101 Guesthouse

“Guesthouse 101, Reykjavik”

We really enjoyed a four night stay at the 101 Guesthouse, Reykjavik. It is well sited in the heart of Iceland's capital, close to many of the places you will want to visit The staff were very friendly and helpful , the accommodation was simple, basic and clean.....a no fuss, no frills ethos but w… more

We really enjoyed a four night stay at the 101 Guesthouse, Reykjavik. It is well sited in the heart of Iceland's capital, close to many of the places you will want to visit The staff were very friendly and helpful , the accommodation was simple, basic and clean.....a no fuss, no frills ethos but with a welcoming and pleasant atmosphere. Our room was very comfortable, twin beds, bedside storage, a table and chairs and large wardrobe. White sheets and white duvets plus white towels were all provided. Simple, functional and very clean. Toilets and showers were shared and just across the hallway. It almost felt like we had some use....but this was not the case. It never was a case of them being occupied by other guests. As with all public areas the staff kept these shared facilities super clean and fresh. The other key facility was a communal kitchen. Here we found everything necessary to cook our meals and store food that required keeping cold. A large fridge, dishwasher, microwave oven toaster, coffee making machine and sets of plates, knives and forks, spoons plus plenty of tables and chairs were available. The room had a TV...no one seemed to use but was available. Only on one of our four evenings was the kitchen busy....then it just required some give and take, most of the rest of the time it almost seemed like a private kitchen. The kitchen was a great place to meet other travellers are hear their stories....very multi national....we met people from all around the globe. Each room has a key to lock it when out, plus a key to enter the Guesthouse when reception is closed, making for excellent security. A breakfast service is available on the ground floor but we did not use this so can't comment on this service. So if it's just a single night or a longer stay, Guesthouse 101 is a great place to stay, friendly and great value for money in a an excellent location in Reykjavik. Thanks and best wishes to the hard working staff, 😁👍

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“Clean and comfortable, very good breakfast”

The location is perfect for being able to walk around the city.  The room was clean and comfortable. The road noise was a little loud. Check in was easy and the staff was helpful and friendly. We were able to leave our luggage in the lobby since we were early. The staff placed our luggage in ou… more

The location is perfect for being able to walk around the city.  The room was clean and comfortable. The road noise was a little loud. Check in was easy and the staff was helpful and friendly. We were able to leave our luggage in the lobby since we were early. The staff placed our luggage in our room once the room was ready. Breakfast was very good; a good selection was available.

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“Fair”

Stayed here before and after the Tour. First stay was in a very noisy room, second stay was better. There will be no reception after 6PM, but you can call them through their intercom if you have any questions. Staffs were helpful. There's a common area where you can make your own food. Room and bat… more

Stayed here before and after the Tour. First stay was in a very noisy room, second stay was better. There will be no reception after 6PM, but you can call them through their intercom if you have any questions. Staffs were helpful. There's a common area where you can make your own food. Room and bathroom were kind of dingy, but in this case it's " you get what you pay for", fair enough, I think, so expected that and you will be okay. Bed was hard and not comfortable .The best thing about this hotel is the location, very convenient for bus stop, tour pick up, and at the beginning of the main shopping street, Laugavegur. Stay here if location is important to you, otherwise I'll pick another hotel. Iceland is very expensive , so keep that in mind. For anyone using the airport bus Flybus, the hotel is on the opposite of bus stop #9. Also apply to Tour bus pick up as well.

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“A very detailed review of an average stay at 101 Guesthouse Hotel (a.k.a. hostel)”

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this guesthouse (more like a hostel) and I hope my review is detailed enough so future travellers know what to expect. Many aspects of this guesthouse/hostel were good and other aspects did not make for a positive experience. On account of my mixed feelings, I… more

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this guesthouse (more like a hostel) and I hope my review is detailed enough so future travellers know what to expect. Many aspects of this guesthouse/hostel were good and other aspects did not make for a positive experience. On account of my mixed feelings, I am rating this guesthouse as average. Let me premise this review by saying, I was priced out of Reykjavik. I couldn’t afford to stay in the $200-$300 range hotel rooms after having been travelling for 6 plus months. They were simply out of my justifiable budget. 101 Guesthouse because my sole alternative, and though hostels aren’t my preference, I really didn’t have much choice in the matter budget wise. Even so, I felt that this guesthouse was vastly overpriced for the facilities and amenities offered. Expect to pay the rate of a 4 star hotel for what is a 1-2 star (at best) budget hostel. I understand this to be the pricing structure in Iceland, but the quality do not at all reflect the associated costs. Location of this guesthouse is very good - it is located in the centre of Reykjavik, within walking distance of all major sightseeing attractions in the city centre. There are many restaurants, bars, cafes, and shops surrounding the hotel, including two large supermarkets (400-800 metres away respectively) and a medium sized supermarket on the adjacent street (open 24/7). The main bus station (BSI) is 20 minutes by walking (or if you paid more for FlyBus plus, the shuttle will drop you off right outside the hotel - Bus Stop 9), which is useful information for catching the FlyBus back to the airport (I walked to and from the guesthouse and it was a pleasant walk - walking also saved me $12 Euro roughly). I was able to walk to the Harbour also in 20 minutes. Reykjavik is fairly small, so, I suspect this is the case for most hotels, hostels and guesthouses - everything is easily and quickly accessible on foot. The city is safe and very pedestrian friendly. Check-in was efficient and communication about late arrival instructions were very clear! I appreciated the quick and professional response from the owner/staff about how to handle arriving late due to unanticipated flight delays. The key was waiting for me in my room upon arrival. I buzzed to gain access to the building before collecting my key. Check-out was equally efficient - I simply left the key in the room and left. My chief complaint about this hostel/guesthouse is that there are no staff available on the premises outside of the hours of 8am-6pm. So, if there are any issues, there is no one to contact on site. For example, during my stay, the power went out on the entire 3rd floor, meaning guests flooded the other floors to use the showers and toilets. I was staying on the 4th floor and had to wait to use the toilet more often than not, due to those affected by the power outage. The shared kitchen is also on the 3rd floor, which meant that I couldn’t make myself my intended breakfast that morning (eggs). Since there are no staff members on site, the issue with the power outage wasn’t resolved until 8am, which was too late to resolve my inability to make myself breakfast before I met my day tour. I learned my lesson, and made my next day’s breakfast the night before (storing it in my own fridge) so I wouldn’t encounter this issue again. The guesthouse has 3 floors of rooms and the ground floor, where reception is location and breakfast is served. I cannot comment on the breakfast, since I decided it was too expensive to justify the cost (2500 ISK!) The room was really small, but I also anticipated this to be the case. I am traveling solo with just one small backpack, so I made it work. This is a budget guesthouse compared to other accommodation in Reykjavik, so I adjusted my expectations accordingly. The bed was small, but it was comfortable. The duvet was very nice, the sheets were clean and the pillow was a really nice firmness! I slept well through the night. I did worry about the noise, since I slept with the window open and the guesthouse is on a main corner, but I wasn’t woken by any noise. For such a small room, the room was furnished well. In the room there was a luggage bench, a coffee table and chair, a bedside table with a lamp, a standing luggage cabinet with shelving and hangers, a mini fridge, and on top of the mini fridge, there was an electric kettle, charging ports, coffee mugs, tea and coffee making supplies (sugar, tea, 3-in-1 coffee packets), stir sticks and napkins. I really appreciated having a mini fridge and a kettle in the room! It meant I could make myself coffee in the mornings and keep my drinks and snacks cold. Very surprisingly, there was also a small sink with a hand soap dispenser in the room! This was greatly appreciated, since it prevented me from having to wait for the toilet to be free simply to brush my teeth. There was a hand towel and a bath towel placed on my bed. There was a wall mounted flatscreen television in the room, with approximately 20 or so channels. There were many channels in English, including BBC news and a movie channel, which I was pleasantly surprised about. This was also a nice inclusion in the room! There is no air conditioning in the room, which meant that the room became very warm in the summer months. Especially in the daytime. I kept the window open in the evening and that kept the room cool during sleeping hours. Otherwise, the room would become extremely stuffy and hot. A fan, at least, would have been appreciated. If I were visiting in August, the room would have been uncomfortably warm, and I would have been unable to sleep. The windows have blackout curtains (sort of), but they still allowed quite a bit of sunlight in. I have a sleeping mask that I place over my eyes, and this worked well to block out the light that never seemed to fade (in summer months, they have very few hours of darkness, if any). You’re smart to pack an eye/sleep mask. The bathrooms are shared. There are two on each floor (at least on my floor - 4th floor), each with a toilet and shower within. They are small, but adequate. The toilets have toilet paper and hand soap. The showers are decent - good water temperature, but the pressure was only so-so. The showers are quite dated and definitely require new plumbing. Some of the bathrooms are in need of renovation or remodelling, as they look old and have stained tiling. I thought the rooms and bathrooms were nicer on the 3rd floor personally. Note that the hot water has a sulphuric smell. This is normal and the guesthouse has a sign about this on the wall. My main complaint about the toilets and showers were the number of toilets/showers to service the number of guests on each floor - only 2 for approximately 12-15 rooms on each floor. This meant sometimes you had to wait. My secondary complaint is about the guests staying at the hotel. They became impatient when waiting to use the toilets, and would knock or shake the door aggressively even though it was clearly occupied (this level of idiocy and entitlement made me shake my head and roll my eyes). Hygiene unfortunately isn’t something that is important to everyone staying at the hostel, and guests left the bathrooms (especially the toilets) in a really disgusting state more often than not (leaving the toilet unflushed after doing their business, for example, which is incredibly gross). Common sense isn’t a flower that grows in everyone’s garden. I wish that guests were more respectful of the common areas such as the toilets and kitchen area. My suggestions to the guesthouse owners are that the bathrooms need to be renovated and there need to be more on each floor for the volume of guests on each floor. Wifi was secure and password protected, with a different login for each floor. Signal was strong throughout the hotel, I was able to check emails, and send messages without any issues. There is a communal kitchen on the 3rd floor with most everything you could need to cook your own meals - two burners, a microwave, a kettle, a coffee maker, a large fridge, plates, bowls, cutlery, coffee mugs, glasses, frying pans, pots, knives, and cooking utensils. Guests are to clean up after themselves, using the provided dish soap, drying rack and sponges. Again, most guests were respectful but others were not and, at times, the kitchen was dirty. I appreciated being able to cook my own meals, since I did not pay for breakfast at the hotel (it was far too expensive). Eating out in Iceland is very expensive, so cooking my own meals definitely helped budget wise. The shared kitchen was a really nice amenity to have access to! You can request housekeeping to clean your room. I didn’t, since I only stayed a couple of nights and preferred to leave my stuff unpacked lying around the room. If I had been staying longer, I would have flipped the “do not disturb” card around and requested turndown service. Overall, I had a fair to average stay. As I have said, there were aspects about this guesthouse that were very good, and there were other aspects that made my stay rather unpleasant. Particularly, the other guests staying there. If I could have found a hotel with private bathroom at a reasonable cost, I would have chosen to stay there instead. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to locate anything of the sort.

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