Story Hotel Riddargatan

Before checking in we receive a text message with instructions and our room code. The hotel has no reception, its entrance is not always manned, and checking in is automated: a frictionless way to arrive at a very urban and charmingly different hotel. It may be just a stone’s throw from Stureplan, but Story is wonderfully free of anything that could be called posh; instead dark, concrete, distortion and other rock epithets apply. The same concept is used at Signalfabriken in Sundbyberg and in Malmö. And the personal touch is not lacking, because as soon as we request attention we receive competent service. Rooms are well laid out, pleasantly bare between exposed concrete walls, and have self-explanatory labels: ‘super squeeze’ or ‘just large’. We’re in one of the latter, with a balcony. There’s a small work space below the TV screen, and an armchair. The tiled bathroom with a beautiful hand-painted sink is the room’s most appealing part. A restaurant on the ground floor, as well as a friendly, fairly boisterous bar – like bars could be in New York in the early 90s. We sleep soundly and begin the next day with a breakfast that is pleasant if limited. Checking out is a simple click on the computer by the exit.