Canopy by Hilton Reykjavik = Great Location and Hardware, Competitive Price
 

Introduction I have stayed at Hilton Reykjavik a few years ago and I liked the hotel but for this stay I also considered other alternatives before deciding to book at Canopy; I was curious to try this brand. Canopy reminded me most of the Andaz brand which I like on the Hyatt side and based on my stay in Canopy Reykjavik I am likely to stay again at this brand in other cities of the world because I was quite impressed. Location One of the reasons I had a preference for Canopy over Hilton is location. Hilton is a bit out of the way, perhaps manageable for a long stay, but since our stay in Reykjavik was short I had a preference for being right in the middle of town and not waste time; Canopy’s location is perfect. The Canopy hotel does not have parking but staff was very helpful before our arrival in giving me various options for parking, either a garage not far away, or P2 / P3 street parking. In the pre-arrival e-mail conversation they outlined very clearly where to park for the cheaper P3 or the more expensive P2. In the summer P3 was close enough that it was not worth paying extra for the garage or P3; during the winter it might be a different story. Common Areas The common areas of the hotel look great with several seating areas to enjoy a drink, work, or relax, including the area near reception where there is a giant book shelf with chairs. Even the elevator area is non-standard with more bookshelves on each side of the doors – you could almost miss that there are elevators in that spot. There is also a courtyard off the second floor which is useful for guests to enjoy sunny weather once in a while. Room I booked a Queen Room and the day before arrival I saw online that as Hilton Diamond we were upgraded to a King Heritage room, and in the morning of arrival a further upgrade to the King Junior Suite. The hotel is only three years old and as can be seen from the pictures, the room looks great and I really liked the style throughout. The entire room is quite spacious and has a living room separated from the bedroom via a wall although it’s a junior suite so you cannot close off the area completely with doors. The opening between that dividing wall and the exterior wall with windows was quite narrow and barely enough to allow someone to pass through which was a bit odd – it calls into question why they did not extent the wall to the end of the room or leave a bigger opening instead. There is a TV on each side of the wall and there are local decorations on the shelves besides the TV for a local touch. The room has hardwood floors, high ceilings, large windows, a modern bathroom with a large sliding door with mirror to close the bathroom although you could not lock it. In the bathroom there is a separate shower plus a stylish bathtub, and for amenities they had the Apivita brand from Greece which I had not heard from before but I liked it, some bottles were Greek Honey and Orange, others Greek Honey and Mountain Tea.Our room was on the second floor facing a street with a sidewalk. During the evening we could hear some cars passing by or pedestrians talking loud. Obviously Reykjavik is not a major city with busy traffic all night but I would note that we did not have the quietest area in the building and it was probably the main drawback I could find about the room. Dining Breakfast is offered 6:30-10am which is a bit earlier end than I would like, but it was in line with other hotels we visted in Iceland during this trip: Hotel Ranga (Small Luxury Hotels / Hyatt) and ION Adventure (Design Hotel / Marriott) also ended the breakfast at 10am. In fact, both of those were 7-10am so same ending time, but later start, therefore more restrictive than Canopy. Breakfast at Canopy was good but not great based on international standards, and compared to all other hotels I have stayed in Iceland this one was the best. Among other things, I enjoyed the tuna salad, the green salad with pomegranate, the quiche, and there was also guacamole in the buffet which was a nice extra which I did not expect to find in a hotel breakfast in Iceland. There was also smoked salmon which was very good. The choice of fruits left more to be desired however, and cappuccino was only available at an extra charge which is disappointing but it seems to be the market standard in Iceland because it was the same in other hotels so Canopy did not stand out negatively in that regard.In addition from being offered a couple of welcome drinks and a chocolate bar, from 6-7pm guests can have “complimentary evening tasting” near reception for a sample of Icelandic dishes and drinks although staff only brought the food & drinks at 6:15pm. This was definitely not worth going: the “drinks” were only canned beer and the only food was what looked like pizza on pita bread with dried meat and probably cream cheese underneath – we did not try. I guess it’s better than nothing, but nobody should expect this to be a viable substitute to Hilton’s lounge which I have not been to recently but a few years ago it was quite nice. Service Similar to my comments about regarding breakfast, service in Iceland in upscale hotels is generally not that great based on international standards. However if I compare the service at Canopy to the service we received at Hotel Ranga and ION Adventure, Canopy was the better of the three. Not only staff was very helpful pre-arrival as explained above, but once we arrived they were generally more friendly and helpful than in other hotels. The only service “issue” as is often the case with Hilton family hotels is check-out time. We had a flight at 7pm and asked for late check-out; the best they could do is 2pm. Not as stingy as some Hilton hotels, but not as good as 4pm check-out from Marriott or Hyatt properties. Gym The gym looked good and had new and modern equipment. Wifi Wifi worked fine with speeds of 10-20 Mbps. Overall Overall I was very happy with the hard product at Canopy, service was better than other hotels, and in addition the location in Reykjavik is hard to beat. When I compared prices of other hotels in the city, a couple of ION hotels (sister properties to ION Adventure) were far more expensive and also Konsulat hotel (Curio) was priced significantly above Canopy for our dates. If someone values a lounge and does not mind the less central location, Hilton can be a good choice, but if you want the better hardware and best location, you cannot go wrong at Canopy for a competitive price compared to other options.

Just completed a 3 night stay. As a Diamond I was not upgraded, despite there being available rooms on Hilton.com. Received water and chocolate as a welcome gift. Breakfast was better than American breakfasts, but not as good as other breakfasts at hotels in Europe. The evening tasting was nice with a huge variety of quantity - one day it was just a small bite (literally 1 bite) of food, next day it was nearly a buffet! Very nice nonetheless.

First time staying at a canopy, very nice design/decor. I heard their bed was supposed to be one of the best, but I found the mattress to be incredibly uncomfortable. Not sure if it was a standard canopy mattress or something else.

Found the parking situation very confusing at first (even after reading on FT) and the hotel didn't provide much help when I asked. Google was my friend here which helped explain how parking works. Ended up just parking at the church for free and enjoyed a nice 8 minute stroll to the hotel.

I knew noise was going to be an issue with it being located downtown but wow was it bad. We were on the 3rd floor and had a view of the courtyard where the cigarette smokers smoke. Heard them yapping nonstop. Heard the room above ours being swept/mopped, and could clearly hear conversations from the room next to ours. I know Americans love their AC but the room was very hot, even in November. I was sweating using the duvet. Option was to either open the window (and hear all the chatter outside) or close the window and melt. I chose to melt as the sound from outside on a Friday and Saturday night was terrible. Not blaming the hotel for this, just stating a fact.

I would return, but only if a better room (location-wise) was provided. If not I'd book the Hilton nearby to avoid the noise of downtown.

I actually find almost every hotel I stay with in northern Europe roasts me in the winter. I don't get it. I actually opened the windows when I was in Copenhagen last year because I absolutely could not sleep. Just really odd. Do they like to be that warm at night?

We stayed in a King Heritage room facing the street in which there is an embassy directly across. We did not hear any noise, but we kept the windows mostly closed. Our bed was very comfortable. We found the daily breakfast to be great ,given the price point for this hotel.

Here now through New Years as a Diamond on points. Arrived around 8:30AM and were in room before 10AM. Upgraded to King Premium Room on 5th floor without asking even though hotel showed sold out online prior to check-in. No room amenity or water given however they did give us free breakfast vouchers to use while we waited to check-in.

A few months ago, I asked the twitter staff about water at different properties in the Hilton family, and apparently Canopy do not provide bottles but free, chilled, filtered water from a point on each floor for guests to help themselves.

This past August, we received water at Checkin.

I'm looking to stay here in August right now, room prices have dropped a significant amount. Although, it says rooms cannot be booked with points. Any ideas on that? I was planning on staying at the centerhotel thingholt however the canopy is now about a third cheaper. It is a bit cheaper for the Hilton however, but we we kind of like the idea of staying downtown.

The Hilton is pretty bland and off by itself compared to the Canopy. Back when it first opened, we stayed a couple nights at Canopy, then a night at the Hilton on our way out to the airport. (Mostly because I wanted to try both: It's not like the Hilton was closer to the airport / Canopy farther to matter either way.) I'd stay at the Canopy in a heartbeat. I'd also stay at the other new Curio property. Both are right in the walking-around downtown, with everything you'd expect to stroll around and see in the blocks right outside the hotel. Hilton is just a place to park a car and stay, not sightsee on foot from.

(That's my review posted above with some photos and reflections. Really enjoyed the Diamond benefits of dinner tasting courses, but I'm not sure they're still doing that.)

I would definitely stay downtown if you plan on sightseeing in the city and not just driving out of town every day. Both the Canopy and Curio are very nice and in walking distance of everything.

Any recent stays here? I was planning on staying at the Nordica but I can't get it for every night I'm there. I'm also not driving and although I love the walk into town, I'm not sure I want to do it multiple times a day.

thanks.

Lala (currently hilton nothing, may get a new credit card that would make me a gold).

I stayed for 1 night in July, the day we arrived in Iceland. I have Hilton Gold, but didn't bother to ask for an upgrade. They were able to check us in at 1 pm. Great location close to restaurants, shops and sights. The room is not big but well designed, and the bathroom (especially the shower) is more spacious than expected for a room that size. Breakfast buffet was great -- best I had my entire time in Iceland.
Overall, it's definitely a superior hotel and has a superior location than the Nordica (we stayed at the end of our trip) although the rates are almost double the Canopy while rooms are almost half the size. FYI, the Nordica seems to be a go-to hotel for tour groups, and it was packed on Saturday and Sunday night + Monday morning breakfast.

We stayed for 2 nights early July and I can echo Empress Rouge's comments - great location and great breakfast! Staff were very helpful and we did get an upgrade to what I think was a junior suite - plenty of room. But regardless of which room you choose, I would definitely recommend this over Nordica for the location. Almost everything we wanted was walkable from Canopy.

My experience seems to be much different than most as this is one of the worst chain hotels I've ever stayed at. Initial room smelled inexplicably like cat pee. Fortunately was able to change but my God, the noise. Housekeepers keep some very loud type of vacuum cleaner / machine on the entire time they are servicing rooms (about 45 minutes per room) even though the rooms are so tiny it can't take more than 5 minutes to clean the floor. Walls are thin so that if the person in the room next to you is a snorer you will get to enjoy hearing it all night. Street noise is as bad or worse than mentioned upthread, even with the window closed.

Yeah, the location is better than the Nordica but that is all this hotel has going for it. Glad it works for some folks but I will definitley avoid in the future.