I arrived at the hotel at 1 pm, and was welcomed by a friendly receptionist who assigned me a room right away and explained the breakfast as well as the sauna department hours. Check-in was quick and easy. The room was small and dated. A definite no-frills hotel room with basically no amenities. There were two 90 cm wide beds, comfortable enough, a small desk as well as an armchair but no coffee table – there was no room for one. There was a folded luggage rack leaning against the wall, which is nice, in theory, but there was no room to actually open it up anywhere inside the cramped room. Overlapping curtains kept the room dark, and there was a sparingly stocked minibar. There were sockets by the bed and desk, so charging your devices was easy. Wifi did not require a password. It was free, fast and reliable. There were no water bottles (tap water is potable), no safe, no air conditioning (the room was incredibly hot during the mid-August heatwave, definitely uncomfortable; opening the window didn’t help much). The cramped bathroom came with a handheld shower. No bathtub. I would have wished for better water pressure. Toiletries consisted of wall-mounted containers of soap, shampoo, and, in theory, shower gel, although my container was empty on arrival and was not filled during my stay. The containers were not tamper-proof and after reading so much about how people amuse themselves filling those containers with whatever stuff, I would hope Scandic would choose to save money somewhere else instead and use hygienic minibottles. I consider Scandic a no-frills budget chain and understand their desire to charge separately for mostly everything, but reading all their signs did make me smile a bit. Borrow a bathrobe for 5 EUR. Late check-out fee 10 EUR/hour… Breakfast was served in the restaurant on the ground floor (6–10 weekdays, 6:30–10:30 Saturdays, 7:30–11 Sundays). It is always included in the room rate. It was a bit above your usual Finnish hotel breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs and a few hot items, good breads (but few cheeses and cold cuts), water melon slices, good smoothies. I liked the mini-sized Karelian pasties with egg butter as well as the berry pie. The restaurant was also open for dinner daily, which was nice as most restaurants in town are closed on Sundays. There is a sauna department and a 4x12 m swimming pool in the basement, open 7–10 am & 4–10 pm. No pool towels, bring one from the room. The pool is nice, albeit a bit cool. There is a separate splash pool for kids, too. A complete renovation is long overdue, but take it as time travel to Finland in the 1980s. The hotel enjoys the best location in town, right next to the main street Hämeenkatu, a minute away from shopping, restaurants and nightlife. There is a tram stop right around the corner. I can’t think of any hotel in Tampere that would have a more central location. Therefore, it is sad to see how neglected the hotel is. It’s 40 years old, and it shows. Some cheap
Very Good
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