GodOSpoons

Does anyone know if the Helsinki Hilton Strand has a coin operated laundry service? I'm going to be there nearly two weeks and trying to plan my wardrobe.

Thanks.

Timothy

KVS

Haven't stayed at that particular hotel, but I am 99% sure that as a 4-star property, they won't be offering a coin laundry facility .

tsastor

Having stayed there I am 99 % sure as well. It is the number two hotel in Helsinki after the Kamp, after all. I think there is a retractable clothes line over the bathtub, though. However, I suggest that you pay the outrageous laundry fees, and drown your sorrow in the Exec lounge...

WIZ

They don't have one, but there is a coin laundry place a few blocks away from the hotel.

tristan vox

As told there is no coin laundry, I think closest self service one is

Pesula Puhtola/Vic
Address Agricolankatu 13
tel +358 9 773 5737

roughly 2 km brisk walk away, I´m sure there is map in reseption and they will point place out to you if you write addres down. Normal laundry service is provided at hotel of course...

regads

tv

JAP

Breaking News

I will verify this tomorrow, but I was just up in the Executive Lounge this evening. Staying on the 6th (Business) Floor, and a Diamond VIP.

The lounge girl (who I spoke to as I was sitting down to a drink) said that since Feb 06, only Executive Floor guests (not Diamonds on other floors!) are allowed access to the Exec Lounge, by order of Mgt.

She also said that the Mgt had said that it is this way with every Hilton in Europe trying to justify their decision with blatant lies

I will be taking this up with the GM in the morning - more info to follow ....

hiltonlurker007

No lies, it is this way in most Hiltons in Europe. E.g. Germany, most properties in Great Britain etc. So no lies there. There are new guidelines since the end of 2005 from TOP management of Hilton in outside US properties to decline access to people not staying in the executive floor. Please do a search on the subject on this forum and youll see that it is (sadly) very true.

simonsmith

Have stayed here a few times and is usually good; Our last stay however booked the EF for 2 nights. The lounge was shut through out our stay! Reason given not enough guests on the EF to warrant opening it. After some fuss we were allowed drinks in the lobby bar free but got some very icey stares each time we ordered one so left.

Land-of-Miles

I stayed at the Helsink Strand approximately a year ago. The hotel was good on a par with better provincial UK Hiltons. The lounge was very compact but with a reasonable food and drink offering and the staff were very helpful in trying to find me a UK to EU power adapter (since I left mine at home). I thought the location was OK, but then this was my only visit to HEL which involved me leaving the airport

The Gym is tiny but with reasonable equipment, however I seemed to catch the tail end of breakfast with very little to choose from (the lounge was closed in the morning, with guests directed to the main restaurant).

Dan72

I was at this hotel over Easter and was told the same - that I had to have a room on the Exec floor to get Lounge access... Although they didn't offer me an exec room at first they obliged when I asked if a room was available (I'm HH G).

I can see why they may want to limit the lounge, the amount of drinking going on in that place was unbelieveable. People were pouring tumblers nearly full with spirits. But the bottles kept on being replaced and emptied - people stayed there all evening.

As for the rooms, I thought the decor was a bit past it, but otherwise fine. The hotel definitely looks 80s. But staff very good.

D

JAP

hiltonlurker007, since the beginning of 2006, I have stayed at the following hotels:-

Hilton Brussels
Hilton Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport
Hilton London Heathrow Airport
Hilton Edinburgh Airport
Hilton London Stansted Airport
Hilton Dusseldorf
Hilton London Kensington
Hilton London Metropole
Hilton Dubai Jumeirah

In some cases, I have been upgraded to executive rooms, but in others, I (as Diamond) have not received an Executive Room, but have always been granted access to the Executive Lounge, until today !

What are top management thinking ??!! The top staying members at your hotels, and you are driving them away !!! In any given hotel, there can only be a (relatively) small number of Diamonds staying on non-executive floors, and not all will visit the lounge, so why take away their lounge access ???!!!

I will definitely be reconsidering my position with Hhonors, even though I have been Diamond for 8 years .... Time to look to SPG, methinks ...

I will also search other threads on this, as I had never needed to even consider it (until today )

John P

hiltonlurker007

I don't know what they are thinking, but I guess they are using Intercontinental Hotels as a benchmark, where you are not allowed to access lounges except when staying/upgraded on club floors. I'm not too familiar with SPG, so I can't comment on that. Anyway, it is very easy to make Diamond or Gold nowadays, so I suppose that the increased number of top tier members has influenced the decision. On any given weekday at eg. the Strand (I've checked with a friend who works there, there are abt. 30-40 % gold or Diamond members in the hotel of all the guests. In addition to that, there are also paying guests who have booked an Executive Floor room. So you can see that if top members were continued to be granted access even when not staying/upgraded on the EF, there would be a capacity overflow in the lounges (every member could invite a friend even if not upgraded!). And that is a fact. Personally I understand the decision. I am currently working in IC-hotels, and there is seldom complaints about lounge access, as opposed to when I used to work for Hilton, there was constant whining from the guests about lounge access. I guess Hilton guests are just used to being treated better than Priority Club-members. Also upgrades in HHonors are better, there an upgrade is a room class upgrade, whereas in IC an upgrade can be a room with better view or a couch in the room or something like that, and this is really not an upgrade at all as I see it.

JAP

Thanks hiltonlurker007,

However, I am particularly (obviously) interested in the Diamond benefits, as top-tier within the HH Program.

The number of Golds skews the numbers, as this can be earned more easily, and in some cases comped ....

So as a top-tier member in any Hilton, I would expect that I was treated as such - if they want to lump-in their second-tier (Gold) with Top-Tier Diamonds for lounge access, then surely that significantly devalues the Top tier .... ??

Anyway, I will begin to do more research where I have not stayed previously, and won't stay where the hotel has a history of not granting lounge access to Diamonds ....

hiltonlurker007

Hello JAP,
If a lounge is important to you, you shouldn't be carrying any hallucinations about having much options in Finland in that case . You see, in Finland the situation is that the Strand is the only hotel in the country that has a decent lounge. The Scandic Continental has one, but that one can't be discussed in the same category even as Strand's lounge, and then the Crowne Plaza has one, but again it is much inferior to Strand's lounge (in terms of service level and variety of available F&B), and HHonors doesn't even apply there, obviously . So I guess in Finland you'll be using the Strand, as in the other hotels the lounge is virtually non existant. Anyway, as I've understood from previous threads, upgrades seem to be readily available in that hotel in particular.

Shilla

When I was looking for a good hotel deal for our stay in Helsinki, I found an unbelievable rate on the Hilton website. They offered a "Winter Memories" special deal of 23,75 Euro per room with breakfast and 1500 HHonors points. At first I could not trust my eyes and thought of an error within the booking system, but my reservation was confirmed. A few hours later, only the standard rates of >100 Euro showed up. I guess I checked the site right in time ^