Longyearbyen Homestays

Polarrigg is a funky hotel. From the outside it looks like it has been thrown together from driftwood, perched on a heap of gravel. And is surrounded by rusty artefacts from the mining age – appropriate since it is a converted miners’ hostel. There is a variety of accommodation offered, but I can only comment on the single rooms, organized in a long corridor with shared bathrooms dotted about. The rooms are small and basic, but well heated, with blackout curtains and comfy beds. Four negatives affected my stay, two of them really minor: first, the chair in my room collapsed on me. The staff were very helpful in replacing it immediately, but two of them said ‘oh, that chair’, indicating that it had happened before. Second, at breakfast, quite nice standard Scandinavian fare, the oat milk curdled in my coffee. The staff assured me that the milk was fresh, so it must have been the coffee they were using or over-brewing, that became too acidic. But in this case change the coffee or the milk, don’t blame the customer! Third, something inherent to the design of the place and not helped by the fact that flights to and from Oslo sometimes arrive or depart in the middle of the night, so that I was awoken most nights by the clatter of people operating the noisy door locking mechanisms in the corridor outside. Finally, and most alarming, there was a foul stench of sewage that, at various times, pervaded different parts of the building, but especially the area close to the restaurant. This is the kind of thing that would get the place closed down if inspected by the public health department, so the plumbing and waste disposal system absolutely needs to be fixed as soon as possible. I raised this at reception and was told ‘yes we know about it, it affects all of Longyearbyen’. Sorry but that really isn’t good enough. Polarrigg is half the price of a proper hotel, so one should expect what one pays for. But I really didn’t pay for the smell of sewage. I note that hardly any other reviewers have dared mention this, but it is unavoidable. On the plus side, the residents’ lounge with complimentary tea and coffee is spacious, comfortable and characterful, with an attached kitchen for those who prefer to self cater. And although it is located some way out of the centre, the path over the river is very convenient to get there in just 10 minutes.