Nyborg, as Peter Karner points out, is on one of the islands people tend to pass through whilst going elsewhere in Europe, but repays a stop as I discovered. Not only has the family acquired a notable hotel, but they have a programme of steady improvement to the hotel in place. The Viking ship burial museum at Ladby, well worth a detour on its own,is nearby and it is also not too far to the Viking ship museum at Roskilde, but tourism is not a major guest generator here, with most bookings being built up through local business.

The initial design of the hotel was strong and quite stylish architecturally. It has large bedrooms and public areas, with conference rooms having windows opening onto terraces, so initial changes has been rectifying problem areas of the hotel – installing a lift, changing the environmental system on the swimming pool and generally lifting service standards. The food operation has become a major focus with the development of the fine dining restaurant, as has the conference traffic, and the conference areas have had new technology added ( capacity is up 120 delegates). Most expensive option taken has been to start replacing all the windows in the hotel with thermal glass, as an alternative to installing air conditioning. In a part of Europe where the major issue is low winter temperatures rather than high summer temperatures, preventing heat loss or gain through the extensive glazing is seen as the more energy conscious and environmentally friendly option.

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