Hotel Seurahovi

The room was comfortable, spacious, clean, and quiet, and the location in Porvoo is ideal. It’s a basic self-service place without frills. The pillows really were child-sized, though we’d brought our own. Breakfast was quite basic too; a wider, more interesting bread selection would have made it much better.

The parking lot was a big help, especially in winter, and the hotel is right in the heart of town. The building feels a bit old. Finding the entrance was the hard part: the map showed we’d arrived and we could see the hotel sign, but there was no obvious door. Even the people nearby, including the food stall seller right under the sign, didn’t know where it was. It was evening and snowing heavily, so I walked around the building and eventually found the entrance at the back.

The location is good, which makes it a shame that the rest of the stay was so poor. After staying here for the last three years when visiting a local supplier, I’ve had enough. There’s no reception now, and our room confirmation went to our travel agent’s spam folder, leaving us with no way to get into the hotel. We waited outside in the cold for 30 minutes until another guest let us in. They’d had the same problem the day before and told us to call a number for the receptionist. It took another 30 minutes to connect, by which point we were pretty annoyed. The man who answered didn’t apologize. He asked us to write down three six-digit room numbers and said he’d resend the confirmation to my mobile. That took about two hours to arrive. The hotel has seen better days: the rooms are very basic, and breakfast was even less impressive, with rubbery cheese and dried-out ham. Will I come back or recommend it? No. I hate writing this about someone’s business, but I’d love to see if they could do any worse.

The entrance is around the back beside the bins, and there’s no reception. The hotel felt gloomy and shabby, the sort of place that seems cheap. Breakfast was just about okay, but really wasn’t up to scratch for 2024. It’s in central Porvoo, but I can’t recommend it.