Guesthouse Borealis — Hotel in Rovaniemi sub-region

Dreadful. I left in the middle of the night a day early and booked a lovely hotel half a mile away. The one thing you need from accomodation is sleep fundamentally. Forget it at this place. The run down establishment has been chopped up into too many rooms with thin plasterboard walls, and no carpets. You hear every conversation, cough and snore from your neighbours.

Let's rewind.

The hideously overpriced guesthouse is situated about 1.5km from the main city centre. It is very basic. Check out the exterior on Google map street view first. It looks like a run down shack, and that's generous.

It would only suit a low cost traveller for day or too of sleep wasn't a priority.

It is clean, the bed was tiny but comfortable and towel and linen was changed periodically.

Breakfast was poor. Just a self-serve, cold continental style, with few options . Corn flakes or museli, toast, biscuits, pastries, a cold meat and cheese slice. Shared milk and yoghurt carton. Filter coffee, 1 kettle and teabags. There isn't a hot food option. The only staff member I saw during my stay was the girl managing the breakfast clean up, who was polite at all times.

Rooms were over floors 2 and 3, no lift as far as I could see, so accessibility an issue. There is a car park behind and below the property via a steep, drive. Take extreme care walking up and down, i slipped over and fell. It is steep and covered in ice for 6 months a year. Upon arrival at 4pm reception was shut (i never saw it open except at breakfast ) and I couldn't figure out what to do until a passing guest said they leave keys in envelopes outside in the mailbox. A few days later I saw a small post-it note stating this, but it isn't easy to see. If i had arrived after 9pm the doors are locked and at -15 i would have been cold and worried.

My room (210) was a single room. It measured only 3m x 3m including the toilet shower, so that's is really very small. It looks nothing remotely like the photos online, just totalky misleading.

I had hiking equipment that I had to leave in the car as there was insufficient space in the box room. The shower didn't work properly. When you pulled the switch on the mixer tap the shower came on but when you let go, it switched back to tap. I ended up taping it open to have a shower. The water was hot.

An internet wifi code is supplied, but as others have reviewed, it is not fit for purpose. Just painfully slow, like you went back in time to 1990, much like the decor. I rapidly ditched the WiFi and had to use my mobile phone data.

My room was not cold as others found. There was a very lightweight duvet and very slim-height pillow. There was a small desk, chair in a corner and 2 x free electrical sockets.

Now, the big issue. First off, you are right on a road, so every passing car is heard. The critical problem is you pick up noise off other guests all the time. No floors are not carpeted anywhere, so the noise from the walking the halls is present . The door locks are olde-worldy keys, so again you hear everyone locking and unlocking doors echoing on your floor.

The biggest problem walls are paper thin, you might as well be in the same room as your neighbours. You can hear every cough and snore from your neighbours. In the end the snoring sounds one night drove me to gather my belongings and vacate at midnight after listening to the neighbours snore for 2 hours straight. This is purely down to partitioning space with thin walls to make more room.

It might as well be a dormatory. If it was a £10 a night hostel, you might suffer all of that, but for the price the place charges you would expect something decent. You don't.

I hope you read this before staying, so I can rescue your holiday. Don't stay here. Book a proper hotel in town, or a well reviewed Air B&B. This place has no...

I had a fantastic time at the Guesthouse Borealis. The builiding is situated on a quiet street and has really nice balconeys over looking a quiet garden. The breakfast was quite small but was delicious none the less and very filling. (Porridge, toast, fruit, yogurt, muesli, etc.) The room was incredibly clean and very cosy with plenty of space. It felt more like an apartment than a hotel (I am guessing the building used to house Kerostallos). The front desk lady was very friendly and accomadating and was fluent in Finnish and English and I believe she speaks some Swedish and Norwegian as well. I had a pleasant conversation with her in Finnish and English. There is plenty of brochures for things to do in Rovaniemi and she had plenty of insight into many of them. The building on the outside is not pretty but don’t let looks decieve you as this is a wonderful...

It was a suitable place to stay to experience the Northern Lights tours in Rovaniemi. The location is just a few minutes walk from the train station. The airport shuttle can be accessed by this property. Plenty of taxis ply around too. ||I liked the fact that my tour operator for Northern Lights tour picked me up from here. This hotel was the cheapest I could find in Rovaniemi in a busy season. The rooms are small with a small bed. It was enough space for one person. It has a small bathroom and shower. The heating was a little on the colder side. ||There is parking for rental cars in the back and breakfast came with the room and it was sufficient. The owner is also the reception and was pretty helpful.||If you come outside of the reception times, the keys are left in a post box, It takes a little bit of jiggling of the keys to get...