The staff crowns Koli Kylä hotel
Päivi and Pasi Mustonen from Kaavi have been head over heels in love with each other for 24 years. They are also in love with Break Sokos Hotel Koli Kylä.
In less than a year, they have already been guests at the new hotel five times.
- We renewed our wedding vows and came to the newly opened Koli Kylä for a 24-hour honeymoon. That's when we fell in love with this hotel and its staff, says Päivi.
The purpose of the trip, a honeymoon, was revealed by the talkative couple at the reception to an equally talkative employee, and before they knew it, the gesture was acknowledged.
- In the evening, there was a knock on the hotel room door and Pasi opened it despite my protests. To our surprise, there were small bottles of champagne in a cooler. Some people might be used to that kind of attention and consider it normal, but for us it's special and wonderful, says Päivi, moved.
"Here you always feel like the most important customer in the world"
The couple has incredible stories about how wonderful the staff is. As regular guests at the hotel, the couple has become familiar to the staff – and the staff to them. Päivi and Pasi say that the staff has remembered them in some small way on every single visit. At the time of the interview, they are spending their wedding anniversary at Koli Kylä hotel, which officially falls on February 28th.
- There were fruits beautifully arranged in the room as a surprise – and exactly Pasi's favorite fruits! It's as if they can read our minds, Päivi wonders.
The couple has been married for 21 years. All those years they have maintained their tradition of having intimate mini-vacations in Finland at regular intervals, as their busy everyday life with five children hasn't offered much quality time together in peace. How did Koli charm them?
- We saw an advertisement for a new hotel and heard that you can bring dogs here. That sparked our interest to try it out. We haven't brought our dogs to the hotel yet, but maybe next time our new puppy will get to come along, says Pasi.
- I would like to vacation with just my husband. We're enough for each other. We don't even necessarily turn on the TV in the hotel room. We just talk or stay quiet and stare at the ceiling. Go out for a bit and hang out. We don't need anything special to do for a break from everyday life, time together is the most important thing. Here we get joy and good feelings from each other. But also from that feeling of being on vacation. It comes when you walk through the hotel door, comments Päivi.
The couple describes the hotel's atmosphere as welcoming and in some inexplicable way homey and familiar.
- Here guests are welcomed just as they are. Here you always feel like the most important customer in the world, Päivi sums up.
The best part is the excellent staff
Break Sokos Hotel Koli Kylä is a nature-oriented and relaxed 130-room hotel located by the national park's hiking trails. The village hotel's rooms showcase Koli's different seasons from spring spruce forests to the crown snow-covered peaks of winter Koli.
- We've tried all the floors, meaning all the seasons. Once we quietly asked at reception for a lovely corner room with two windows, but it had already been reserved for us by the staff. It's exactly those little gestures that are absolutely wonderful and make you feel special, Päivi says.
Staff, service attitude, relaxation, friendliness, cheerfulness, and authenticity fill Pasi and Päivi Mustonen's conversation when talking about Break Sokos Hotel Koli Kylä.
- The service is cheerful, brisk, natural, and genuine, not overly sweet flattery or something fake. And when you've become familiar, you can even joke around. At Koli Kylä, the best thing is definitely the excellent staff. Additionally, an important thing for us is the location within a reasonable distance from our home in Kaavi. As a bonus, Koli is in such a beautiful place that your soul and nerves naturally rest here. There's something magical about Koli, Pasi lists Koli's best features.
Although Koli isn't in the city, so to speak, the atmosphere is international. Koli Kylä hotel has employees from Thailand and the Philippines, among other places, and guests from around the world. Pasi Mustonen admits to having no language skills but says he's still managed to figure out one thing or another with international employees without a common language.
- With one Thai employee, we managed to communicate that their relatives had been in Kaavi earning money and picking blueberries. And I've managed just fine to order a one-star Jallu, a Karhu beer, and a pizza with cold milk, Pasi chuckles.
Sugar cubes and parking spaces
So that everything isn't just pink cotton candy and praise, surely there's something to improve at Break Sokos Hotel Koli Kylä even according to regular customers?
- Well, actually at the entrance there are these metal grates that are quite harsh on dogs' paws. There could be some kind of mat strip on the side that dogs could walk on. Some of the parking spaces in the parking area could be a bit larger, because some modern cars are big. It would make it easier to get things and, for example, dogs out of the car without having to worry about hitting the car next to you, Pasi considers
Päivi also comes up with one thing to improve after thinking for a moment – sugar cubes, a rarity nowadays, which were missing from the breakfast café.
- These are the kind of small comments we have. You couldn't come up with anything else to improve about Koli Kylä even if you tried. You can get everything by asking, like sugar cubes with coffee or an umbrella to borrow when there's a downpour. Here you dare to open your mouth and ask anything, and you always get an answer and solution from the staff, Päivi states.