Reviews of Clarion Hotel Ernst 4 stars

Kristiansand isn’t the kind of place you plan a pilgrimage to; it’s the kind of place you wash up in after rolling off a ferry from Denmark. Three minutes after docking in Hirtshals, you’re parked, checked in, and wondering whether you’ve landed somewhere beautiful or just another port town that survives on cruise ships and kebab joints. Turns out, it’s both. The Clarion Hotel Ernst fits right into that contradiction. On the surface, it’s a business hotel, built to swallow up bus tours and floating latrine crowds in bulk. Inside, the décor feels like a mash-up between corporate conference chic and someone’s idea of “luxury” straight out of Riyadh—gaudy, a little odd, but harmless enough. My room was fine. Not inspiring, not offensive. Clean, tidy, with a view that promised the harbor but delivered an office building across the street. The marketing shots oversell it, but hey, what else is new? The real perk was downstairs: safe parking for the bike. That mattered more than the thread count of the sheets, because Kristiansand after dark has its fair share of riffraff. But once I ditched the helmet and walked the waterfront, I realized this town had some charms. I stumbled into a marina-side restaurant that was pouring Aperol spritzes like water and serving seafood that reminded me why coastal Scandinavia is worth the detour. Sunshine, good fish, cold beer, and too many Aperols—suddenly, the beige hotel room didn’t matter. Morning came easy: grab a croissant and a coffee around the corner, fire up the engine, and get out of town. Kristiansand is beautiful, sure, but it’s not a linger-and-soak-it-all-in kind of place. It’s a stopover, a launch pad, a place where you spend one night, not three. So the Clarion? It does its job. No more, no less. A safe bed, a place to stash the bike, and a reminder that sometimes the real hotel experience happens once you step outside its doors. Rating: 3.5/5 – Not memorable, not regrettable.

Breakfast, as usual at Clarion. Breakfast is always a good point for the Clarion brand.

The hotel in general is not up to the same standards as other Clarion scattered in Norway. Rooms, deco, lounge, and bar are more Quality standards than Clarion (IMO).

Location was good.

Decor was dark and dated.

Breakfast was amazing, the layout & freshness was fabulous!

Friendly staff, very helpful

The mix of traditional building and modern facilities. The sauna and breakfast were great And the reception staff helped me a lot by finding my passport in the sauna and calling me

Nothing

Very friendly and helpful staff.

Strange configuration of rooms and hallways. Stairs and ramps in odd locations- made it difficult to move luggage from lobby to room.

Breakfast not outstanding. But ok.

The room temperature was a horrible 25 degrees. The hallway temperature was working. No functioning climat control in the room. We heard in the morning at the reception desk that we should have asked for a plugin ventilator. Wtf.😒😒. A pet friendly room if your pet is a lizzard. Never again.

It was a bit crowdy in the breakfast room.

I would have liked two chairs in a double room.

Nice room with comfy bed, good breakfast

Sauna had to be pre-ordered to get it heated, and was to intimate/close inside the training room.(at least for our expectations)

Great location, super tasty breakfast, comfortable bed and service minded staff

Could have even more seating in the reception area as it’s a big space

Breakfast and location were excellent.

Why the toilette didn't have a switch and it only had a motion sensor? Breakfast and dinner times finishing too early.

Location and friendly staff

The breakfast was excellent and the location was good.

The room was a bit tacky and quite tired, repairs in the bathroom were sloppy making it seems less clean than it probably was. The view was extremely uninteresting but worse was the price - if you pay for or five star prices you expect just that sort of level and this was not. I usually find Clarion hotels to be good value this was far from it.