Omena Hotel Lahti

It’s an easy walk to Lahti Ski Stadium, and getting in from the parking garage below is convenient. A sensible option for people taking part in Finlandiahiihto.

For €13 a night, I found this hard to beat. The location is right in the city center, the building was unexpectedly quiet, and Forenom customer service was kind and helpful. I also liked getting in with a key code, since I'm usually anxious about losing keys. The laundry room worked, although the dryer was slow and booking it with pen and paper felt dated. I stayed seven weeks for €780 total, and that was worth it. At a higher price, though, a few things would need attention. The room's ceiling vent made a constant loud hum. I could turn it to quiet it down, but someone shorter might not be able to reach it. It switches off from midnight to 5 a.m., which was a relief. The bathroom fluorescent light hummed too. There was no range hood over the kitchenette hob, and grease had built up on the underside of the cupboard above it. I tried scraping it off, but it had hardened, probably over several years. There's no Ethernet connection, so I had to use WiFi. The connection was fast enough, but I didn't think it was ideal for data security, and when it went down for a week I had to work from my phone's hotspot. Some mornings, the shower ran out of hot water. I'm usually careful about sorting all my recycling, but after opening the food waste dumpster once in mid-August, I couldn't bring myself to go near it again. The sheer number of fruit flies horrified me. One day the lift got stuck between floors, and I could see right down the shaft. It was frightening and didn't make me confident about the lift's safety.

We were traveling as a family for a sporting event, and chose Forenom Lahti because we needed a kitchen to meet nutritional requirements while preparing for it. The so-called kitchen was a tiny, cramped cupboard setup. Since it was a peak period, we paid a premium, and in hindsight I would have booked a proper hotel with reception. The place is very basic, more like a dormitory. Other reviews cover the details, so I won't repeat them. With hardly any reception or service staff, service was poor. I reported on Saturday that the light in our toilet and shower wasn't working. They quickly confirmed they'd received the report, but we checked out Tuesday and it still hadn't been fixed. For most of our stay we had to use our phone lights to use the toilet and shower. I've had good stays in aparthotels elsewhere in Europe. Forenom Lahti was the worst accommodation experience I've had.

The breakfast was actually quite good, though you pay extra for it, just as you do for parking. There’s no gym, pool, or sauna. My room smelled pretty bad, and on the third floor I couldn't open the window. People were always smoking by the front door, and the smoke drifted into the lobby. You enter with a code, which honestly felt a bit unsafe. There was no cleaning during my stay, though hopefully they clean afterward. It earns its two stars :)