Helsinki is not a city shock full of great hotels, I have not found one I completely liked before.  Hotel U14 (Autograph) opened in 2020 and I tried it for the first time.  I had a nice stay and can recommend this hotel, however it should be noted that this might not be the best fit for people looking for large suite upgrades as Marriott Bonvoy elites.

Room

My upgrade was originally to a Luxe room which was of a decent size by European standards (30 sqm) and built to a high standard such that it could be considered close to Luxury Collection.  That room was on a low floor but with the double-glazed windows at least 10 cm apart we could not hear traffic noise from the street.  The hotel fully belongs in the Autograph Collection for its non-boring design and I liked the hippo theme in the room; baby Minnie loved it even more although her use of hotel property was highly questionable LOL  

In the middle of our stay a corner suite became available and we moved to that room type (best available at that hotel) on a high floor.  Obviously there was more space available and 1.5 bathroom which was convenient, but as far as suites go it was rather small at 41 sqm.  If I compare to Hotel St.George (Design), many suites at StG are larger than the corner suite at U14 so if needing extra space U14 might not be the answer.  Also one other negative I noticed about the suite is that we had a connecting door to another room and soundproofing was not as great as it was from the outer wall/windows – we could hear guests in the adjoining room.  From our living room we had a small glimpse of the sea between buildings.

Dining

Breakfast was good quality and the weekend version which extended to 2pm was quite popular with locals and non-guests of the hotel.  There was an a la carte menu on weekends but it was out of bounds for the Platinum-Titatinum-Ambassador breakfast which was limited to the buffet, same as on week days.

The buffet had a few dishes which stood out to make it an enjoyable breakfast instead of exclusively having standard items found anywhere else in the world.  I particularly enjoyed the Succotash and the baked apples & oats.

Wifi

Wifi worked well with download speed of 60 Mbps and upload speed of 30 Mbps.

Overall

Overall U14 is solid and I would consider it upon returning to Helsinki.  In general I value suite upgrades and here I suspect they don’t have many of them which makes the odds somewhat moderate.  In addition, suites are not much larger than Luxe rooms anyway so when staying at U14 I would have to accept that I will not have the most space but the hardware will be very nice.  If willing to pay more, Hotel St.George is clearly a notch above and has specialty suites available which are more spacious.