The tents are not normal hiking tents, but small air-conditioned units specifically designed for the hotel.
A group of six cyclist women staying at Hotel Tent praised the unusual lodgings as a perfect mix of camping and comfort.
“This is not traditional tent travel. We slept in comfortable beds and lovely bedding," commented Marja Hyvönen from the group.
She and her workmates go on a few days’ cycling trip every year. This time the women from Kouvola headed for Heinola and Orimattila. The exotic hotel was what attracted the ladies to the latter locale.
Entrepreneur Pirjo Pylväläinen, who runs the place, says that Hotel Tent is often filled by customers from business meetings held at the spinning mill, a local centre for handicrafts, servicers and entertainment. The many businesses located in the mill work closely together. The hotel was in fact originally established to serve the clients of a well-being centre at the mill.
The only lodging in town
A bigger, more traditional hotel was first planned for the mill, but this was not realised due to insufficient funding. The tent hotel came about from an idea to realise an entire hotel for the price of one hotel room.
The lodgings are built ecologically, with plenty of recycled materials used.
Not far from Lahti and some 100 kilometres north-east of Helsinki, Orimattila offers no other accommodation. As such, Hotel Tent has also put up workers from local construction grounds.
“We’ve been going for a year and a half now, and I can say we haven’t had a single night when nobody stayed here," Pylväläinen boasts.
She adds that the number of cyclists staying at Hotel Tent has increased, as the place is mentioned on a cyclists’ map.
