikalinjen or...

Disappointing Stay at Grand Hotel Oslo – Far from Luxury Standards

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Oslo from August 22 to 31, and unfortunately, our experience did not reflect the standards expected of a Grand and Luxury hotel. In fact, I would generously rate this as a 2-star hotel based on our experience. There are several misleading elements and service failures that need to be addressed.

Deceptive Website Imagery The hotel’s website presents an image of the building with a lush garden in front, giving the impression that the hotel is set within private grounds. In reality, this is a public park separated by a street, and the hotel has no garden or frontage of its own. This felt deliberately misleading.

Poor Arrival Experience Upon our arrival, there was no staff at the entrance to assist with luggage—no bellhop, no greeting. At check-in, we were required to pay the full amount for our stay upfront, something I’ve never encountered in my extensive travel experience.

Breakfast Not Included on Arrival Since our room wasn’t ready, the front desk suggested we wait at the Grand Café. However, we were informed at the door that breakfast for the arrival day was not included and we had to pay nearly $45 per person before being seated. The buffet itself was mediocre: scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, and a limited selection of cold cuts.

Lack of Accessibility and Inconvenient Layout Once our room was ready, we had to carry our own luggage, again with no assistance offered. Worse, to reach the elevator from reception, we had to lift our luggage up several stairs—there is no ramp or help for guests with mobility concerns. One of our rooms was located on a “4/5” floor—essentially a split-level space between floors—requiring us to carry our luggage down another set of steps. It’s clear the hotel has connected buildings with mismatched floor levels, making navigation unnecessarily difficult.

Room Conditions The second room we received a few days later was disappointing: the sofa was heavily stained, the carpet dirty, and both looked well beyond their usable life. The beds were extremely soft, uncomfortable, and lacked proper support—more like sleeping on trampolines than mattresses.

Unpleasant Spa Experience We also chose to use the spa, only to find there was a $25 per person fee just to access the pool, sauna, and steam room. In my experience with actual luxury hotels, basic spa access is always included. The facilities themselves were shocking: mildew-covered showers, missing tiles, and even two Band-Aids stuck to the wall and missing closet doors. Inside the pool, a stair tile was also missing, posing a hazard.

Final Thoughts Overall, the hotel presents itself as a historic and luxurious establishment—especially with its claims of hosting Nobel Prize guests—but the reality is far from that. Customer service was lacking, the website is deceptive, and basic maintenance appears to be neglected. The aggressive prepayment policy, paired with high nightly rates, suggests the focus is on revenue collection rather than guest experience. This hotel is in serious need of renovations, furniture replacement, improved service, and a more honest representation of what it offers. Based on our stay, I would not recommend the Grand Hotel Oslo to travelers seeking true comfort,...

My partner and I booked this hotel for 3 nights while we were visiting Oslo. We were coming from Copenhagen where we also stayed in a 5 stars hotel of similar pricing. We were highly anticipating our stay believing it would be even better than the hotel we had in Copenhagen. To cut it short we were extremly disappointed, this hotel is far from 5 stars, between 2 and 3 is a lot more realistic for what you get.

We saw there was high volatility in the reviews with people giving extremely high reviews on one side of the spectrum and very low on the other side. We dismissed the low reviews thinking people had unreal expectation, turns out we were wrong...

On the positive side, the hotel is well located and beautiful from the outside. The showel gel and soap swell really nice. That's about all the positive things I can say.

Now for the negative side:

The entrance doors is not automated so you really need someone to hold it for you if you have luggages. We found ourselves holding the door to people getting in and out of the hotel several times.

There is no welcome drinks in the lobby or water to drink. You have to go to the bar.

The corridors have a very low ceiling (~2m) and the doors take up all the height. We had a strange sensation we can't quite explain but it felt a bit like a corridor of prison cells.

We were in a standard room on the 7th floor. We didn't shell out extra for a view, so we got the inner courtyard view which is so ugly that having no window at all might be preferable.

The room is a decent size but is quite worn out. The fake leather of the bed headboard is completely scratched. Every wooden trim has been covered by layers of cheap gray paint. It feels like Historical is used to justify worn out and ugly these days. Also, beware the mattress is extremely soft, you plunge at least 20cm down as you sit on it.

The bathroom looks quite new but is extremely poorly designed. The sink is barely above knee eight (we're average height) and there's very little room to put anything around. Also, the toilet flush didn't work great and you have to close the lid to trigger it. No way to solve that design I fear unless they remodel the bathroom.

The hotel is noisy at night between the deliveries made the middle of the night with metallic cart banged around to the noise made by the fitness room right above our room. I was woken up between 5 and 6 every morning of our stay by the noise made by people jogging on treadmills or dropping barbels on the floor.

Last but not least, the breakfast was not as great as we hoped. We had a choice between barely warm tea and coffee (forget about latter or hot chocolate). Fruits are no taste. The rest is decent but clearly not 5 stars.

I think there are better and more modern alternatives in Oslo. Had we not prepaid our whole stay, we would have looked for another hotel upon...