Nice rooms, close to everything, great staff, free working wifi etc. Just one downside, they don't have any restaurant for lunch or dinner. Ok, it's not the end of the world if you need to walk 1000 meters from hotel to find lots of different places to eat, but still...

I have had a total of three one-night stays at this hotel over the past couple of months.

The positives first. The hotel has a good location on the Tullintori square near the railway station. It also has far more personality than most of the other Sokos Hotels which simply go to show how awfully boring those highly standardized chain hotels can be. Sokos Hotel Villa is located in a converted red-brick grain storage that can even make you forget that you are fundamentally at one of the Sokos hotels.

The superior rooms I have had at this hotel are cool and modern. However, there is sometimes more coolness and form over function. For example, the bathrooms are outright small and impractical. Combine this with the dark tiles and resulting darkness of the bathrooms, as well as very small-sized washbasins, and you are likely to feel fairly irritated after 30 seconds there.

I would also like the hotel management to pay far more attention to the cleanliness of the rooms. During my first visit, there was some sticky stuff on a small table/shelf next to the bed. Fortunately, I noticed this prior to putting my watch, wallet, etc. on it. During my most previous stay in December, the floor of the bathroom was dirty and there was a lot of hair on it (yes, even very visible on the dark floor). I do not want to mention the name of a person responsible for cleaning my rooms on the 4th floor (I have always had a superior room on the 4th floor), but someone should have a serious discussion with him as to what a sufficient amount of attention to details means.

Given the fact that Sokos Hotel Villa also promotes itself as a hotel for business travelers, I would expect them to pay more attention to the fact that their wifi works properly. Out of my three stays, the wifi has not worked properly twice. It has not been about poor performance or anything like that, but there simply has not been any wifi connectivity for a couple of hours.

Please note that there is no true lunch or dinner restaurant at the hotel. You can buy some sweet and salty snacks at a reasonable price down in the reception/lounge area, but do not expect any gourmet experience. By the way, who on earth told them to stuff red pepper into every possible piece of bread that they sell there? Fortunately, there are some excellent restaurants, such as Hella & Huone, C, and Bertha, within a reasonable walking distance from the hotel.

Some other quick observations and things... I have never had the breakfast at this hotel, as - based on my experience from the other Sokos hotels - they tend to be rather "industrial" in taste. The reception staff has always been very friendly, willing to cater to my needs and requests, and very knowledgeable about what to do in Tampere. The parking garage is literally below the hotel, so its location is very convenient.

To summarize, I have not stayed at Sokos Hotel Villa because it is an excellent hotel. I have stayed there because it is one of the best hotels in Tampere, and there are honestly no better ones available. Also, you should note that the average hotel room rate in Tampere is about the same as in Helsinki nowadays, so the supply and demand do not always meet in Tampere where there is no shortage of Soviet-style or semi-Soviet-style hotels.

I spent one night here as they had a theatre package promotion earlier. The price actually didn't really come any cheaper if I had bought the theatre ticket separately from the room reservation. Oh well.
The hotel is at a good location, very short walk from the railway station and really close to the public transport. Also there is a small shopping mall connected to the hotel.

At check in, I was greeted by very friendly staff and I felt genuinely welcome. Check in was fast and effecient. So I proceeded to my room n the 4th floor.
My room was one of the corner rooms looking into the mall. There was a small renovation works going in the mall so at check in time there was some construction noises coming into the room which didn't really bother me as these guys didn't work at night, luckily.

The hotel has received some design awards for their scandinavic room design. Based on my standard room I can't understand why. If very simplified and stripped down interior design wins prizes, I suggest all hotels who want one, just chuck away with all the furniture in the room.
The room, being a corner room, didn't feel too big. This feeling of smallness was enhanced surely by the lack of proper furniture in the room. There was one design chair (a sort of modern rocking chair) in the room, a very small and cumbersome night stand (bit over the bed height), a good sized bed and a TV shelf with two drawers, and a basic flat screen tv. And on the wall was hanging one very big photo of a sheep staring at you at all times, creepy. There was a metallic clothes rack that I get to later. Nothing else. No minibar, no safe in the room, no coffee or tea making facilities. The floor was laminate wood. The room was ok clean and had a working aircon, the room temperature was (at winter time) constantly warm. A free wifi is included in the room price.
I really missed a good writing space, or a even a smaller desk. The night stand is wrong height and really small surface. It would help if it was adjustable.

The bathroom was as nordic as the the main room white painted brick wall, a stone sink, small mirror, toilet, and a separate shower cubicle. Everythign was very tightly spaced, even so that when you would sit down on the toilet, you would always hit the toilet roll down off the holder with your elbow. The bathroom was clean however. The shower water pressure was ridicilously low. I took me ages to get myself clean. Over all the bathroom had an "institution" or prison feeling to it. Very bleak. On the plus side, the towels were of big size.

The bed was comfortable and had two pillows. One bigger than the other. Neither by themselves were very comfortable but together one could position them to be ok. The duvet cover sheet linen had a lot of hairs on it but seemed otherwise clean. Seems the laundry they use is not doing a stellar job. I didn't notice hairs on pillows though.

The noise insulation seemed okay at first but turned out to be quite bad after all. Corridor noise was not that bad, but at night one could hear people talking in other rooms. Strangely I never heard any tv noise from other rooms. However there was plenty of bumps and thuds audible from other rooms as well, thanks to wooden floors. I don't know if it was the laminate floor or the bedpost (a part of the ventilation system I believe) get keeping this creepy just audible snapping noise in regular intervals.
One peculiar thing was that the metallic clothes rack I mentioned earlier caused a distinctive noise when people would hang their clothes to it. And it was very audible because the whole metallic rack was bolted on a metallic plate that in turn was bolted on the wall directly.
At some point during the night it sounded like a cargo trolley would have been pushed around the corridors. I am not sure what that noise was but it was really loud. At this point I resorted to my beloved ear plugs.

About the coffee making facilities, at the lobby there are some tables and a 24/7 self service bar where you can get coffee or tea at a small cost, and I believe there are some alcoholic beverages available as well. They offer also expensive bakery products (sandwiches and buns). So basically that serves as your minibar. I find it really stupid that they charge guests for coffee and tea like this. I would understand if it was a cheap hotel but not with the room prices they chage.

The breakfast is in one word just adequate. A limited variety of your usual breakfast items. For example only 7 minute boiled eggs are available, I would have expected 10 minute to be available as well. The restaurant has enough spaces and it's not very crowded in the morning.

All in all considering the room price, the hotel is a bit of a let down even as a chain hotel. There's nothing really majorly wrong with it but at this price I would have expected more and better. The staff is really nice, it's relatively clean and recently renovated, but that's about it. Everything else seems so ... average. Ok for a night or two especially with the location but not a hotel where I would like to spend any extended periods. I don't know if any other room types are better though.

A recently renovated hotel built in a former grain storehouse. My single room on the top floor had a unique diagonal roof and tiny windows - so practically no view, plain scandinavian style decoration with wood and mostly light colours. The bathroom was small with dark tiles and a miniature sized washbasin, which was rather impractical.
The breakfast buffet was quite versatile for a 3 star hotel, but the space and furniture were in need of refurbishment.
The hotel has been granted the Nordic Ecolabel and the rooms have been renovated in cooperation with the Allergy and Asthma Federation.