After two nights of a 3-night stay at Farris Bad spa Nordic Choice Hotels in Larvik, Norway in a downgraded room from what I had booked in July, the manager was trying to figure out how I was going to pay for my room with points when there were no Choice Privileges points in my account. Part 1 of this hotel stay explains why I was in a downgraded room: Hotel Review: Farris Bad, Ascend Collection Larvik, Norway. The hotel had no reservation for me in their system when I arrived on a crowded Saturday afternoon.
Interestingly, the reservation no longer was visible in my Choice Privileges account on Monday morning when it had been visible on Saturday just after check-in. The previous hotel stay I had in Norway, Clarion Collection Hotel Bastion, also was not listed in my account reservations. Clarion Royal Christiania Oslo, the first hotel stay of this trip was still showing and all five remaining Choice Privileges reservations for Norway were visible.
I explained my Choice Privileges points were deducted at the time of booking the reward stay in July and I had no points in my account because I redeemed all 216,000 Choice Privileges points for 13 nights at Nordic Choice Hotels in Norway.
She asked that I check back in 30-minutes after she contacted her people in Oslo to find out what to do about my hotel stay.
When I returned an hour later, she said it was all cleared up. The Oslo office confirmed that I had booked a Deluxe category room for three nights. She apologized for the mix-up and gave me the key for another room for my last 24 hours at the hotel.
I was looking forward to being in the Deluxe room with ocean view that I had originally booked.
Farris Bad Room 340 Kaupang suiten
Farris Bad has six named suites.
Our 6 suites are designed to provide you with the best overnight experience we have to offer. Possible connecting to a Deluxe room for additional cost. All are individually named with nomenclature inspired by local cultural history. The suite wing hovers high above the sea. Here you go to bed and wake up with a panoramic view as far as the eye can see.
Farris Bad, Ascend Collection, Nordic Choice Hotels
Now, I am not a DYKWIA kind of person. I never mentioned I write Loyalty Traveler and I have never had elite membership in Choice Privileges. The hotel manager realized I had been downgraded for two nights of a three night stay and for the final night I was upgraded to a suite, a room category higher than Deluxe.
I assumed Kaupang was some Norwegian author or dignitary. Not even close.
Kaupang was a Norse term for market-place. Today, it is generally used as a name of the first town-like market-place in Norway, the Kaupang in Skiringssal, which is located in Tjølling near Larvik in Vestfold. Kaupang was an important merchant and craft center during the Viking period and as yet the first known Norwegian trading outpost.
I originally decided to come to Larvik due to its historic significance as a place of Viking culture. My plan was to get to the rolling stones beach of Mølen where there are Viking cairns, about 30 minutes from Larvik. The rainy weather and lack of public transportation on Sunday prevented me from getting there.
This room view put a smile on my face. Best of all was seeing a desk. My back hurt from two days of typing on my computer while sitting in bed in the other room.
A Nespresso machine on the desk was another upgrade amenity, but I never got around to using it.
There is a small bathroom with sink and toilet in the living room area.
The Deluxe room description states the tub has a sea view. In the Kaupang suiten, the bed has the sea view.
The bathroom has a deep tub that I would have loved to use after my 16 km hike the day before to Stavern. There was no tub in the Standard room.
A separate shower was also part of the Kaupang Suite bathroom.
There are a lot of glass doors in the Kaupang Suite.
Most appealing to me was the balcony with an ocean view.
I forgot to mention in my previous post on Farris Bad the most appealing aspect of room 363, the small standard room where I slept two nights. Despite the room location with no ocean view, the one advantage the room has over the suite is its location over the water. At night when the hotel grounds quieted down, I lay in bed with the windows open hearing the calm waves rhythmically lap against the sand. It reminded me of a house my wife and I lived in 1995-96 for a year in coastal Downeast Maine where our bedroom was perched above the sea. The sound was soothing. Farris Bad Kaupang Suite is not located above the water and is more of a visual experience.
View from Farris bad Kaupang Suite balcony. The bed also has this view when the curtains are open.
Larvik is where the Color Line ferry operates between Norway and Hirtshals, Denmark. Color Line Denmark ferry is docked in distance.
Kaupang Suite is upper right room with small balcony.
The clouds rolled in a couple hours after moving into Kaupang Suite and the rain continued for the remainder of the day and into the night. I fell asleep watching the sea from bed. After a few hours I was awakened by bright light. Moonlight from the full moon of September 9 flooded the room with moonbeams directly on my face.
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At a hotel conference several years ago I heard a senior level executive of a major hotel chain state that in the hospitality business the hotel has one chance to get it right because when guests check out they are only left with memories.
A sparkling sea on a moonlit night on the coast of Norway is the memory I left with from my three night stay at Farris Bad spa hotel in Larvik, Norway, an Ascend Collection member of Nordic Choice Hotels.
*****
Ric Garrido of Monterey, California is writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler.
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