Holiday Inn Helsinki City Centre

I should’ve believed the other Unilocalers when I went to book this hotel!!! I’m an Elite, I should’ve known better. I just looked at the reviews on
and they all seemed ok so I went for it. I thought, ok… «this hotel is a little cheaper than the Scandic, is right next to the train and airport bus station, is in the center of the city and it’s an American chain hotel (so it’s going to have good customer service)». So, all good right? WRONG! I mean, the location was perfect. It was so close to everything! However, there are quite a few hotels in the area and next time, I will be trying one of them instead.
The décor inside this one was a bit weird and cheesy. They had smelly plaid carpet throughout the hallways. What a strange choice for a hotel in Finland! Weird. Finland has so much great design, you think they would’ve made even a little bit of effort to show that off. Instead the whole place looked like a bad foreign interpretation of cheap and boring British/​American interior décor.
I also have to say that the women at the front desk were super helpful and nice, but we could never get them over the phone from our room! They just wouldn’t answer! When we finally did get ahold of someone we called from a cell phone (instead of the room phone). When we asked for a new pillow due to a soda spill accident and they said we had to come get it because there was no staff at night. They did mail some postcards for me, so that was nice of them! Thats why they get two stars instead of just one. I think the front desk staff were really the only good part of this hotel. It’s too bad they just didn’t have enough of them to answer the phone and run things to the room.
On another note, the bathrooms were a little prison like. They didn’t have any luxuries like the small toiletries that you normally get in a hotel bathroom and the facilities were really plain and dated looking. I always like to see what kind of toiletries hotels have because they usually pick local products and sometimes they can be cool! Instead, they had wall mounted soaps and stuff like a gym bathroom or a janitors closet usually has. It did not feel nice in there at all!
Lastly, the breakfast was SO GROSS! The eggs were so nasty I spit them out. I think they added a ton of milk to make them even cheaper and they were like gelatin. Everything else in the «buffet» was also cheap and so not worth the price. There was definitely better options in the grocery store across the way. We ended up just going other places for breakfast the whole time. One of the places we went was the original Karl Fazer café for brunch! It was 1 Euro more expensive, but it’s considered one of (if not the) best brunches in the city. I also saw a few hotels near the café and thought that it seemed like a nicer street to stay on. That spot was even closer to the luxury shopping, the senate square and the pretty old park area. I think we’re going to try closer to that street next time. I highly recommend looking up the café and the hotels around it for a place to stay if you come to Helsinki to sight see. The Holiday Inn left a lot to be desired.

I stayed for 7 nights in December 2013, while visiting Helsinki on business. I found the hotel to have several problems which caused me to share my 1-​star review on Unilocal.
My 5^th floor room did not have a do not disturb sign or light, so my first morning’s rest after a long, sleepless transatlantic flight was disturbed by repeated knocking by housekeeping.
My bathroom ran out of the only soap product provided, an in-​shower gel, on my first shower. That day’s housekeeping did not replenish it, so the nextmorning I used Google Translate to leave a post-​it note for the maid: please replace the soap. I also left a note for the missing laundry bag.
That evening, when returning quite late to my room I was dismayed that the soap had not been replenished, nor a laundry bag left. I moved the note from the mirror to inside the shower with a new additional note featuring a large bold arror pointing at the empty shower gel bottle. I left the «please give me a laundry bag and form» note on the closet.
Next night, my third, still no soap or laundry bag. The room was however being serviced, if inexpertly.
The next morning I photographed my various notes and went down to reception to confirm my Finnish was correct. The duty manager confirmed it was, and undertook to correct the serious housekeeping problem. Later that night, still no shower gel, however I had a laundry bag and a small bottle of liquid soap. The hotel offered me 1 drink in the lobby for my inconvenience.
The next morning, I left a bag of laundry with reception at exactly 9am, with same-​day service marked on the form. On returning to my room late that evening, I was concerned that the laundry had not been returned. I was to check out in 2 days and didn’t have enough clean clothes for the next leg of my travel. I assumed it would be returned the next day. When it wasn’t, I checked with reception, who looked in the office behind the desk, and found my bag of laundry, un-​washed.
I politely complained about the week of deficiencies, and the serious inconvenience caused, but the duty manager had no knowledge of the housekeeping problems and seemed skeptical. All I was offered was a flat «I’m sorry.»
General comfort factors were so-​so. The standard toilet paper is rough and unpleasant, pillows were compressed flat.
I do not recommend travelers book this hotel unless the rate is significantly cheaper than other 3.5-star alternatives.