Santa's Hotel Santa Claus

Right in the heart of the city, it’s a beautiful place with clean rooms, nice food and friendly staff. Everyone was accommodating, from reception and housekeeping to the restaurant. Traveling in such a cold country, we had a bit of bulky luggage, and as we’re a little older we needed some help with it. I especially want to mention Jeo from housekeeping, who kindly helped us. He was smiling, welcoming and ready to assist. His service was one of a kind.

I’m writing to warn future guests about a very unprofessional experience. After checking out today, I realized I’d left an unopened, fully packaged caviar gift box in the room refrigerator. When I returned around 3 PM to get it, the front desk told me housekeeping had thrown it away. For a hotel charging around 300 EUR a night, I expected a proper lost and found process. Nobody contacted me or tried to check with me before discarding my belongings. This was clearly a valuable gift box, not rubbish. The front desk couldn’t handle the situation, and when I asked for a manager, I was told they were “not available.” It felt as if nobody wanted to take responsibility. Given what happened, I have serious reason to suspect housekeeping took the item instead of throwing it away, but the hotel offered no proof, investigation or explanation. Their final solution was to hand me a business card and tell me to email customer service myself. A manager at a properly run hotel should have contacted me and handled this internally. This goes beyond a simple mistake. It points to poor management, lack of training and accountability, and disrespect for guests and their property. At this price, the behavior is shameful. I’ve stayed at many hotels around the world, and this is one of the most irresponsible and unprofessional experiences I’ve had. If you value your belongings, don’t trust this hotel.

The hotel is grand in its architecture, and our room was clean and well furnished. It’s only a 30-minute transfer from the airport, which was a godsend with two young kids. For two adults and two children, we had two single beds pushed together and a fold-out bed for the kids, which was more than adequate. We really enjoyed the buffet breakfast. It leaned more toward continental food, which was nice for trying something different, and the kids had plenty of fruit and pancakes. The main drawback was the strict 3pm check-in. We arrived at 1pm after starting out at 1am and were ready to get to our room. Still, it was a really good hotel.

Our room was spacious and cosy, with a comfortable temperature that meant you could get around in light clothes. The shower was great and well lit. The only catch is that there’s just one combined soap and shampoo, so bring your own if you need something special.