Johan Gustavsen
Google
Have stayed in this hotel every Easter from 1985-1997, and now visited in 2025 again. Almost everything is untouched, but amazingly well kept. Seat upholstery, bathrooms and curtains could do with a refresh, and the new (!) furniture in some areas (sofas in hallways, chairs in entrance) should be replaced. The hallway to the pool also deserves attention. The hotel is sort of an architectural gem, with the showcase beeing a rising car entrance, and a main hall/restaurant/bar that is stepped down to connect to the lake outside. Other curiousities is the use of facetted details in the windows in the restaurant, in the dining chairs, in the rails in chairs, numberplates for rooms, recliner chairs in the shop and in the fireplace. Can only hope the hotel owner in Mounio recognizes this and hires a good furniture carpenter and designer when the refurbishment eventually will start. Often these things are the first to go when a refurbishment starts. Hope they manage to lift Hotel Hetta with use of Finnish elements from Paavo Tynell, Artek and so on, rather than go generic. Today it looks like a scene for a Kaurismaki or Wes Anderson movie, in a good way.
Other than the hotel itself, the staff are great, and the Arctic char served is one of my top 3 served fish dishes of all time. Potatocrisp skin and a beurre blanc dill sauce from another place. Please skip the burger for this gem of a dish. Amazing to find such a kitchen in this tiny tiny village.
The hotel needs a new ventilation system. It was based on supply air to the rooms by vents in the facade. Rather than installing a distributed balanced ventilation system with "reversing fans" in the old vents, they opted for air conditioning units that don't swap the air, so after a night's sleep the air is no good.