Scandic Go Saaristonkatu 1 (Scandic Go Saaristonkatu 1)

Very new hotel in a great location - with some starting difficulties. The location is unbeatable for Oulu. I was there for only one night, so I didn't care about only being in second floor and having the sea view very blocked, but for longer stays it's surely a good idea to book something in a higher floor to make use of the surely fantastic view. The luggage lockers are great - I still had a long day in Oulu after checking out and it was fine to quickly get stuff from the stored luggage once during the day. The rooms are nothing extraordinary, but they serve their job well. I slept really well, bed is comfy and black out curtains work fine. My complaints: I couldn't find anything I could identify as a waste basket in the whole room (or bathroom). I ended up leaving a little plastic bag with trash in the room - never did that before in a hotel. Second: check-in is weird. It feels like it is designed to be purely self-service, as various budget hotels also in Finland do it. But then they have this manual ID check, which means the service person will come to you while doing the self-service check in, check your ID and then stand around next to you while the machine configures the key cards in exceptionally slow speed. This feels a bit like a "worst of two worlds" situation - either do fully self-service or do the traditional way, both is fine with me, but don't mix it up. And last: I would have appreciated a kettle in the room, that's sadly missing (but of course it's also not advertised as having one, so it's fine). I would come back without hesitation nevertheless - the value-for-money at this location seems unbeatable.