I choose this hotel in a hurry without making a great search. By basic criteria was the price.
Finally it turned out to be a very good hotel.
Its location is about 2km from the city center but it has very good connection with it via the public transportation. It takes about 7 to 10 minutes to arrive to the center.
The hotel is above average, clean with very good breakfast. The staff is very helpful except from a lady in the reception who was a little bit arrogant.
Of course in certain parts the hotel shows its age but there is no special problem about it. The reception, lounge and restaurant are very good and the food is tasty and in reasonable price.
The rooms are spacious [the bathrooms not] clean and quiet.
In general a best value for money hotel.
A small advice about restaurants. Do not forget to visit the Lappi Restaurant. Fantastic food excellent service and a fantastic atmosphere.

Despite the 2003 review, I looked at their website and pictures and tried it anyway. It was the least expensive Helsinki hotel listed on Orbitz, and it was a great value. Apparently the 2003 renovations had a great effect.

The Finnair bus from the Airport dropped me off a short distance from the hotel for only 5.20 Euros - no need for a $40 taxi.
The room was spare and spartan, to be sure - just the bare necessities and small, but clean and functional.
The bed was good, and I got a good sleep each night.
By the way, I was able to open the windows and had fresh air all of the time, so my room was not stuffy.

I booked online while in the USA, and the orbitz deal included a hot breakfast, which exceeded expectations in all regards - eggs, sausage, cereal, fish, meat, cheese, yogurt, rolls, bread, etc. etc. etc.
In the basement were a decent pool and a sauna, which I tried - both were fine. Also an exercise room with free weights which I did not try.

Some of the staff were particularly friendly and helpful, and there was available a free wireless internet connection on the first three floors and in the lobby.

The restaurant also served dinner and was very well appointed, though I did not eat dinner there it looked excellent. Also a good Yamaha piano in the lobby/restaurant area that was in perfect tune.
The location was just across from an amusement part that was closed for the season (November), and right next to a very nice park, with a great walking and running trail all the way around a lake that goes right into downtown Helsinki.

The hotel was fully booked while I was there, and I could not extend my stay there by a couple of extra days, even though I wanted to, due to the full house.
The only weird incident - they would not give me a hotel receipt since I had paid orbitz online and had not paid them directly with a credit card. I later found that this was also true at three Swiss hotels I booked through and pre-paid online. The savings were worthwhile - but the policy was unexpected, nonetheless.

Overall - a great value if you are just using the room for sleeping and are getting out and around for business or sightseeing every day. My cost was exactly half (50%) of what I next paid at the Helsinki Holiday Inn downtown across from the train/bus station.

The Hotel Aurora might be suitable accomodation if you were a back-packer but with its rack rate being far in excess of the Eurohostel it is unlikely that it be very popular as such. As accomodation for business people it was exceptionally poor.The hotel is being renovated so our taxi driver took us to the hospital next door instead. We picked our way through the building site to discover a large proportion of the hotel is borded up or out of bounds. The rooms are peculiar as are the beds and for the weary traveller there are no tea/coffee facilities only an incredibly expensive, poorly stocked mini-bar. There is no safe for passports or laptops and the double glazing designed to keep out the noise of the trains zooming past makes the rooms stiffling.The rooms at the back and side of the hotel look out directly onto the rail tracks and the hospital windows opposite. The rooms are stuffy, ill-lit and the bathroom is poorly laid out. There is an overwhelming smell in the air of the hotel of rotting food and bad drains.The reception staff are accomodating enough to call taxis but not friendly. There are no shops near the hotel and nothing to do as far as they eye can see in any direction apart from a rather frightening theme park. If you need restuarants, shops or snack food, get them during the day as there is nothing at all at the Hotel Aurora.The only plus side is the breakfast and the gym. The breakfast was cheap but had a wide variety and was easy to fill up for the long day ahead. The gym is ancient and worn but large and seems to be unused by anyone else. An improvement indeed on the dingily-lit, unattended pool, festering in the basement. If you have to stay at the Hotel Aurora take care to step around the trailing wires and the rubbish stacked up in the fire escapes. Good luck.