Strand InterContinental, Helsinki

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Excellent
Quality of Rooms	Good
Standard of Service	Excellent
Cleanliness	Excellent
Quality of Facilities	Excellent

Advantages:	Central location, good facilities, comfortable
Disadvantages:	-

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Hilton Helsinki Strand used to be part of the Scandic Intercontinental hotel chains, until becoming a Hilton Hotel. I recently stayed for four nights as I was attending a conference in Helsinki and its location was very convenient for the Bank of Finland - it was a pleasant 5-10 minute walk along Unionkatu to the Bank.

Our local organisers had negotiated a rate of EUR 125 per room per night for single occupancy - otherwise this rate is only possible at weekends. The off-the-peg rate for a single room is usually about EUR 160 from what I have been able to make out.

The hotel is located very centrally - being only a few metres walk from Hakaniemi Square, where there is an underground station as well as buses to Vantaa airport. A walk into the city centre (e.g. to the main station) is no more than 15 minutes walk and there are also taxis available around the clock.

The hotel is an eight storey building with just shy of 200 rooms. There are also meeting rooms available - all are well equipped - we took the Wellano room on the second floor for a board meeting - there was an overhead projector, beamer with connection cable to a laptop and the room was air conditioned with electric curtains too. This room was ideal for our purposes, and hire costs were only the costs of tea and coffee and biscuits - I believe around €8-9 per head.

The breakfast was a self-service buffet - with a variety of breakfasts - from the continental, through to a cooked breakfast. There was a constantly replenished supply of food and tea and coffee was brought to your table. For me, work doesn't seem nearly so hard when you have enjoyed smoked salmon for breakfast with a pot of good strong coffee. Breakfast is served from 6:00am local time until 10:00am - later on Sundays and is included in the price. At weekends there are also brunch options and the foyer bar and restaurants often have a special promotion on - although I tend never to drink in the hotel bar, unless I absolutely have to.

For the lazier, and/or richer, there is also the possibility of room service - although I didn't try this out. There is a minibar in each room, although the prohibitive prices meant that I didn't make use of it - think about €3.50 for a mineral water for example.

My room was spacious - I had a twin room for my single rate, with a desk and sitting area and an en-suite bathroom with bath, shower, bidet and WC and basin. Shampoo and all the usual disposable guff is supplied for those of us who can never be bothered to pack a sponge bag - and/or don't want to risk exploding shampoo bottles! The shower was very invigorating - that and the comfort level of the bed is all that really matters to me. The bed was very comfortable indeed and coupled with the whisky and cloudberry aperitifs and licorice vodka digestifs from our conference I slept very well.

The sizeable walk-in wardrobe contained a trouser press - very useful, especially when your suit is threatening to be a crumpled mess otherwise. I had a very quiet room on the fifth floor - with an ice making machine in the corridor should I have required it. The television had a range of channels, with some PayTV channels although I prefer to go out rather than stay in and watch a film.

Entry to rooms is via a keycard - which does seem to be very sensitive, keeping mine in the same pocket as my mobile phone seemed to demagnetise it very frequently. The reception were very helpful - especially in helping me navigate my way to obscure tapas bars and/or finding a very small shop in a side street somewhere. Similarly you can also use them to post letters and postcards - the selection at reception is a bit on the pricey side though.

I also used the wireless internet service with my laptop - signal was patchy in parts of the hotel - it was fine in the conference room but in my room there were definitely different signal strengths on one side of the room to the other. The main reason for doing so was to log on to Skype - I was able to Skype my girlfriend at home rather than using the phones for international calls - thus saving a tidy little sum. Wireless internet access is EUR 20 per day.

There were also fitness centre and sauna facilities - I didn't try these out but have no doubt that they were up to scratch.

By staying at the Hilton you can collect HHonors points - this is the Hilton chain's rewards system, and there is the possibility to also claim points on a Frequent Flyer card. I know that both my BA Executive Club card and my Lufthansa Miles and More card could be topped up with points accumulated for staying in the Hilton - a pleasant little bonus for when you are travelling on expenses and you are in a more expensive hotel than you would normally stay in! Check-in is from 2pm and checkout by midday, and there is a left luggage service which I took advantage of.

All in all a great holiday - especially for the business traveller, but also great if you want to have a romantic break away too.

For the hotel homepage, within the Hilton website, visit:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=HELHIHI