Entrance to Hotelli Seurahuone
Helsinki
by janettepangHelsinki
Breakfast is included in room rates & served continental buffet-style at their tastefully designed restaurant. It can be served in your room for an additional 27 euros per person (at time of print), although I've seen guests coming down & taking food up themselves. Served weekdays from 6.30am-10am, weekends/holidays from 7.30am-11am).
I was staying on the fourth floor, & the room was equipped with a nice flat-screen tv, cable broadband (being so central, you will keep getting a lot of free wifi bandwiths too although I'd stay way from them due to internet security, since you have the option of plugging the cable directly into your computer in your room .. you can book this together with your room with just a little surcharge or have the option of paying 5 euros per day when you're here), a mini-bar (with miniature bottles of whiskey, gin, cognac & vodka at 7.70 euros each, 0.5 litre bottles of Evian at 4.40 euros each, 0.35 litre bottles of soft drinks at about 3.60 euros each. If you need to be constantly replenishing your liquids, then just cross the street to the train station & buy your supplies from there. For example, a bottle of 0.5 litre pepsi is much cheaper at 2 euros, and the 1.5 litre is about 3.50 euros - technically the one bottle you consume from the hotel you can get almost 5 bottles of the same amount with the 1.5 litre bottle for the same price), hairdryer, iron & ironing board, tea/coffee making facilities, digital-locking safe, ice, & other regular hotel room features.
As a rather small & cosy hotel, they only have one lift, but it's a nice old-style lift in which you pull open the door & shut it before the lift operates but its classic look complemented the rest of the hotel - very tastefully done in a convergence of neo-classical & art nouveau.
I truly appreciate how they take customer satisfaction one step further in terms of a good night's sleep & have their own 'Pillow menu' - 5 types of highest quality and anti-allergenic, in fact: from synthethic (soft 450g, medium 550g, firm 650g), to soft down (550g), & medium down/feather (650g) with the synthetic soft & medium being the hotel standard pillows (i.e. you'll find one of the soft & one of the medium in each room. I noticed, however, that they are smaller than the average pillow I've seen in hotels - so for those who like to toss & turn their heads on pillows, you're left with limited 'tossing space'.
I particularly like the decor of my room as it was very 'me' .. for instance I've always loved Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss", & a print of it along with 2 other Klimt prints very tastefully graced the walls, along with 3 other large mirrors very strategically hung in the room - it looked like careful thought had been given as to where they should go .. a nice full length near the door & outside the bathroom to allow that final check on how you look like before you go out; & the other two are fortunately unlike many other places I've stayed where hotels seem to enjoy hanging their mirrors facing beds or at angles that reflect at you when you are on the bed (in my Chinese culture, we consider this as a classic case of bad 'feng shui' & for some, such as folks like myself .. find that they act as a deterrent from getting a good night's sleep when they are positioned inappropriately - I'm glad this hotel is not one of them).
Felt quite at home as there was even a touch of the orient here .. there's a mini sculpture of the traditional chinese 'cheongsam' on the huge writing desk (very handy size for a table indeed for folks like me who lugs tons of gadgets, literature, laptop, etc. with them when we travel).
