The beginning

Married couple Guðný Gunnþórsdóttir and Skafti Ottosen build the hotel in 1982 to 1983 and open the doors in the spring of 1983. The building is modest, eight rooms and a dining room that feels much like a large living room. In summer the travellers come, in winter the travelling salesmen and the workers from the freezing plant. Locals are regulars in the dining room.

Expansion

Guðný and Skafti expand, adding seven modern rooms with private bathrooms, which was considered remarkable in those days. The dining room is enlarged and now seats around 100 people.

New ownership

Helga Jónsdóttir and Vilhjálmur Waltersson take over the hotel and build a log-cabin extension with ten more rooms, along with a lounge with a fireplace.

Open all year

Njáll and Kristín, 22 rooms.

Friðrik takes over

Friðrik Árnason buys the hotel and shapes not only the hotel itself but the whole village. He turns the old post office into guest accommodation, takes over the old cooperative building and opens a café, restaurant and shop there, and transforms the old freezing plant into a large conference and dining hall seating up to 400 people. He also sets up apartments.

Later Friðrik sells these units, the cooperative building, the freezing plant, the supermarket and the apartments, and focuses on the core business: the hotel itself.

Hótel Bláfell becomes Hótel Breiðdalsvík

The change of name reflects the hotel’s bond with the village, while the Bláfell name lives on at the restaurant, which is open to everyone, not only hotel guests. That same year the hotel receives the Icelandic Tourism Encouragement Award for its focus on sustainability, including the use of Icelandic timber from Hallormsstaður forest in its renovations.

Lilja takes over

Lilja Þórmundsdóttir takes over as hotel manager.