banzani

Got upgraded to an Exec room last week, these are nice enough and might count as Jr Suites in some other hotels. I find the breakfast very good. Stayed on a ridicolus BRG though which made it difficult not to like the hotel.

remymartin

Interesting. Which site did you use?

banzani

A longer story. Website was a Gulf carrier, but then SPG I think made a mistake when calculating the rate. I did point out that I thought the rate was too low but they said it was correct. So we ended up with EUR 103 incl BF.

remymartin

Which one, and do you still see the same rate?

Barton Cove

I had some trepidation checking in, as I only recently became Platinum for the first time, after a decade of being Gold. Given that I had made the reservation prior to hitting Platinum, and the reports here of clueless desk clerks, I feared the worst. However, it couldn't have gone better - the woman who checked me in, Ahna (?), listened to my story, thanked me for my loyalty to SPG, and told me she was pleased to let me know that I had been upgraded to a park view Junior Suite on the 8th floor. It's one of the named suites, the Ida Aalberg Suite.

I am quite pleased with it - it's in the older section, and has windows on three sides of an oddly shaped bed room. It also came with a complimentary copy of the Rizzoli Luxury Collection book, which will be a nice trip planning aid.

I've only just deposited my bags in the room and come down to the lobby for a drink, so I'll update later in my stay if warranted.

Thanks to all who posted info on the Finnair bus from the airport - it was easy to find at the airport, an easy ride in to the train station, and fairly easy to walk to the hotel, even in the dark on a rainy night. The only confusion was on the part of the bus driver who, when I asked him if it would be easy to walk to the Kamp before I got on the bus, looked me up and down, and said "The Kamp is very expensive, you know." I didn't have time to explain that I had found a nice prepaid rate several months ago.

remymartin

^^^

Congrats on the upgrade and enjoy your time in the city!

ajnaro

I guess the Kämp isn’t the sort of hotel his passengers’ usually ask about. If you want to go one notch higher, there is the so-called Airport Taxi Yellow Line, which is really a sort of shared ride mini-van similar to the blue Super Shuttle found at many US airports. It will take you directly to the Kämp’s door from the airport (or the other way) and accepts credit cards.

remymartin

I'd definitely not recommend the Airport Taxi. The Finnair bus is 6.30€ whereas the Yellow van is atleast 27.50€ and may take you through any part of the suburbs depending on the passengers that are travelling in the same van. A private E-class Mercedes taxi or similar is about 40-45€. If there's over one person in the it's a no-brainer.

Barton Cove

I'm very spoiled in Boston, in that I live on the Silver Line. It costs me $2.10 to go to the airport and $1.50 to come home. It definitely includes some waiting + aggravation, but if I have to take a cab, I have waiting + aggravation + $35, so I think the Silver Line is the best thing that ever happened to Boston.

So, when I travel, I want to travel to and from the airport like the locals, which is why I appreciate FlyerTalk so much - it's never steered me wrong on the cheapest way to get to and from the airport. We all have our small economies, even as we pay to stay at the Kamp.

But I do appreciate the discussion of more expensive methods. Sometimes, I'd like to stretch my time in a place, or I end up with a delay that makes me arrive after the bus has stopped running, so a discussion like this helps me to figure out what I should do. Thanks guys!

So anyway, after all that, Remy, where can a Boston girl in Helsinki watch the Red Sox play in the World Series?

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

I took the Finnair bus to the Kämp several years ago (cash & points) and am shocked I never posted here about it. Good trip and great location. Didn't have any status with SPG sadly. As far as a place to watch the game... Does mlb's website work? Not as fun- but I'm sure a sports bar exists somewhere- remember seeing TVs in some places (mostly local programing though)

remymartin

Ouch! Baseball is virtually unknown here! Rugby, football (soccer), ice hockey are covered. I'll ask around and get back to you

timol

Plat upgrades at Kämp used to be something like 75% to an Exec room, 25% to a Junior suite. For the second time in a row now, and never before, got just a "premium deluxe". Because of the late arrival past midnight, I did not feel like negotiating for a better room. Exec room availability seemed plentiful.

LondonElite

I've been travelling to HEL about once a month for the last six/seven months and am getting really tired of the Kamp. The rooms are looking really tired, carpets worn out. Last time I was in an exec level room and the desk faced the door, the cables for internet and lamp and whatever else were pulled tight to the wall plugs. The room felt smaller than the standard deluxe rooms as well. Plus those crappy compact florescent bulbs give the rooms such a cold light.

remymartin

Hotel Kämp owner Esa Karppinen and his investment company has today sold the majority of the hotel to the investment company CapMan. CapMan already owns Finnish GLO Hotels.

Here's the press release: http://www.capman.com/capman-group/n...nd/id=18557518

Let's hope the owner doesn't deflag Starwood and make this an independent hotel!

holtju2

And there is a piece on HS.fi that the 15-year agreement with the Starwood is coming to an end spring (2016). So, the hotel may or may not be under SPG brand come summer 2016.