Every now and again, you end up staying in a hotel that you feel comfortable in - like a glove. The Rival was like that - it looks like it makes a statement but in typically Swedish style, it makes you part of it. Architecture, design and minimalism throughout but not at the expense of practicality. Service was great, but understated (not in your face). Excellent rooms with DVDs, CD player, flat-screen TV - nothing like being in the shower dancing to Dancing Queen. Worth taking advantage of the on-site bakery which does that wonderful rye bread that is just so, so Scandinavian.

We stayed at the Rival for Xmas and New Year, for a 10 days stay. From the begining, the service was really bad: no bellman to help us with the luggage, the front desk people watch you try to open the front door with your bags and it was not helpful at all.
Second thing, they were not able to help us with restaurant recomandation and reservation, after 3 days in Stockholm we knew more then them what was around ... Staff very rude at the front desk. There was supose to be a gym and a cinema, which we never found !!!
As for the room, it is clean but not enough. Somehow they forget to clean EVERYTHING, they dont leave any towels, or tissues... They also are not very constant, one day its super clean and the other there isnt any service made at all....
As I said before, we stayed 10 days , the rooms was WAY too small to accomodate us, we coudnt even fit our suitcase in the room!! I think they could have gave us a bigger room, considering we were about the onlu guest on the floor (the doors were open but no guest in sight)
As for the restaurant........... very deceiving ! It was our Xmas'eve dinner, nothing spectacular or nothing special.... It was overpriced and snob for absolutly nothing.

We had a lovely stay at hotel Rival, I cannot speak highly enough of the staff who assisted us with endless queries from the moment we booked, right until we left. They were amazing! Sending us information about Ferry’s and other accommodation on the islands around Sweden.

The rooms were very comfortable, the beds even better! We were given a room with a balcony, which would be lovely to use in summer.

The breakfast was also very nice. Great gravlax (?) if that is what it's called, it's a smoky/marinated salmon. You could also order hot food separately which was included in the price, so we had fresh pancakes every morning.

The only feedback I would give would be to housekeeping. They let the hotel down a bit. Rooms were made up in a hurry, often not completed. One day we didn’t have soap, the toilet paper was left for us to put on the rail properly, the types of towels we received each day were inconsistent. But really it was nothing that we couldn’t deal with; just general feedback for the housekeeping staff.

The location was also very good. A nice walk to the old town, only about 10 minutes. Also about 10 minutes to lots of restaurants and a shopping strip. A lovely park area right in front of the hotel and a great area to stay. As we were leaving, walking to the train station to take us to the central station, we stumbled across more beautiful shops!

We would definitely stay here again!

A perfect hotel for a weekend break. The staff was super helpful and friendly. Rooms, while on the small side, are hip and include CD / DVD players in the rooms and a good assortment of music (including ABBA). If you don't like what's on offer, then you can get a different CD or borrow a movie from the front desk. Breakfast was fantastic...definitely try the cinnamon bread. The bar was crowded on Friday night when we arrived, played great music and the crowd included locals. Location is nice, just on a square and not far from the main shopping street. Overall great stay!