Review: The Reykjavik EDITION, Iceland (Well-Rounded Marriott Property)

For the second hotel stay of our Iceland to The Residence via Cambodia trip, we spent a couple of nights at the 253-key Reykjavik EDITION, which is arguably the city’s best hotel. While I’m generally not a huge fan of the EDITION brand (and its marketing), this is one of the nicer EDITION properties I’ve stayed at, and I’d recommend it.

The property has more of a sense of place than your typical EDITION, very friendly (almost exclusively foreign) staff, a great location, and good dining (even if service was so slow at one of our meals that it was completely comped). Okay, this isn’t actually sounding like much of an endorsement, but I swear we enjoyed our stay, and I’d recommend this property.

Booking the Reykjavik EDITION

We paid cash for our two-night stay at the Reykjavik EDITION, and the rate was around $520 per night. We booked through the Marriott STARS program, which offers extra perks, like complimentary breakfast, a room upgrade subject to availability, a $100 property credit, and more.

Hotels sometimes have promotional Marriott STARS rates, and for the dates we were booking (presumably because it was off season), there was a promotion for an additional $225 food & beverage credit. So that ended up being quite a good deal, as we got a total of $325 in property credits.

Note that if we had redeemed Bonvoy points for our stay, the rate would’ve been 98,000 points per night. For what it’s worth, I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each. So paying cash was the better value, in the first place, and especially when you factor in the $325 credit, plus the fact that this meant breakfast would be included (which otherwise isn’t included for Bonvoy elite members at EDITION properties).

I should also mention that the Reykjavik EDITION has a destination fee of 7,000 ISK (~$56) per night, which applies whether you’re paying cash or redeeming points. Destination fees are obnoxious in general, and it’s especially bad to see this in a place like Iceland, which is a country where such a concept isn’t really a thing.

The destination fee includes the following:

• Access to the spa facilities, including the sauna, steam room, hydrotherapy area, and relaxation lounge; what’s not disclosed on the sheet is that this doesn’t apply on the departure day
• A 7,000 ISK food & beverage credit, but it only applies at TIDES Restaurant (for lunch or dinner, and not breakfast) and TIDES Cafe, and not on the departure day

I find these restrictions to be super obnoxious, and they ended up adding unnecessary friction, to the point that it really feels like an annoying “gotcha.” That’s not how hospitality should work.

Reykjavik EDITION location

The Reykjavik EDITION has a pretty great location, right in downtown Reykjavik. It’s located on the harbor, next to the Harpa Concert Hall, and it’s only a short walk from the main pedestrian zones of the city, like the Laugavegur shopping street.

The area immediately around the hotel was all recently constructed, so feels ultra-modern.

But again, you’re just a very short walk from the main part of the city, so you can’t beat how central this is.

We rented a car for our time in Iceland, and the hotel charges 7,000 ISK (~$56) per night for valet parking. In terms of getting to the hotel from Keflavik Airport (KEF), it’s a roughly 45-minute drive, and there are plenty of buses running between the airport and city.

Reykjavik EDITION lobby & check-in

Usually I criticize EDITION properties for being soulless and lacking a sense of place, though I have to give the Reykjavik EDITION credit for some of its local touches, which definitely make you feel like you’re in Iceland. The lobby has basalt stone flooring, plus a stone “statue” of sorts, which acts as a centerpiece.

Next to the lobby is a bar area, which has a warmer vibe, with lighter colors, and even a wall with lighting that’s supposed to represent the Northern Lights.

The lobby also has a little bit of seating, though most of the ground floor is taken up by the dining outlets.

We arrived at the hotel mid-afternoon, and had a very pleasant check-in experience. The guy who checked us in (from Spain) was very friendly, and informed us we had been upgraded to a deluxe suite on account of my Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador status.

Soon enough we had keys in hand, and headed up to the fourth floor (the hotel has seven floors), where our room was located, via one of the four elevators.

Reykjavik EDITION suite

Hideous and/or poorly lit hallways seem to be brand standard for EDITION, and this property was no exception. It actually looked a little nicer than your typical all-white EDITION hallway, though the lighting was turned down frustratingly low, and there was quite a bit of chipped paint.

We were assigned room 413, located toward the end of the hall, and on the right.

Deluxe suites at the hotel are marketed as being 435-660 square feet (41-62 square meters), and I’d guess our room was on the bigger end of that scale. The room featured an entryway with a half bathroom to the right, and the living room straight ahead.

The half bathroom contained a sink and toilet.

The living room was a fully separate room from the bedroom, and it had both a couch (or perhaps more of a loveseat) facing a wall-mounted TV, as well as a dining area with a banquette and a (really hard and heavy) bench.

Underneath the TV was the minibar, which contained complimentary Nespresso coffee and Taylors tea, plus a variety of drinks and snacks for purchase.

There was no bottled water in the room, but instead, there was a carafe and two small cups, with a sassy explanation about how pure drinking water is in Iceland. Cute!

The bedroom was then beyond the living room, and it featured a king size bed, a chair with a side table, and some closet space, in the form of an exposed area with a curtain. I don’t find EDITION properties to be particularly luxurious in terms of finishes, though I at least appreciated that this property had more personality than your typical EDITION, as not everything was white.

While I found the mattress to be well padded, the pillows were flat as pancakes, so on our first evening we asked for some extra pillows, which were brought with turndown service. That helped to ensure a great night of sleep.

The main bathroom was then off the bedroom, and contained double sinks, a shower “compound” with both a walk-in shower and a soaking tub, and a separate toilet. Personally I’m not a huge fan of the tiles in the bathroom, but hey, we all have our preferences.

Toiletries were in reusable containers from Le Labo.

Our room had an interesting view of the harbor, so I very much enjoyed the vantage point we had.

With the snowstorm we experienced our second day, the view transformed quite a bit overnight.

On the plus side, we did see the Northern Lights from our room on the second night, which I absolutely wasn’t expecting in Reykjavik (given the light pollution).

The afternoon of our arrival, we were brought a lovely welcome amenity, which I thought was thoughtful (compared to some crappy bottle of wine, or something). It was a cute chocolate version of “Thor’s Hammer,” plus a local fragrance.

With turndown service on our last night, we were also brought a tasty chocolate tart, plus a lava stone that we could take home with us.

Reykjavik EDITION spa & gym

The Reykjavik EDITION has both a spa and gym on the basement level. The gym can be accessed by guests 24/7. It has no natural light, which I don’t love, but then again, this time of year it’s not like there’s much light in Iceland anyway.

The gym was well equipped, with both cardio and strength training machines. I do wish they had more than one bench, though — it amazes me how many hotels get all this equipment (including a lot of free weights), but then have a single bench that can be used…

Immediately across from the gym is the spa, which is open daily from 10AM until 9PM. We didn’t get any treatments, but you can find the menu here. However, we did visit the spa, given that access to the facilities is included with the destination fee.

The spa has a charming reception area, where guests first have to register upon arrival.

Then there are gender segregated changing rooms.

The main spa area is beautiful, with a lounging and bar area, serving juice, tea, and snacks.

Then the main part of the spa has hydrotherapy pools, plus a sauna and steam room.

All-in-all, it’s nice to have access to these facilities, though it’s not exactly a huge space. We came right as it opened and had the place to ourselves.

Reykjavik EDITION restaurants & bars

When it comes to eating and drinking at the Reykjavik EDITION, there are several venues:

• TIDES is the signature restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner; lunch and dinner are described as serving locally sourced seafood, meat, and produce
• TIDES Cafe is the hotel’s coffee shop, open in the mornings and afternoons, and it’s a place to grab a coffee, pastry, sandwich, etc.
• The Lobby Bar serves drinks and light snacks, and is open from late in the morning until late at night
• TOLT is a hidden speakeasy behind the lobby bar, and it’s open exclusively for suite guests and Bonvoy elite members; however, it’s only open on weekends, so was closed on the days of our stay
• THE ROOF is the hotel’s rooftop lounge and bar, serving both food and drinks; however, it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, which were the days we were staying, so unfortunately we weren’t able to check this out

So while I can’t speak to TOLT and THE ROOF (due to closures during our stay), let’s go over the other venues.

Let’s start with TIDES, the all-day dining restaurant, which serves breakfast from 7AM until 10:30AM, lunch from 12PM until 2:30PM, and dinner from 5:30PM until 10PM. The restaurant is large and quite nice, and I like the design and the views of the harbor.

In the mornings, this is where breakfast was served. While breakfast isn’t included for Bonvoy elite members, it was included with our Marriott STARS stay. For what’s ostensibly supposed to be a luxury brand, the whole breakfast experience felt quite low-touch, in the sense that even coffee, tea, and juice, are self-serve from the buffet.

On the plus side, I found the buffet food quality to be excellent, especially for a Nordic country, with a huge variety of options. The buffet included pastries and cakes, cereal, yogurt, cold cuts, cheese, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage, pancakes, waffles, etc.

There was also an a la carte selection, with everything costing extra.

The only other thing included was an omelet station, so I had a veggie omelet both mornings.

We also had dinner at TIDES the first evening, given that we had $325 in hotel credits to burn through, in addition to the amount of the destination fee. In theory, it’s a bit of a shame to eat a hotel, given that Reykjavik is an amazing food city. However, this restaurant is actually well regarded, and is Michelin recommended.

You can find the dinner menu below. The restaurant is very pricey — Iceland is expensive in general, and it almost seems like prices in the restaurant are increased to account for the destination fee credits that guests have to spend.

The meal began with some warm, delicious popovers.

For starters, I ordered the lobster and langoustine croquettes, while Ford chose the black angus tartare.

Then for mains, I had the the cod, while Ford ordered the lasagna.

As I explained in a separate post, while the food was excellent, the meal was quite an experience. Long story short, the service was so slow with both courses that they ended up comping our entire meal (without us even complaining or saying anything), and even bringing us dessert.

So while I’m still puzzled by why the meal was so slow, I thought the service recovery was excellent. Then again, we had $325 worth of credits to spend, and in the end, we weren’t even able to spend our way through them, given this comp.

Next up, the Lobby Bar is open daily from 11AM until 11PM, and we had drinks here each evening, and you can find the menu here. It’s a nice space immediately off the lobby, with very comfortable seating.

After our stay at Torfhus Retreat (where they only had Icelandic spirits), it was nice to have access to a full bar, and I very much enjoyed the negroni I ordered, which was served with popcorn.

Lastly, TIDES Cafe is open daily from 7AM until 3PM, and you can find the menu here. It’s essentially a walk-up counter setup, and then there are a handful of cafe-style tables, where you can enjoy your drink or snack.

Options included barista coffee, sandwiches, pastries, and more.

We enjoyed having a coffee or two here each day.

Reykjavik EDITION service

All-in-all, I found service at the Reykjavik EDITION to be really good. The first thing that stood out was that this was almost like being in Dubai, in terms of how international the staff were. I’m not sure any of the hotel staff were actually from Iceland, but we interacted with people from Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, etc.

For the record, that doesn’t just seem to be a Marriott thing. Even at Torfhus Retreat (an independent property), a vast majority of the staff were foreigners. But across the board, they were genuinely friendly, and I only have nice things to say about the service. To give one example of a very nice touch, on our departure day, valet put some chocolates in our car, along with a nice note.

My only complaints about the service experience would be management decisions that I think add unnecessary friction to the stay. Hospitality should be about making a stay as seamless as possible. For example, while Four Seasons is hardly a boutique hotel company, I think what the brand does such a good job at is considering every detail of the experience, and eliminating friction wherever it can arise.

Meanwhile in the case of the EDITION, there was just a lot of friction. For example, when you arrive at breakfast, the host makes you sign a paper to “acknowledge your attendance,” and that even has a place to tip. First of all, it’s super tacky to ask for tips before even providing a service. Second of all, it just created a bottleneck where there were sometimes a dozen people waiting to get into breakfast, because it was so slow. Worst of all, it was just completely unnecessary.

Similarly, as mentioned above, the destination fee includes access to the spa. We went during the middle day of our stay, and when we arrived at reception in our bathrobes, we were told we couldn’t access it because it was our departure day:

• It wasn’t our departure day
• Nowhere on the informational destination fee sheet did it say that access is restricted on the day of departure
• What impression does it leave guests with who show up when they’re denied access to an amenity without any real justification?

Similarly, the destination fee restrictions beyond that were annoying. You could spend the credit at TIDES or TIDES Cafe, but not on your departure date. Why, exactly? Just as an example, if you were staying for one night and checking in and checking out at standard times, that means you couldn’t use your credit for TIDES Cafe (since it closes at 3PM, and you can’t use it in the morning), and you could only use it for dinner that evening. It just strikes me as tacky and unnecessary. Anyway, rant over…

Bottom line

We had a very nice stay at the Reykjavik EDITION. I know my review has a lot of critical commentary, but that’s because I try to be detailed, and I point out both the little and big things that I notice. So despite the shortcomings, we had a lovely stay.

The EDITION has a cool vibe that nicely blends the EDITION aesthetic with some local touches, staff were friendly across the board, and I also found the restaurants and bars to be quite good (and we didn’t even get to visit the rooftop bar).

We ended up spending a lot more time on property than we were expecting to, given that Reykjavik was hit by a massive snowstorm, to the point that there was even a stay at home advisory for locals. So if visiting Reykjavik, I’d absolutely recommend this property.

What’s your take on the Reykjavik EDITION?