Á hótelinu er móttakan opin allan daginn.

to be

Breakdown of Á hótelinu er móttakan opin allan daginn.

• dagurinn: the day
• opinn: open
• á: at

Questions & Answers about Á hótelinu er móttakan opin allan daginn.

Why does the sentence start with Á hótelinu instead of the subject?

Icelandic commonly follows a verb-second (V2) pattern in main clauses: whatever comes first (here, the location phrase Á hótelinu) is followed by the finite verb (er), and then the subject (móttakan).
So Á hótelinu er móttakan... is normal and means the same as a more “neutral” order like Móttakan er opin á hótelinu allan daginn (with slightly different emphasis).

Why is it á hótelinu and not á hótelið?

The preposition á takes:

• dative when it means location (being somewhere): á hótelinu
• accusative when it implies movement toward/onto somewhere: á hótelið (roughly “onto/to the hotel,” depending on context)

Here it’s about where the reception desk is open (location), so you use dative: á hótelinu.

What exactly is hótelinu grammatically?