Comfort Hotel enters the Finnish market

The first guests will be able to check in at Comfort Hotel Helsinki Airport in 2023 when the chain opens its first hotel in Finland. The chain’s ambition is quite clear: the chain is to grow considerably in the Nordic region, and Finland is the top priority. 

In mid-September the owner of Nordic Choice Hotels, Petter A Stordalen, and LAK Real Estate jointly presented Finland’s biggest ever hotel project: 718 rooms at Helsinki Airport. It’s now clear that one of the two hotels in the project will be a Comfort Hotel. This means the Finnish market will have a brand-new hotel chain with a unique Selected Service concept.

“This feels absolutely fantastic! It’s not every day that you get to introduce a hotel chain that’s new to an entire country and that’s exactly what we’re doing now as we’re bringing Comfort Hotel to Helsinki Airport. It’s not only good for the airport, which is getting a wider range of hotels, but also for travellers who’ll be able to enjoy more for their money,” says Katalin Paldeak, Chief Operating Officer at Nordic Choice Hotels.

The Comfort Hotel chain currently has 34 hotels in the Nordic and Baltic regions and is growing fast, especially at airports. Comfort Hotel Arlanda Airport will open in Stockholm on 30 January with 503 rooms and the 604-room Comfort Hotel Copenhagen Airport is slated to open in autumn 2020.

“We’re growing at a cracking rate and I’m delighted that we now have the opportunity to open a really good hotel at Helsinki Airport too. Many people are used to airport hotels that are boring and expensive. We’ll show that there’s an alternative, one that makes it cheaper to travel while getting your journey off to the best possible start. The hotel at Helsinki Airport will be almost within touching distance of the gate as it’s located in the airport terminal,” says Senior Vice President Anna Spjuth, the hotel chain’s Nordic manager.

But the hotel opening at Helsinki Airport is just the beginning.

“We’re very ambitious when it comes to Comfort Hotel. It’s a hotel concept that’s popular with guests because we give them budget prices in prime city-centre and airport locations. Although this project will be our first in Finland, we’re set to expand rapidly. In particular, we’re looking at cities like Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Oulu,” says Katalin Paldeak.

In addition to Comfort Hotel Helsinki Airport, the hotel project also includes the full-service Clarion Hotel. Altogether the hotels will have 718 rooms along with restaurants, meeting rooms, gyms and bars. Construction will begin in 2020 and the hotels are scheduled for completion in 2023. The budget for the construction project is EUR 120 million.

Nordic Choice Hotels already operates Clarion Hotel Helsinki Airport and GLO Hotel Airport in the airport area. Once the new hotel project is up and running, the business at the airport will comprise four hotels with a total of 1,045 rooms.

Facts about the hotel project:
One building, two hotels.
Comfort Hotel Helsinki Airport: 211 rooms.
Clarion Hotel: 507 rooms.
Total number of rooms: 718.
Number of floors: 13.
Extensive conference facilities, the largest venue being 800 m 2 with capacity for 1,000 people.
Spa and sauna.
Sky bar.
Restaurants.

For more information, please contact:
Anna Spjuth, Senior Vice President Comfort Hotel, +46 72 201 24 84