The Rica Grand is the most prominent of Oslo hotels in a superb location opposite the Storting. One of the ‘grand old ladies’ of the European hotel scene, time cannot conceal the wonderful ‘bone structure’ that underlies the main part of this hotel. Extended over the years into adjacent block to create conference rooms and a rooftop bar with glorious views, the true comparators for this hotel are other ‘grand dames’ such as the Intercontinental Grand in Paris or the Carlton in Bratislava, old hotels with a history that gives them a place in the ‘society pages’ of their locale. The Grand here is host to the annual Nobel dinner and has prime position to serve the legislature opposite

The hotel enjoys the same type of occupancy that characterises and gives problems to the rest of the Norwegian market – over 72% occupancy for nine months of the year, and 100% occupancy over the main summer months. These levels cause problems that become acute at the level occupied by the Grand. Five star hotels at this level really aim their services at the individual wealthy traveller, discriminating and affluent, and who tend to spend well in the bars and restaurants. When there is pressure on bookings due to very high occupancy levels then room availability for these individuals disappear as rooms fill with parties from travel organisations that tend to book rooms a year ahead, squeezing out the individual traveller.

This has become a problem for many hotels in Oslo, and for Oslo as a destination. Already most Baltic and Fjord Cruise ships start their journeys in Copenhagen, as they need hotel bedrooms for their guest joining ships via long haul flights from other countries. The cruise liners still call at Oslo, but the tourists from them stay on board, eat on board only leaving the ships to visit the tourist ‘hot spots’ in the area. This reduces the tourist spend generally but not the load on public transport etc.. It is interesting to contrast the hotel boom in Seattle, (now a starting point for Cruise liners for whale watching or sightseeing up the Canadian and Alaskan coasts) with the small scale of developments going on in Oslo. As international tourism continues to grow at some 8% or 9% a year, there is also a warning here for other hotel markets reaching this saturation point, such as London (see Industry News: 100% Occupancy can be damaging to your wealth and Industry News: Are Full Hotels desirable or beneficial to the Tourist Industry? for more on this)