In reply to David Eckles:
Pure conjecture, but I do wonder if a reliance on generating most (all?) of their income stream during the winter months was a sustainable business model. Since they opened in 2007-08, both sterling and the euro have depreciated against the krone. This trend accelerated in recent years and I wonder if it may have affected bookings. Last winter's ice climbing season was also disasterous by Rjukan standards.
I agree that it was a nice place. The B&B alternatives in Rjukan are 2 or 3 proper hotels and these will be eye-wateringly expensive in comparison. The only other hostel type accomodation is the Old School, which is nice enough but is self-catering. Otherwise, it's places like the Hutteby - again quite nice but a bit cramped and with quite basic cooking facilities for a group of 5-6.
Dave
