After a one-night stopover at the Crowne Plaza, I needed to move to somewhere more central. The best hotel redeemable using points is The Nimb, but I can’t really justify spending 120,000 points a night for this non-occasion.
My decision in the end was Villa Copenhagen, member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts. I booked the first night via Amex FHR, utilising the $200 annual credit, and then the second night using 45,000 Choice points via the Preferred Hotels channel. Being part of the Strawberry group Villa Copenhagen should be redeemable directly via Choice as well, but I couldn’t find any availability.
Formerly Denmark’s Central Post Office, the building’s construction was completed in 1912 and it eventually turned into the Villa Copenhagen hotel in 2020, so it’s still fairly young in its current incarnation. The location is quite central, just a few minutes walk to the central train station.
The lobby is very impressive:
I like the novelty of the pineapple roof , which works perfectly with the generously sunlight Copenhagen had to offer during my holiday.
I recognised the bizarre head statues immediately. Jaume Plensa appears to be a rather popular artist in Europe’s hospitality industry, as it’s already the third time I see his work in the last couple of years.
The hotel has, hmm, a very committed mindset of frugality. Starting from checking in, it is the first time I’m shown and asked to take a photo of the FHR benefit list, instead of receiving it in a welcome letter.
With my Titanium status on top of the FHR benefits, I received a one-level upgrade to a Superior Queen Room, and all room types are still available for booking on their website. The front desk also mentioned that my second night (booked using points) was a standard room, but thinking twice she said I could stay in the same room as she saw I was Titanium.
The hotel is very big. Let’s check out my room first.
The superior room only measures 20 square meters, and the slanted wall only makes it worse. I sneered at Scandic’s tiny room when looking at the Finnair Avios options, but see what I ended up with :p
Apart from being very small, the room is generally okay. What really irks me is they don’t provide any bottled water or slippers in the room, although there are slippers in a box if you want to purchase. I guess their excuse is for being “sustainable”, without realising that there exist reusable slippers and water in glass bottles.
Due to the proximity to train tracks there are intermittent noises whenever a train passes by – one thing to remember if you are a light sleeper. There were also loud fireworks from the Tivoli park at around 11pm on the Saturday night.
At some point I recalled that iPrefer Titanium members should get some kind of welcome amenity and food items, and the front desk didn’t mention anything. On the second morning I asked the front desk and got my welcome fruit and snack platter:
Not accompanied by cutlery or toothpicks despite of the presence of olives – maybe I need to pay for them as well? A more practical benefit is free bike rental:
Which I really enjoyed for a full day. I had no idea that Copenhagen is such a cyclist-friendly city!
The swimming pool is on the second floor. Awkwardly I’m here in my sneakers as I’m not paying for their slippers.
The pool is fairly photogenic and appears to be heated. I had a good time in the warm autumn weather.
But I’m truly baffled by its design. The one side level with the pool is very narrow and can hardly accommodate any sofa or lounge bed. The other side is much wider with sun beds, but behind the pool and lower so has no view.
Gym and sauna:
FHR benefits include breakfast, and my second night’s breakfast is also comp’ed, not sure if it’s a result of my Titanium status or something else. Like the rest of the hotels, the breakfast restaurant is huge.
I didn’t notice the pipes until I look at the photos now :p
The breakfast buffet deserves a praise. It doesn’t excel in variety but quality is very high, totally out of Crowne Plaza’s league.
The egg station:
They must have the best pastry chef in Denmark, as all of the them are so delicious especially the pain au chocolat. I could eat at least five at once if I didn’t have to worry about my weight!
To spend the $100 food credit, I had dinner at Brasserie Kontrast.
I had a lobster salad (or something like that) for starter and then steak for main. They are okay. The biggest surprise is their sourdough and I don’t even like bread in general.
When checking out they only converted my $100 credit to 640 DKK instead of the real-time exchange rate of 670+, another demonstration of stinginess and lack of five-star class in my opinion.
Villa Copenhagen is a coin with two side. The hotel building and swimming pool are beautiful and the breakfast is superb. The service however is rather superficial and they have way too many penny-pinching practices.
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