Forenom Apartments Helsinki Lauttasaari

The rooms are really quiet and very clean, with everything you need for a stay. Lidl and S market are nearby, and a lovely lake where you can swim is close by too. Bus 21 gets you there even at night; there’s also the metro, though it’s a 20-minute walk to ferondon. There are parks as well.

The location was good for us, with bus stops a two-minute walk away and the Metro Station about 10 minutes on foot. The room itself was too small for the price. Pay attention to which room they assign. We were on an upper floor, where the windows were so high that it was hard to see outside and felt depressing. The rooms vary, so it matters to say which one you want. Ours was very different from what the website showed. We raised that with them, but they did nothing. It was okay for a temporary stay otherwise.

The building is nicely designed, and the location is great, close to a beautiful walking path, supermarkets and a bus stop. But they need to do a better job with upkeep. The mattress smelled awful, almost like a homeless person, and the sheets and sofas smelled sweaty. The dishwasher, kitchen and bathroom all had a sewage-like odor. They need to replace the mattress and linens.

Getting around was easy during my 16-day stay. The bus stop and metro for Helsinki city centre were close, and three supermarkets were only 2-5 minutes away. The rest of the experience was rough, and the place didn’t seem well cared for. The biggest mess was the cleaning and maintenance. There were rice crumbs all over inside the microwave, and the oven tray had old food stains that I had to clean myself. The washing machine leaked a huge amount of water, leaving the floor soaked, and I had to mop it up. The large ceiling light in the middle of the room never worked, maybe because the bulb was old, and it seemed nobody had checked it. The elevator was very old and loud. You could hear it creaking from the room at the end of the hall, and the closer your room was, the worse it sounded. There were no English labels in the garbage room, so figuring out what went in each bin meant translating every label. The washing and dishwashing machines didn’t show how long tasks would take. Even a spin cycle took hours and hours; I didn’t expect three hours of spinning. They need instructions in every room. Supplies also differed between the two rooms I used. One lacked dishwashing detergent, while the other didn’t, so I had to bring some across. Cutlery and cutting boards varied too. It left me wondering how staff checked the rooms and whether I’d be blamed for missing items.