Clarion Collection® Hotel Kompaniet

Felt like a family hotel. Very accommodating and flexible regarding food and drinks. They also arranged a "private" use of the spa in the morning (outside normal open hours).

The best thing about this hotel was the treatment of the staff. Everyone was extremely friendly, from reception to the kitchen. I have stayed in many hotels, and I have never encountered such welcoming staff. Especially Alizon, who was amazing with us.

We stayed in the hotel with a junior basketball team during a basketball tournament. Everything went very smoothly and the personnel was nice and flexible. The hotel is located in beautiful surroundings near the river and close to the city center. The rooms were nice and clean. Breakfast and evening food were good.

My wife and I stayed at Kompaniet mainly due to its location close to the highly appealing Sörmlands Museum. We were very happy to find that the hotel is also welcoming and attractive in itself. Our double room was spacious and well equipped, evening supper (included in the room rate!) was quite satisfactory, morning breakfast even better. However, what appealed most to us was the staff, all of them friendly and efficient, above all keen to step in with a clear spirit of team responsibility whenever they saw a need for anything to be fixed. Having stayed at hundreds and hundreds of hotels on all continents, I have found this kind of spirit to be probably the most decisive factor separating a good hotel from less good ones!

I stayed two nights at the Clarion Collection Hotel Kompaniet. I was very confused. Was this hotel a Nordic Choice hotel? Was it a Strawberry hotel? Was it a Clarion? Was it a Choice? It used to be Nordic Choice, which has or had an affiliate with Choice internationally. So, in theory, I should have status or points because of Choice. But Nordic Choice is now Strawberry. Yet, the hotel is still branded Clarion. Clarion is a Choice brand. At the same time, it is also called Hotel Kompaniet, which makes it sound more of a boutique or independent hotel. This confusion over brand identity and marketing was apparent and evident across the hotel. While the lobby looks renovated and has a more upscale, boutique feel to it, the bar and restaurant feel like a low-end buffet. Because the breakfast and dinner is free, guests rush the buffet just like a cruise ship or cheap all-inclusive resort. Some of the guests, especially kids and sports teams, were like pigs and going back to the buffet two or three times. The food is mostly low-quality. Worse than airport lounge food. More like school or hospital cafeteria food. Especially at breakfast. The scrambled eggs were watery. The juices were watered down. I did not see any fresh berries. At night, dinner was barbecue chicken, a rice or some sort of grain, and a couple salads. I did not see any desserts. Staff worked hard and were very polite. Most or all of them spoke English. But they were overwhelmed. It was like a hotel factory with all the guests at the buffet. The front desk clerks are also the bartenders, which causes a line at the front desk when they are working at the bar or a line at the bar when they are working the front desk. While the included breakfast and dinner is appreciated, I think the hotel would be better off having a menu with table service. Guests would eat less food, costs would probably be reduced, and the quality might be better. There has to be a better and more civilized way to do the restaurant. It In terms of my room. It was on the fourth floor and had a nice view of the grounds looking toward the river. While the lobby and even the hallway to my room looked renovated or refreshed, the room itself felt a little older. Some of the furniture was scratched, damaged, or just worn. There were zero working USB outlets. I said "working" because there was one USB outlet on the side of the desk. However, it did not work. In the year 2023 you expect multiple accessible USB outlets to charge your devices. The three or four electrical outlets were in good locations but the design was poor. You could not easy use an international power adaptor due to the placement of the outlets. You also could not plug-in power adaptors for an Apple computer because of the design. This is just unacceptable. How did the designer of the rooms not test the design? Missing from my room were a telephone. Who am I supposed to call if there is an emergency? Why is there no telephone? There also was not an alarm clock. Despite no telephone or alarm clock, there was a fully stocked mini-bar. That seems like a contradiction as you would expect a stocked mini-bar at a more upscale hotel. Also missing from the room were a bathrobe and slippers. Apparently, the hotel has a sauna. I would have liked to try the sauna but I did not have a robe or slippers. Strangely, there was no coffeemaker or kettle in the room. Again, another contradiction. How do you provide a stocked mini-bar but not a coffeemaker? The bathroom was spacious and the walk-in shower had nice hot water pressure. No complaints there. Unfortunately, the hotel has went cheaper on soap and toiletries. No bar of soap is provided. Instead, I had an empty bottle of hand wash. Liquid hand wash is not the same as soap. When I reported the dispenser of hand wash being empty the housekeeper came to my room, pulled the empty dispenser out of the trash, and filled it with new liquid. That is unsanitary. So the dispensers are never cleaned or replaced. They just pull items out of the trash to use again. The individual bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash have been replaced with a wall-mounted dispenser containing a shampoo-conditioner combination. No body wash is provided. Also, body lotion is not provided. No providing body wash and lotion is cheap. The entrance to the hotel needs to be cleaner. It was very unkempt with lots of leaves, some trash and just an untidy appearance considering this is the first impression a guest sees upon arrival. There is a curb or kerb at the entrance, meaning it is not handicap accessible or easy for a guest with luggage. One more point. Be mindful of staying here on the weekends in summer. Sports teams use the hotel and the kids are loud and out of control. Some of the kids were climbing outside the windows to a room on a different floor using bed sheets. This was reported to staff who seemed powerless to do anything about the kids. Why is management allowing kids to ruin the hotel for the adults? There can also be live music concerts across the street with loud music until 11 pm at night. This causes considerable noise because the windows do not have proper noise insulation. All things considered, the brand and marketing confusion is apparent. Is the hotel a boutique hotel or is it a budget-focused brand for families and groups? It is trying to be both and doing neither very well. Part of the hotel feels like a Holiday Inn but much of the hotel feels like a very cheap Ibis. The owners and management should invest in the hotel to bring it up to a higher standard. For SEK 2,844 (about US$270), this should be a better hotel. Nyköping does not have many hotels.