Elite Stadshotellet Karlstad

Our room in the new building was modern and fresh. Stylish bathroom. Great rooftop bar, good quality breakfast. Bishop Arms restaurant on the ground floor has the best location in town.

We had a room in the new building on the 1st floor facing the roof of the garage and the ventilators (from the restaurant kitchen). Half of all rooms have this view. The choice is: get a much more expensive room with river view or an identical room facing the ventilators (which are unfortunately too loud to open the window in the evening/night). It’s a big challenge to find the gym :) Buildings are connected to each other and it’s a labyrinth inside, no proper signs. No soap in the bathroom to wash the hands. There is shampoo and conditioner on the wall of the shower but no soap/ soap dispenser at the sink - how is this even possible in a 4-star hotel?

Location, for Karlstad unbeatable. Paid for a river view but well worthwhile. The cruising teenagers (you can drive at 15 in Sweden with a training triangle and 6 or more kids will get into a car and go cruising the city centre with very loud sound systems to show off. Unfortunately the block around the hotel is quite popular if it does not go all night. Breakfast buffet bountiful and good quality, but a (polite) scrum of diners: took longer to figure out what was where and get it to table than to eat it. A not uncommon problem but heightened by a jampacked room. Still, a value if you have the time and patience.

The hotel is a very strange warren of two conjoined buildings and navigating is long and frustrating. Everyone has to get to 1st floor ( not ground) to communicate between restaurants and upstairs' terrace and rooms can be a long complicated journey from reception.

Got a free upgrade to a "family room" which was spacious and had a king-size bed. Room was very clean, had a mini bar (which meant also a fridge that we could store dairy product for our child), toiletries, bathrobes on tops of towels, and coffee/tea-making products. The hotel is very central and easily accessible. Very good breakfast selection including vegetarian and gluten-free options. Fun fact: according to the hotel booklet, the Beatles had also stayed here!

I would appreciate a slightly harder mattress and were told that we should have pre-booked a parking space. Other than that we were very pleased with our stay.

Everything, nicely presented hotel with reasonable price, excellent location, nice modern rooms, pleasant and helpful staff.

Price of alcohol in the attached bar. Could have better sausages in the breakfast buffet. My room was at the very edge of the hotel and WiFi signal wasn't great. Please invest in a WiFi repeater.

We booked 4 double rooms and 1 pet friendly room. They were all very different. Two of them were light and spacious and the others felt a bit darker since they were on the right hand side of the hotel. Breakfast room was very pretty and the food was good. Friendly staff. Nice rooftop with pool.

Some of the rooms are far away and you need to walk for a few minutes. There was no elevator to get to these rooms.

Great breakfast. Locations is perfect. Staff was professional and service minded. Separate shampoo and shower gel, as well as conditioner and lotion. Minibar and refrigerator on the room.

I love Elite Hotels, but this one did not really live up to my (granted, very high) expectations. The electric socket of the desk in the room was broken, and replaced with a branch socket on the floor. Also, something must have been wrong with the ventilation of the room as when I opened the window, a bad smell started creeping up from the bathroom floor drain.

Great location on the river, and near the bus and train stations. Very clean, spacious, rooftop terrace good, excellent breakfast and wide variety, lovely reception and dining room staff, comfy beds, great shower. Would definitely come again.

Can be a bit loud at night as near some clubs/bars, but by the same token it's due to the good central location of the hotel, so you can't have it both ways.

Nicely placed in towncenter by the river. The historic building with expansions is nice, with charming interior. You may have some trouble finding your way to the room though. Funny and challenging! Good breakfast. Nice pub attached with good service.

Breakfast is good, but the staff couldn't clean tables fast enough around busiest hours 9.00 - 10.00. So we had to sit down at messy tables. They ask us to help them "go green" by not cleaning our room. Well, I think that's is mostly to save labour.

I had a work trip to Karlstad and chose this hotel because of the location and good reviews. But it was so much more than a base for a work trip! The breakfast was outstanding, the hotel is a charming mix of period detail and modern facilities, the staff were exceptionally helpful in every way. I'm just sorry that work commitments meant I didn't have time to enjoy the pool. I guess I'll have to go back :)

Great location and facilities. We particularly enjoyed the use of the rooftop pool and bar. Excellent breakfasts, comfortable rooms and helpful staff.

Would have been useful to know that you needed to book for the limited parking. We had to use a public long-stay car park, however it was only a short walk away and not expensive.