Anker Apartment, Oslo
Apologies for the very delayed review, I am so far behind on my TripAdvisor reviews it's unreal. I did have an eatery review to do as well, but it's so long ago I don't recall the details so will regretfully pass on that one.
Anyway, as for this accommodation in Oslo, Norway. It was as described easy to walk to in about 5 minutes from Kirkeristan tram stop, however finding the main entrance was confusing on arrival. Thankfully I soon located it, and I was initially impressed with my arrival. Reception was huge, and I didn't have to wait long to get served.
What I didn't expect, as it wasn't mentioned on the Hotels.com app, was to pay 70NOK (approximately 7GBP) for bed linen and towel rental. So up to the room and once I figured out that you have to manually open the lift door it was soon to the room on the 4th floor. Sorry but I've forgotten the room number. After finding the sensor for the keycard I was in and fair game, this room was enormous. A nice big double bed, closer to the ground than I like, was most welcome for a quick lie-down after a very long day. Plenty of power sockets were found but I only needed one. A table and chair were provided, and unusually in my experience so were a cooker with oven and hobs, as well as a fridge. If you didn't have your own utensils you could rent them too, but I had no desire to do so.
The bathroom was a very generous size with a wet room-style shower which I'm used to from easyHotel and quite happy with. Wardrobe space was also available, but I didn't have any hangers and wasn't going to ask for any.
A convenience store was located immediately next door, think Spar pricing and then some if you're reading in the UK.
Oslo Central station is approximately 20 minutes walk at a fair pace from this accommodation, and a relatively easy route too. It is a bit uphill in the northbound direction but nothing super taxing. The city centre is also easily done by tram, but be warned there's no buy on board and no ticket machines outside the city centre. Certain shops will sell you tickets but as you can imagine, finding them isn't the easiest thing to do for a tourist. The Metro is about a 15 minute walk away, but I didn't think the Metro was all that good in terms of value for money.
My two night stay cost me 97GBP plus the 7GBP bed linen and towel rental, so very much not cheap at all. If I had paid that on the day, and not pre-booked, I could understand the high cost but this place is far from fancy and, in my eyes, is outdated. I don't ever intend to return to Oslo, the dullest city I've ever visited so I cannot recommend without bias this location. I believe Anker also do dorm rooms which were around half the price, but that wasn't an acceptable option for me.
Janet's B&B, Canons Park, London
Me and Blindtraveller stayed here for 3 nights recently during 'Tech's Two Fingers To Terrorism' on a recommendation from a friend of his. We had a twin room, number 4 for reference, and I was actually pretty impressed. The room was huge, and while the beds were not quite as comfortable as I like, they were still superior to those in Hotel Exe, Vienna. Mind you, the double bed I had in Anker Apartment (or whatever it was called!) in Oslo was far comfier.
I never did get used to the step into the bathroom, but that shower was brilliant. Only a smal cubicle but it did the job nicely. Tea and coffee with a kettle was most welcome, and breakfast was a tea/coffee, toast and cereal job but this did just fine for us. Breakfast times on a weekday were slightly odd in being 0800-0830 only, with it being 30 minutes later at weekends.
Nevertheless, we had lovely hosts in a beautiful part of suburban north-west London and I would happily live in this part of the city. It is well linked with the Jubilee line a short-ish walk away (we never did the walk so I can't give you a time) with route 186 on the buses 2 minutes walk away on Abercorn Road. Said bus route will take you to Harrow & Wealdstone station in the west and Brent Cross, via Edgware bus station and Mill Hill Broadway station, in the east. We used the buses every morning and evening, if only to save walking.
I would definitely stay again, at £45 a night for a twin room it's not cheap but definitely good value, especially if your travel needs put you in that part of the city anyway. Single rooms go for either £30 or £35 from memory, I never checked properly.