Hellsten Hotel Apartments

We had booked 6 nights at the Hellsten Helsinki Senate which is an apartment hotel, and stayed there for just 1 night before checking out as the hotel was fraudulent and misleading with incorrect representation using fake pictures that have been re-touched. It was the most unpleasant stay we had in a hotel that we had to check out the very next day and book another hotel. The hotel had already taken our money the day before we checked in. We checked in to the Hellsten Helsinki Senate and were surprised when we saw the rooms. It was sparsely furnished with dusty and old furniture that looked like it belonged in the junkyard. The living room was very bare with a dirty, old carpet and two dusty armchairs. There was a small old TV which came with a VCR - something we both have not seen even once in 10 years! The furniture, décor and condition of the rooms looked nothing like the images the hotel had provided on the booking.com website. There were no basic amenities available (cup to hold toothbrush or soap to wash hands) and the apartment was almost bare. When we entered the bedroom, there was a bad smell and we found that it came from the bathroom connected to the bedroom. When we tried to go to sleep, the bed had a huge dent or sinkhole in the middle and we kept rolling into the centre of the bed. It was most uncomfortable. The room was very cold even with the windows closed and we both had to put on full winter clothing that we wore outside to bed. Even then, it was still too cold to sleep in and we had very poor sleep that night. The next morning, we decided to check out and took a tram to Helsinki central to look for another hotel. After finding a hotel with available accommodation, we returned to the Hellsten Helsinki Senate hotel to check out and speak to the hotel representative about our unpleasant stay and our refund. There was no receptionist at the Hellsten Helsinki Senate - only a phone at the ground floor which we used to speak to a lady who then told us to speak to booking.com about our refund. She asked us to cancel the booking online on booking.com. When I accessed booking.com online, the website had written that we were unable to cancel the booking online and had to speak to the hotel instead. We then called the virtual receptionist and told her we were unable to cancel the booking online. She said she would have to speak to her manager as she was unable to make any decisions. She then proceeded to offer us other rooms and I said that all the other rooms were the same except for the room size. She did not reply to that. Sensing that the hotel had clearly no intention of refunding us our money, we then proceeded to call booking.com for help. We spoke to booking.com and a lady helped us to call the hotel manager. The lady from booking.com then told us that the hotel manager would only be contactable at 3pm. Considering that the hotel contact person was already virtual why did we have to wait till 3pm to speak to the manager? We wanted to check out before the official check-out time of 12noon so that we would not be charged for. We checked out around 11.45pm after the phone calls. It appeared as if the hotel had intentionally lied to us to stall time. We called booking.com and they said they would try to contact the hotel manager. Booking.com contacted the hotel manager the next day and sent us an e-mail containing the hotel's response. Basically, the hotel denied every issue that we wrote in to them about the apartment. Up till today, Hellsten Helsinki Senate still refuses to refund us our rightful 5 nights worth of money which we did not stay for and booking.com completely washed their hands off our case once they received their part of the commission for our stay.