I hate to answer a question with an approach outside your indicated interest, but have you looked at sites such as booking.com for rates? Booking.com is a Priceline company that operates similar to Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, and Priceline's own non-bidding website but has a more worldwide focus and also gathers results from alternative accommodations, such as hostels, apartments, B&Bs, and guesthouses. If you're looking for a luxury hotel, most of these options will be unappealing to you; if not, they're well worth considering.

I would especially direct your attention to B&Bs and guesthouses. In the US, B&Bs typically seem to be true boutique operations, with all that implies, including prices normally higher than local hotels. In much of Europe, that is not universally true. There are the boutique operations, but there are also truly family-oriented B&Bs that are well-located (although not necessarily centrally) and a relatively good bargain. Booking.com includes ratings of all of these facilities and although it's hard to be sure of the ratings, both because of the possible fluffy or unreasonably disgruntled ratings and because the rating given by someone who likes staying in hostels may not be comparable to those given by folks who only like to stay in hotels (in other words, an 8 rating for a hostel may not mean it's the equivalent of a hotel with an 8 rating), you can generally get a decent feel for what a place is like. I've used B&Bs and guesthouses extensively in Scotland and Ireland and more sparingly in Italy, have found many of them quite equivalent to two-star hotels, and do not know why the situation in Norway would be much different.

I know we're focused on free or nearly free travel here at FT, and if that's the path you're on, sdsearch's advice is spot on, especially given his experience with the accommodations in Norway. Sometimes, however, I find that it's just easier to fly for free by using miles and realizing that in certain areas, it's just really hard to use points for hotels.

Good luck. I hope to make it to Norway myself one day!