Hotels in Iceland: 10 Things Travelers Complain About, and How to Avoid Them

Last updated: September 2026

I have spent years reading what travelers write about hotels in Iceland on TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and the travel forums. The same ten complaints come up over and over. Most of them are not really about a bad hotel. They are about Iceland working differently from what people expect, and nobody warning them in advance.

So here is the warning. For each problem, I explain why it happens, how to avoid it, and where one of my partner discount codes can help. I don’t sell hotel rooms. I have one hotel partner and a sister who runs a hotel in Akureyri, and I say so where it matters.

1. Everything is sold out

This is the big one. Iceland has far fewer hotel rooms than the number of visitors suggests, and the rooms are concentrated in a few places. The stretch between Vík and Jökulsárlón is the worst: the good places there fill up six to nine months ahead for summer, and even in May, September and October they go faster than most first-timers expect. Every year people end up sleeping in their rental car in Vík because they left it too late.

How to avoid it:

• Book the Vík to Jökulsárlón nights first, then build the rest of the trip around them. Reykjavík and Akureyri can wait.
• For June to August, book three to six months ahead. For the rest of the year, one to three months is usually enough.
• Pay the little extra for a refundable rate. Icelandic weather closes roads, and a refundable booking costs nothing on the day it saves you.

Where a code helps: On the South Coast I recommend Landhotel near Hella. It is my only hotel partner; it sits within easy reach of Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and the Golden Circle, and my readers get a discount there. If the hotels are gone, a camper van is the plan B that actually works: Go Campers gives my readers 5% off, and up to 25% on long rentals.

Use my free road trip plans to work out where you need to sleep before you start booking: South Coast, Golden Circle, Diamond Circle and the full Ring Road.

2. The hot water smells of rotten eggs – just get used to it like us!

You turn on the shower in Reykjavík, and it smells like a boiled egg. This shows up in almost every review thread about the capital and Akureyri, and it worries people more than it should. This is surprising to us Icelanders. Most of us don’t even register this smell! We are brought up with it, after all.

Hot water in Iceland comes from the ground. It is geothermal; it contains a little hydrogen sulfide, and that is the smell. It is harmless. It does not stick to your hair, skin, or clothes once you are out of the shower. Whether you notice it at all depends on the building: some hotels pipe the geothermal water straight to the tap, others use it to heat ordinary water, and more are switching to the second method every year. Outside the capital area and Akureyri, you often won’t smell anything.

How to handle it: Drink from the cold tap. It is spring water; it has no sulfur in it, and it is better than anything in a bottle. Let it run until it is properly cold. And if you have long hair, relax: the water that wrecks hair is the silica water at the Blue Lagoon and Mývatn Nature Baths, not your shower. Having said that, Icelandic geothermal water can dry out hair a little. Come prepared.

Where a code helps: This is the same water you are about to pay good money to sit in. Get used to the smell and go enjoy it properly: Hvammsvík near Reykjavík, the Secret Lagoon and Laugarás Lagoon on the Golden Circle, Krauma in the west and Vök Baths in the east all give my readers a discount.

3. The room is too hot, and there is no air conditioning

Icelandic hotels are heated with geothermal water, which is nearly free, so the heating runs year-round and is often set high. Almost nobody has air conditioning because they rarely need it. The problem is that many rooms give you no control over the heating, and a room with sun and open curtains will be far warmer than the outside temperature by the time you get back from your day.

How to avoid it:

• Close the blackout curtains before you leave in the morning. In summer, the sun is up almost around the clock, and it is stronger than people expect.
• The Icelandic thermostat is the window. Open it. Nobody will mind.
• Pack light sleepwear even in winter. You will not need flannel pajamas in an Icelandic hotel room.
• If you run hot, ask for a room on the north or shaded side at check-in.

No code for this one. Just close the curtains.

4. Small rooms, tiny showers, thin walls

Visitors from North America in particular find Icelandic hotel rooms small for the money, with odd layouts, too few power sockets, and shower stalls that look like they were designed for a smaller nation. Downtown Reykjavík gets an extra complaint: thin walls and weekend noise from the bars on Laugavegur and the side streets.

Here is why. Most downtown buildings were built as homes and shops, not hotels. The rooms are the size they are because the houses are. The newer purpose-built hotels are bigger, but they are mostly outside the old center.

How to avoid it:

• If quiet matters more than being on the main street, look at hotels in Laugardalur, Tún or Hlemmur. You are still ten minutes’ walk from everything and the walls are thicker.
• Ask for a room facing the courtyard or the back, not the street. Most receptions will do this if a room is free.
• Read the newest reviews, not the average score. A hotel that was quiet in 2019 may have a bar under it now.
• Bring a plug adapter with two or three sockets. It solves the power problem in every room in the country.
• Bring your earplugs. That is what I do.

5. Breakfast is not included, and it is expensive

In the countryside, almost every hotel includes breakfast. In Reykjavík, many don’t, and when they charge it separately, it runs to several thousand króna a head. Some design hotels charge that for a fairly plain buffet, which is what the one-star reviews are about.

How to avoid it: When you book a city hotel, take the rate with breakfast included if the difference is under about 3,000 ISK per person. You will not find it cheaper outside. If breakfast is not included, walk to Bónus or Krónan and buy skyr, bread, and fruit. I explain the whole supermarket routine in my guide to saving money in Iceland.

On a personal note: even when it’s included, I rarely make it down for hotel breakfast. Vacation is for sleeping in, and other things (please don’t cancel me). Waking up early for a buffet is not in my DNA.

6. Downtown parking costs a fortune

Central Reykjavík hotels mostly have street parking only, and a full day on the street costs a few thousand króna. Several reviews put it at around 40 dollars a day, which is about right.

How to avoid it: Don’t rent a car for your Reykjavík days. The city center is walkable, day tours pick you up, and the airport bus is cheaper than a day of parking. Rent the car on the morning you leave town for the countryside, and hand it back when you come back to the city.

Where a code helps: Book your airport transfer for arrival and departure day, then use my discounts with Europcar Iceland or Go Car Rental for the road trip days only. You save on parking and a couple of rental days.

7. The tour bus never came to the hotel

This is the most common source of confusion in Reykjavík, and it is not the hotel’s or the tour company’s fault. The city has banned tour buses from most of the downtown streets. The explanation is simple: the streets are narrow, and buses wreak havoc on traffic. Every hotel in the center is in a no-pickup zone. Instead, the city has set up numbered tour bus stops, and you walk to the nearest one. It is never more than about ten minutes.

The second source of confusion: the pickup time in your confirmation is when the bus starts its round of stops, not when the tour departs. The bus may take up to thirty minutes to collect everyone. You have not been forgotten.

How to avoid it:

• When you book a tour, the booking form will ask for your hotel and tell you the bus stop number. Write it down.
• Look up the stop on Google Maps the evening before, not the morning of.
• Be at the stop ten minutes early, dressed for standing in the wind. Most of them have no shelter.
• If your hotel is not on the list, pick the nearest stop. You can use any of them.

Where a code helps: All my tour partners work this way, so once you understand it, you are set for the whole trip. Start with the discount codes page, and if you are here between September and April, Gravel Travel’s northern lights tours give my readers a discount.

8. The hotel restaurant was the only dinner for 50 kilometers

East of Vík, and especially between Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Höfn, your hotel restaurant may be the only place to eat within reach. The reviews complain about the price and sometimes the food, but the real problem is that people arrive at eight in the evening with no other plan.

How to avoid it:

• East of Vík, read the restaurant reviews as carefully as the room reviews. A bad kitchen at Icelandic prices spoils the evening.
• Stop at the supermarket in Vík or Kirkjubæjarklaustur and carry a dinner you can eat in the room. Most rooms have a kettle.
• Check the restaurant’s closing time. Rural kitchens often close at nine.

Where a code helps: In the east, the Hengifoss food truck is the kind of place I would drive out of my way for, and my readers get a discount there.

9. Winter: the road closed, and we couldn’t reach the hotel

Between October and April, roads close with little warning, and some countryside hotels sit on a side road that gets no attention from the snowplow until the main road is done. Reviews are full of people who reached the turnoff and couldn’t get any further.

How to avoid it:

• Check the hotel’s distance from Route 1 and whether the access road is paved. If it is a gravel side road, you want a proper four-wheel-drive in winter, not a small car.
• Check umferdin.is every morning before you drive. Every Icelander does.
• Book refundable rates in winter. See problem number one.
• Read my guide to traveling safely in Iceland before you go anywhere in winter.

Where a code helps: Get the right car from the start. Both Europcar and Go Car Rental have four-wheel-drive cars, and my codes work on them. I want you to put safety first for all of your winter driving. Personally, I am reluctant to drive long distances on the open road in deep winter, and that is with a very good SUV built for it.

10. There was nothing to do at the countryside hotel in the evening

This one cuts both ways. The complaint is real: a hotel by the road in the dark with a closed restaurant is a dull evening. But the hotels that get the warmest reviews in Iceland are the ones with a hot tub and a dark sky, and a surprising number of ordinary hotels have a hot tub round the back that nobody mentions in the listing.

How to avoid it: Pick the countryside hotel for the hot tub and the darkness, not the room. Then plan the evening around the nearest pool or lagoon. Every town in Iceland has a public swimming pool with hot tubs, open until nine or ten at night, for a few hundred króna. I keep a list of every hot spring, spa and pool in the country.

Where a code helps: Near Reykjavík, Hvammsvík. On the Golden Circle, Secret Lagoon and Laugarás Lagoon. In the west, Krauma. In the east, Vök Baths. In winter, add a northern lights tour and let someone else do the driving.

Smaller things worth knowing

• Towel rental. Hostels and some guesthouses charge around 1,000 ISK for a towel. Pack one.
• No lift. Older buildings in Reykjavík and Akureyri often have three floors and no elevator. If stairs are a problem, ask before you book.
• Self check-in. Many apartment-hotels have no reception. The door code arrives by email or text. Make sure your phone works in Iceland before you land, and read my Keflavík airport arrival guide for how to sort out a SIM card.
• Bubbles, igloos and domes. They are fun, and the beds are usually good, but the walls are thin, the doors are zips, and they don’t lock. Leave the valuables in the car.
• Housekeeping. Many hotels only clean rooms every second or third day, or on request. It is a labor-cost thing, not neglect. Ask at reception if you want daily cleaning.

Where I would stay, region by region

I don’t stay in many Icelandic hotels myself, since I live here, so I keep this list short and to places I can vouch for.

South Coast

Landhotel near Hella. My only hotel partner. It is a good base for both the Golden Circle and the western half of the South Coast; it is on a paved road, and it has a discount for my readers.

North Iceland

Hotel Kjarnalundur in Akureyri. It sits in the Kjarnaskógur woodland just outside town, with walking and running trails from the door and cross-country skiing in winter. There is a hot tub, the sky is dark enough for the northern lights, and my sister runs it. Tell her I sent you.

Everywhere else

I don’t have a partner. Use the ten points above as your checklist and read the newest reviews. If you want a place to start, this Expedia search is set up for Icelandic guesthouses and small hotels, and I earn a small commission if you book through it. It does not change your price.

Get the codes

All my partner discounts, including Landhotel and the spas, tours, and car rentals mentioned above, are on the discount codes page. Newsletter subscribers get the new ones first, and I will tell you when a hotel partner comes on board.

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Frequently asked questions about hotels in Iceland

Any questions I have not answered? Reply to any of my newsletters, and I will tell you what I know.

One last thing

The advice I give every reader: remember you are on vacation. Sleep in at your hotel, have a lovely time with the one you love. Take things slow, and enjoy the moments.