My boyfriend and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Helsinki-Vantaa Airport two separate times during our…read moretrip to Finland, one night when we arrived and one night before our flight out of Helsinki to Amsterdam.
The first visit was a three star visit, due to the lack of air conditioning (not mentioned by woman at the front desk when we checked in) and the very tiny room with the phone booth-sized shower. When I called to the front desk to ask how to turn on the air conditioning in the room, she simply said, "Sorry, it's not working at this time." She did not offer a fan, so we just opened the window. Unfortunately, it was quite warm all night, so we did not sleep well.
The next morning, I chatted with the very friendly manager at the front desk and he was appalled that a fan was not offered. He said they have a "whole room of fans" for guests to use. I told him that we would be coming back for one more night at the end of our Finland trip and asked if he would note our file to offer a fan if the air conditioning was still inoperable at that time. He said he would do that for us.
Fast forward to our second visit to this hotel. We were delighted to have been given a free upgrade to an Executive room. There was a fan already set up in the room (the AC was still not working very well). The room itself was huge, with a large bathroom and shower, a separate sitting area with a makeup mirror, as well as a free chocolate bar and two free cookies. Very nice! We were also given two free water bottles at the front desk (I'm at IHG member), which we weren't given on our first stay.
I would definitely recommend paying extra for the breakfast! It begins at 5:00 am, in case you have an early flight. This was my favorite hotel breakfast on the trip. There were so many wonderful things, such as the Karelian pastries and egg butter (a delicacy in Finland), a wonderful berry coffee cake, and many hot items. Everything was delicious! The staff working at breakfast hours were very friendly and welcoming as well.
One other nice feature of this hotel is the free airport shuttle. The pickup spot at the airport is bus stop #42. The shuttle arrives every 20 - 30 minutes and services the Holiday Inn and two Scandic hotels. The shuttle service from the hotels to the airport starts very early in the morning and was very convenient.
We would stay here again in a heartbeat!