I recently had a great time spending the night at IKEA Hotell, which is in Älmhult, Sweden. But what is IKEA Hotell, how much does it cost and is it worth a visit?
What is the IKEA Hotel?
The world’s first – and only – IKEA hotel is in Älmhult Sweden. You may not have heard of Älmhult – but it’s the place where the first ever IKEA store opened, so it makes sense that their unique hotel should be here too!
When did IKEA Hotell open?
IKEA Hotell originally opened in 1964 to give IKEA shoppers a place to stay after travelling across Sweden to buy cheap furniture!
The story goes that as more and more people came to check out IKEA’s first showroom, thanks to offers they saw in the catalogue, they needed places to have a meal and stay overnight. So IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad spotted the business opportunity to open up somewhere they could stay.
It was originally a motel-style place with 25 rooms; today, it’s been modernised and extended and has just over 250 rooms.
How do you get to IKEA Hotell?
Älmhult has a train and bus station, and the hotel and store complex is just 500m away. There’s also free parking in a big carpark between the two.
It’s free for campervans to park here as well, so I saw a lot of them when I stayed. It would be such a fun road trip!
What's the closest airport to IKEA Hotell?
The closest airport is Copenhagen, in Denmark, and a train goes direct from the airport to Älmhult. It takes around 1 hour 40 minutes and goes once an hour. If you’re travelling from the city centre of Copenhagen, it will take around 2 hours.
There’s also a direct train to Stockholm which takes 3 hours. So it could be the perfect fun stop-off if you wanted to do a dual-city break with a difference.
What rooms are on offer at IKEA Hotell?
They have a few different room options at IKEA Hotell.
You’ve got double rooms and family rooms (with bunk beds) as well as have cabin rooms for one person. I really liked how they have a dedicated option for solo guests.
You can also opt to book adjoining rooms if you want extra space, and there are a number of accessible rooms too. There are also pet-friendly rooms that come with a £7.50 supplement.
Does the stay include breakfast?
Yes, a stay at IKEA hotel includes breakfast. There’s a buffet breakfast included for all guests made up of fruit, salad, breads, pastries, as well as hot dishes including pancakes, eggs and… you guessed it, meatballs!
What other facilities are there?
There’s a laundry room that’s free, as well as a free gym and sauna and a courtyard garden. And there’s free WiFi throughout the hotel too.
And if you arrive in an EV, you can charge it up for free in the carpark. The whole ethos is about making the place feel homely – you can even pick blackberries in the garden!
Is there a place to eat at IKEA Hotell?
Hotell restaurant and bar
Open daily for breakfast, Mon-Sat for dinner and Sun for brunch
IKEA Hotell’s restaurant serves up breakfast each morning, and most evenings in the lobby bar you can enjoy some Småland classics including the much-loved IKEA meatballs.
Museum Restaurant
Open daily 10am-6pm
This restaurant is in the IKEA Museum and serves 3 different types of different meatballs including chicken and veggie ones.
Grillen
Open Mon-Fri 11.30am-11pm, Sat 5-11pm, Sun 5-9pm
Grillen is their upscale BBQ restaurant where sadly, meatballs aren’t on the menu. However they have a luxury hotdog menu instead if you’d like to try an elevated version of that IKEA classic instead!
What else can you do in Älmhult?
There’s an IKEA museum here too, and you get free entry to it with your stay. Plus of course there’s the OG IKEA store.
You can also borrow bikes and cycle to the nearby forest and lake. There are plans to open a furniture museum in the future so even more reason to come if you’re a big fan of interiors!
How much does it cost to stay at IKEA Hotell?
Depending on when you go, a cabin room at IKEA Hotell, for one is about £45.
A double room costs from around £100, and a family room is from about £125, depending on how many people are staying.
My Experience Staying At IKEA Hotell
When I first heard about IKEA Hotell I wondered if it would be a bit of a gimmick, but instead what I found was a really nice hotel where you get a lot more than you expect!!
First things first, the room was spacious and the bed was genuinely one of the comfiest I’ve ever experienced in a hotel room. It was so soft, I literally sank into the mattress!! I also loved that it was full of classic IKEA furniture, down to the loo brush!
As for the extra facilities, I thought it was great that you can do your washing for free and that there are kitchens for you to use – it really felt like they want to make your stay as easy as possible, and aren’t trying to make money off you left, right and centre! Also, I can totally see kids loving their stay thanks to the numerous play areas full of soft IKEA toys!
The museum across the road is great if you’re a furniture fan, but for me it’s the museum shop that excited me the most where you can buy limited edition coloured IKEA bags!! Plus, the restaurant on site offers not only the classic meatballs, but chicken, veggie and plant balls too. In fact, the ones I ordered came in bao with an Asian slaw – it was amazing! However, if you want the classic dish, you can still get that in the hotel bar.
As for Grillen, IKEA Hotell’s restaurant – wow. Wow, wow, wow. I really did not expect the food to be so good but it was fantastic!!! Between me and two others, we ordered 7 plates, 2 lots of chips, all had ice cream and had a drink each as well and it came up to £31 each.
For the quality – and given that we’re in Scandinavia – I expected it to be much more!! Though perhaps it did help that the restaurant did not accept tips, with our server saying, ‘We don’t do tips here at IKEA, we get paid a good salary as it is’.
Well, you can’t argue with that!
