Finland’s new hotel chain – Santa’s Hotels

Hotel Santa Claus is leaving the Choice hotel chain to join the other accommodation establishments of Sava Group under the brand named Santa’s Hotels. The other hotels to join the Santa’s Hotel brand are Saariselkä Tunturi Hotel and Hostel Rudolf in Rovaniemi. This new affiliation begins on 1 January 2011. The new names for the hotels will be Santa’s Hotel Santa Claus, Santa’s Hotel Tunturi and Santa’s Hostel Rudolf.

The mission of the Santa’s Hotels chain is to achieve a profile as a Lappish hotel chain that is easy approachable with a warm atmosphere, yet still being internationally stylish. The colours used for the brand identity emphasise Finnish Santa Claus and Lapland's special characteristics. Santa’s Hotels’ Hotel Santa Claus Rovaniemi offers guests the opportunity to experience the ambiance of the vicinity of the official workplace of Santa Claus. The location of the hotel in the capital of Lapland on the Arctic Circle ensures an outstanding setting to experience the Magic of Lapland. On a clear day, the home mountain of Santa Claus, Korvatunturi (Ear Mountain), can be seen from Saariselkä, where Santa’s Hotel Tunturi is located. In the Saariselkä Resort, the authentic culture and exoticism of Lapland is within easiest reach, the lifetime experience of Lapland and the magic it holds is present everywhere. As soon as you step out of the hotel, you find yourself in the heart of Lapland’s nature. Hostel Rudolf depicts Santa’s favourite form of transportation that Santa Claus uses on his official trips from Rovaniemi to the Saariselkä Resort along the Santa’s Road. Rudolf is a luxury hostel for independently travelling guests.

“The possibilities provided by the Choice Hotel Chain no longer support our business concept, and its popularity in Finland is rather weak. We were the only hotel in Finland that belonged to the chain. After contemplating the various alternatives available, we decided to establish our own chain of hotels. The benefits of this solution are flexibility, the diversification of offerings and Finnishness”, states Managing Director of the Santa’s Hotel Chain Maarit Salminen.

Hotel Santa Claus reached completion at the end of 2001. Hostel Rudolf was opened in 2003. Saariselkä Tunturi Hotel opened its doors to visitors in 1968, following which the hotel has been expanded and renovated a number of times. The last addition in 2008 was the opening of new building named Gielas and the last renovation this autumn when 68 standard rooms were renewed. Santa’s Hotels chain has 83 permanent employees, with the Christmas and springtime seasons seeing the number of employees double.

In Rovaniemi, the share of international guests is 75% and in Saariselkä over half of the guests come from abroad, so there is still some work to do in marketing to domestic customers. Special focus has been given to this by expanding the provision of conference facilities.

The parent company of Santa’s Hotels is the Rovaniemi-based diversified enterprise Sava-Group, that in addition to restaurant and hotel accommodation activities, also has engineering works activities, condition testing, earth purification and real-estate investment operations. The turnover for the Group in 2009 was 20.7 m€ and it employed 150 persons. The Group is a Lappish family-owned enterprise owned by Seppo Aho and family.

Further information available from:
Maarit Aho, Managing Director, Santa’s Hotels, Hotel Santa Claus, Rovaniemi, tel. +358 500 102 102 and maarit.aho@santashotels.fi

Jonna Pietilä, Hotel Manager, Santa’s Hotels, Hotel Tunturi, Saariselkä, tel. +358 40 572 2902 and jonna.pietila@santashotels.fi