I must say that I have a special good opinion about the Scandic hotels, based on my experiences. They all more or less look the same and have a same feeling (I guess this is what is about in a chain), and they use to be price contained with high quality standards.

In the KNA you can find nice big rooms with simple and modern decoration and huge breakfast. Also, it is pretty well located, inbetween the harbour and the Royal Palace, pretty close to everything (in the small Oslo). It is handy located also for the trains, since the National Theater station is just around the corner.

A middle class hotel that i would happily recommend in Oslo.

We selected Scandic KNA on the strength of Tripadvisor reviews, location and price. On the whole, we found those reviews to be accurate. The advice to get off at National Theatre station was a very good one by the way. It's very close, provided you exit to the right of the train, as you come from the airport.

The hotel's common areas are ok, with a nice breakfast hall on one side of reception, and a restaurant/bar on the other. Both have a pleasant ambience. The breakfast is typical Nordic fare, neither the best nor worst I've seen, and the restaurant food was ok albeit as expensive as every other place in Oslo.

One detail worth mentioning is that the two elevators are so small, you will struggle to fit two people with luggage, three without. This causes a long queue if there are others waiting to go up and we used the stairs about 75% of the time. If you don't like stairs, you may find this frustrating - especially as we saw many tour groups coming and going.

Rooms are spartan and small but comfortable. The minibar does leave room for "bring your own" wine/beer, but unfortunately seemed to be at room temperature. The bathroom is similarly barren with one small towel each, a bath mat and a Dove liquid soap dispenser.

Two faults with the room: the shower tub pipe was not properly connected - so it backed up through some kind of vent and flooded the bathroom. This was immediate, and made the floor soapy and slippery thereafter. We also had an electrical outlet cover fall off at the first touch.

The location is excellent. Three minutes to the metro, and within ten minutes walk of the Aker Brygge area, which has harborside apartments, restaurants, bars and shopping. It looked like a nice place for a Saturday night on the town. In the other direction, it is more residential, but not before some restaurants, bars and affluent looking shops.

The only downside of the location is the tram that runs past the hotel, which can be very noisy. But, the windows did a good job of insulating the sound. Overall, it was a reasonable place to stay, but not a place to visit with inflated expectations.

The Scandic KNA is a prime example of the Latin term "caveat emptor" or "buyer beware". While there are numerous posts that claim that this hotel is wonderful (which could have been the case), our experience differed dramatically. We found the lobby a little dingy, but figured what mattered was the room. Unfortunately the room was a disaster. We had booked a family room for my wife, daughter and I, and found the following:
- filthy bed comforters
- pull-out couch with a layer of dust
- windows that wouldn't open
- spartan, under-lit bathroom that had not been cleaned since the last guest had left (the layer of hair on the floor gave it away)

Needless to say, we did not stay, but the hotel was good about letting us check out without a fuss. The woman at the front desk asked if I wanted to speak with the manager, so at least they seemed receptive to our situation.

The bottom line is that while many have had a good experience at this hotel, others (such as me) have not...so "caveat emptor"!

This is the best value in downtown Oslo, at least until new hotels besides the SAS Radisson and the Grand Hotel are built (see my review of Grand Hotel). The hotel is located one block to the southwest of Slottsparken, a 5-10 minute walk to downtown and the main attractions. Given the service standards of Norway (where customer service is still a foreign concept) the staff was very cooperative and friendly. The waiters at the room were breakfast is served were quick at cleaning up the tables to make room for new patrons. The room was nicely decorated (in the usual tone-down and unpretentious Scandinavian style) and the furniture was brand new. I was impressed at the very well-lit hallways with very clean carpets. The breafast is the usual Norwegian buffet but it was both abundant and varied. I agree with the comment about the dull bathroom.

I would highly recommed this Hotel over the Grand Hotel.

Tip: the Hotel is one block from the National Theater train station of the flytoget train service to and from the airport. Usually people take the express service to the main train station from where you would have to take a cab to the hotel. If you are travelling light, you could get off at the National Theater station.

Another tip: there is a pizza place one block north of the hotel as well as a string of small restaurants by a taxi stand one block further north. Take a short stroll to downtown on Henrik Ibsens gate and you will find nice restaurants along the way.