Hotel Esplanad

The walls are thin, so you hear what the neighbors are doing, along with some machine noise that comes and goes regularly. There was no breakfast or bike rental, even though both were described when I booked.

We ended up stranded outside at 4am after being told twice on the phone that a room and early check-in would be available. We’d planned a short Mariehamn visit and needed somewhere to stay from 4am to 11pm, so we knew the timing was unusual and called before booking. The receptionist said it would be fine. We got a blurry written confirmation through Booking.com, but trusted them based on our past hotel experiences in Mariehamn. We called again the day before the trip and were firmly told someone would be on duty at 4am and we could go straight to reception. When we arrived, the staff member on duty, who was from another hotel owned by the same owner, said they were full and couldn’t give us a room. Nobody from Esplanad hotel was available to help, and all the other low and mid-range hotels were full too. The staff member at the other hotel was very friendly and let us rest there until Booking.com sorted it out and something opened in town. Booking.com handled things really well and gave us a full refund. Still, don’t rely on what Hotel Esplanad tells you over the phone. Get written confirmation.

The location is central, which was the one real plus. At night the front door is locked, but nobody mentioned that at check-in, so I had to call someone to let me in at 2300. That was awkward. My chair had a broken seat and was hard to get out of, and the shower head came apart when I turned it on. The pillow was flat, the bed was hard, and breakfast was a nightmare as a vegan, though at least there was fresh fruit.

The rooms have superb sound isolation, and everything in the brand new Esplanad Suite was clean and working. We had two rooms, one small for two adults and a larger one for one adult and two children, ages 11 and 14. The TVs were enormous, around 100 inches, and pretty cool. The WC and light switches are high-tech, but there’s no guidance on how they work, so it could take a couple of days to figure them out, especially for older people. Breakfast was cheap but very basic. The location is close to the center and harbors, though a ground-floor room is right beside the walkway and street, so people can see in if you open the blinds. Traffic wasn’t really audible thanks to the soundproofing. Storage was a real problem: the smaller room had no cupboards at all, the bigger one had only one open cupboard, and there weren’t even coat hooks in the larger room’s entry hall. It was basic value for the money and a bit pricey for the standard, but the suites are all new.