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2 nights at Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen for 20,000 points per night

by Ric Garrido
July 20, 2019
3 Comments
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Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen was not my first choice for a hotel in the city. My preference in Copenhagen is to stay at Skt. Petri Hotel, Ascend Collection for 20,000 points per night. The location has direct access to Copenhagen Airport by Metro to Norreport Station, then about 300 meters walk to the hotel. For the first time since 2015 I was unable to book Skt. Petri using points when I checked 100 days out. The hotel showed ‘Sold Out’. The hotel never became available in my frequent rechecks.

Originally I planned to stay in Malmo, Sweden our first night at Clarion Collection Hotel Temperance for 8,000 points since last year Kelley had me go out and buy food as soon as we reached Skt. Petri hotel. We ate in the room and then she passed out and slept in bed all day on our first day in Copenhagen. That was a waste of our CityPass unlimited rides ticket for the first day.

I saw no reason to spend 20,000 points for Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen since the extra cost to take the train to Malmo would be compensated with a free dinner at Clarion Collection Hotel Temperance.

I planned our second night to be Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers to fulfill my IHG Rewards Club Accelerate summer 2019 Points & Cash task for 30,000 points + $42 to buy 5,000 points. I was surprised to receive 4,500 bonus points within days of booking my one night stay for the Crowne Plaza. Especially since I ended up canceling the booking and got the 5,000 points back, along with the 4,500 points.

Anyway, when I told Kelley about staying the night in Malmo back in May, she was not thrilled about Malmo, Sweden, a place she has never been. I assured her she would like the Hotel Temperance dinner buffet and breakfast too.

“Malmo has a cute old town square with loads of cafes right around the corner from the Clarion. We can go out and drink a couple pints of beer on the square.

Then I tossed out the follow-up comment, “And hopefully we won’t get blown up!”

“What are you talking about? Why would you think we might get blown up?” Kelley asked.

“Malmo has gang problems with a lot of immigrants and apparently a lot of hand grenades left over from the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. They seem to have a lot of hand grenade bombings in the city.”

Now that I had put my foot in mouth, I decided to check the news to reassure Kelley that those were issues primarily affecting the outlying suburban communities of Malmo, not the city center and probably not too recently.

A quick web search proved me wrong.

Two held over explosion at restaurant in Malmö – the local.se (May 10, 2019).

“Two people are being held after an explosion in central Malmö in the early hours of Friday.

Police were alerted to the blast at the restaurant in the popular square Lilla torg just before 2am.”

Lilla torg is the cute Old Town square around the corner from Clarion Collection Hotel Temperance.

Kelley quipped, “No way you would ever be up at 2am, so I guess we will be safe.

In all fairness to Malmo, I have walked miles around the city on several occasions with no issues or concern for safety. I find the city a pretty place to visit. Regardless, I decided to change our Copenhagen plans to two nights at Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen for 20,000 points per night.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen

Copenhagen Metro operates 24/7 and buying a CityPass transportation card has been my preferred way to get around the city the past couple of years. The CityPass card is valid for all Metro, bus and trains for airport and all Central Copenhagen Zones 1-4. Ticket kiosks at the airport just prior to entering the Metro sell CityPass tickets.

The daily rate drops when you buy a CityPass for more consecutive days on longer stays. Scandinavia is a family friendly place and there are often family discount rates for tickets. An adult CityPass allows two children under 12 to accompany the adult free.

I purchased two 48 hour CityPass tickets for 150 DKK/$22.60 each.

Metro ticket machine at Copenhagen Kastrup Airport CPH sell CityPass.

The single ticket price to travel from Copenhagen Kastrup Airport to city center (3 zones) is 38 DKK. Single tickets within the city center (Zones 1-2) cost 24 DKK. As long as you take 3 or more rides on top of airport travel, then a CityPass is a good deal.

We reached Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen by riding the Metro from the airport to Norreport Station, then changing to an S-train to Vesterport Station one stop away.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Lobby

There was a few minutes of panic when the receptionist could not find my reservation. I knew the hotel was sold out. I had to find my reservation number on my laptop for the receptionist to locate my reservation. All turned out well.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro fussball table in lobby

Comfort Vesterbro is a large hotel with 400 rooms and five floors. The hotel handled several bus tour groups during our stay.

Last year I joked about having to walk through six hallway corridors after exiting the elevator to reach our interior courtyard facing room.

Loyalty Traveler – Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen review (June 15, 2018)

This time we were in room 491, one of the closest rooms to the elevator facing the street front of the hotel.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro atrium view from 4th floor

One aspect of being in Copenhagen a few days after summer solstice is early morning daylight.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Room 491

I was not a fan of the wall decor. I liked the wall imagery better in last year’s room.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro, Copenhagen wall design in room 249 on my 2018 room stay.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Room 491 TV-desk

The bathroom was a standard bathroom with a tub.

Comfort Vesterbro-249i (last year’s room photo)

Comfort Vesterbro bathroom (last year’s photo)

Aside from being in the room to watch some Women’s World Cup soccer matches and sleep at night, we did not hang around the room much. Worthy of mention is there is no room refrigerator so we drank cans of beer, which were the only cold beers I found in neighborhood stores.

A Lidl supermarket is next to the hotel. There are several grocery stores within 200 meters of the hotel including Netto.

Copenhagen is expensive for dining. I tend to focus on grocery stores when visiting the city.

Sample prices at Copenhagen Netto $25 in food

Nudle salat 20 DKK / $3.00
Italian Salad 15 DKK (on sale 5 DKK discount) / $2.25
Tuborg Classic 6-pack cans 38.10 DKK/$5.73 + 6 DKK/$0.90 recycle deposit (return empties at store).
Baguette 10 DKK / $1.50
Smoked salmon 27.95 DKK / $4.20
Cherries 20 DKK (on sale 5DKK discount) / $3.00
Foccacia bread 2 x 12 DKK / $3.61
Ice Cream 17.50 DKK / $2.63

Tuborg 6-pack at 38.10 DKK is less than average 40 DKK price for beer at restaurants.

Copenhagen ice cream (we did not eat whole 1 Liter).

Sample prices at Lidl market

Chicken breast deli meat 14.95 DKK/$2.25

Carlsberg 6-pack 38.10 DKK/$5.73

Baguette 10 DKK/$1.50

Hummus 10.95 DKK/$1.65

Bulgur salad 10.95 DKK/$1.65

I don’t recall eating any restaurant food during our two days in Copenhagen. We had a few beers in pubs at 30 or 40 DKK each.

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Breakfast

Breakfast buffet is included at the hotel. There was the usual selection of eggs, bacon and beans. There is no special order option for eggs that I saw. Plenty of fruits and breads and deli items for making sandwiches.

Comfort Vesterbro breakfast breads and pastries

Scandinavian hotels tend to offer lots of veggies at breakfast

All in all Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Copenhagen is one of the best deals for the city with hotel loyalty points when Skt. Petri Hotel is not available. The room is basic, but the location of the hotel in city center and the breakfast buffet make this a suitable hotel for a visit to Copenhagen. By all means grab Skt. Petri Hotel for 20,000 Choice Privileges points when you can for a more upscale hotel.

Copenhagen is one of the most expensive hotel cities in the world. Choice Privileges points are the best deal I have found for Copenhagen over the past four years. I consider 20,000 points to be a $100 room night for me. Through Choice Privileges Points and Cash bookings this hotel can be booked for 6,000 points + $105.

Sample room rates:

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro Monday August 12- Wednesday August 14 = 1,720 DKK/night or $259 USD.

Skt. Petri Hotel, Ascend Collection Monday August 12- Wednesday August 14 = no reward nights and lowest rate for a Deluxe room is 3,480 DKK or $523. Last year the room rate was over $600 per night when I stayed in June 2018 at Skt. Petri for 20,000 points.

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3 Comments

GUWonder July 20, 2019

The “dangers” of Malmo are blown out of proportion and overhyped, exciting as they are. Yes, there were indeed two explosions by closed restaurants and clubs within a ten minute walk away from Malmo C station — no actual grenades involved — this year, but those fire bomb efforts were almost certainly related to gang conflicts and happened when the venues were closed and empty of people. I strongly suspect they involved property-related disputes with gang-related business people in the questionable nightlife scene in southern Sweden.

The vast majority of the illegal weapons (grenades included) in Malmo come into Malmo from Copenhagen and are also found in Copenhagen; the armed gangs in Copenhagen are not only in possession of the same kind of weapons and explosives as in Malmo, they probably have them in larger numbers in and around Copenhagen than in and around Malmo since Copenhagen is the main drug and weapons distribution channel into Sweden and the upstream /wholesale distributor has a greater financial resources in drug and weapons dealings than the less resourceful fish downstream that are stuck in a relatively smaller market who and are stuck fighting with each other for the scraps. The Danish gangs have been expanding their ties and turf into Sweden.

I go out and about a lot at night too in Malmo, and the city is very safe for all but those who are in gangs, those closely associated with gang members or those who live in the gang-infested neighborhoods that are nowhere near where you would happen to go in Malmo unless making a real effort to go out of your way to see those areas — as I do at times.

From personal experience, I can say that even the worst neighborhoods in Malmo seem to be way less hazardous to my health than walking out the door from $450+/night hotels in Washington, DC, Miami, or LA or even Copenhagen at 9pm on Saturday nights.

And if security is the concern, I would say the risk of a terrorist attack at a Copenhagen tourist spot (such as at a hotel) is far higher than the risk of a terrorist attack in Malmo at places frequented by tourists visiting Malmo. In other words, if you want to be a lower profile target for terrorists, choose to stay in Malmo instead of Copenhagen. 😉 But seriously, avoid neither place.

Malmo is one of the most exciting cities in Scandinavia, especially for young people, for reasons that have zippo to do with crime.

A lot of the press and select elements of society near and far love to bash Malmo. Malmo really isn’t as bad as its detractors want to make it out to be. If it were so bad, then they need to explain why the Malmo area is one of the very few areas in Sweden where housing prices went up and outperformed nearly all the rest of Sweden (and Scandinavia) in recent years while they even fell in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Ric Garrido July 21, 2019

@GUWonder – The only reason I am even aware of bombings in Malmo is from my first trip in 2015 when I was sitting at Clarion Collection Hotel Temperance and reading about places I had seen in the city after walking around for hours. News stories came up on Google News for local Malmo news and I noticed a story about high gang activity.

That is far removed from the walking experiences I had when touring the city. Love the farmers markets on the city squares, parks, painted murals, eating at Indian food restaurants and simply hanging out around the people of Malmo.
GUWonder July 21, 2019

Some years back when I first started to use Malmo as a frequent base for CPH assignments and was getting my feet really wet in the area, there was to be a swim
meet in a part of Malmo to which I had never been and that was definitely out of the way without a car/taxi. This place I was going to for a swim meet was apparently one of the worst crime-infested neighborhoods in all of Sweden, but I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t even get the sense of it being such a “highly vulnerable” area from wandering around that area during the day and early evening hours that week on breaks or when coming and going to the meet. The neighborhood felt like some parts of Queens or Brooklyn but more relaxed, way better maintained residential blocks and playgrounds, and with the parking lots of the mid-rise apartment buildings only full of relatively good looking cars and a high ratio of contemporary model BMWs, Mercedes, Audis and Volvos in perfect cosmetic shape at least. The only thing that struck me as unusual about the area was that the neighborhood square with a grocery store and some shops and restaurants felt more like a retirement community would feel like if it was in Baghdad in the 1980s. But it was Sweden 30 years later yet didn’t feel like it.

What should have given it away as a high crime area was this: when we were trying to use the locker room showers at the swim meet, we encountered a bunch of tweenagers — presumably using their free/subsidized community pool season passes — who were definitely not there to compete. They were sitting on the floor under the running showers and talking to each other for 15+ minutes while refusing to listen to any of the adults telling them that they and the other kids needed the showers so could they please hurry up and not occupy all the showers like they were. The insolent tweenagers were trying to act all tough around their friends doing the same in the showers and just disrespectful in various ways. We eventually got them to vacate some of the showers, but it required calling the pool staff to threaten them with calling the ordinance police. Little gangsters in the making, given their behavior when without any proper adult supervision and engagement nearby. The tweenagers doing the obnoxious shower occupation were predominantly (but far from exclusively) the children of immigrants from beyond Europe, but I doubt that their parents would encourage this kind of disrespectful behavior either if they knew about it.

My Swedish relatives, some of whom are in the Swedish police or other government security services, keep telling me about how dangerous Malmo is and ask if I wasn’t scared when in the “highly vulnerable” areas. And yet I know they won’t hesitate to go to big cities in Florida, California, Louisiana or Mexico and do so without considering crime rates. Many a business on the internet is built on engaging internet users, and one way to engage users and is to try to heighten fear. In the newspaper business it was: “If it bleeds it leads.” But in Malmo, if it explodes it still leads even when it doesn’t bleed.

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