House of Amstel

Unfortunately, the pictures of the hotel look much better than the real room we experienced during our stay. We had the "familiy room" - a room next to a Coffe Shop with Karaoke... so if you plan to go with kids, this room is not appropriate as you can hear the singings and conversations next door. It is only one room, so you have to sleep all together and it is very small for 4 persons. There is no possibility to leave the luggage, so we had to look for and book a luggage storage for the day of our departure at our own expense. There is no window in the room which you can open and if you do not want the pedestrians going outside to look into the room (there is one big window which cannot be opened on the street side) you have to close the curtain and then it is quite dark in the room as the light is not that bright. A big plus is the location.

The owners pictures were likely taken years ago, on the day they finished the suites. Other than the bathroom, the overall feel of) this place is shabby from the moment you approach the front door. We stayed for 3 nights. For two of those we had to climb over full laundry bags at the bottom of the very tight, very steep stairs. Then reaching the top, which has a landing of about 2 square feet, there was a vacumm cleaner stored there every day. The condition of the place is run down and in need of maintenance. The coffee machine worked sometimes and the AC stopped working on our last day. But by far the worst part of this place is the noise from the bar below and the busy street below. There are people yelling, screaming, singing, talking loudly ALL HOURS of the night. The windows don't seal properly so it sounds like the windows are open (lack of maintenance). There were 2 safes in the room. The one bolted down didn't work. On top of it was another one, but it too didn't work. When we texted about this we were told that only the unbolted one should be used and then only with a key. This demonstrates that while they know about problems they don't fix them. When the coffee machine didn't work, rather than address the problem, they suggested we weren't using it properly (we have 2 of them!). The stairs will be a challenge for the elderly and unfit. Overall, avoid this place.

Centrally-located for easy strolling to all the major attractions, Amstel House promised much. However, in a few small ways it failed to deliver. Check-in was tricky, there was a phone number on the door to call upon arrival - but that didnt work. Perplexed we waited and tried again and then called a different number from our booking details. That worked. We were asked to call the number on the door... After a while a cleaner was heard behind the door so we tapped and he kindly let us in after first calling a number for approval. The room was large and airy and at first glance quite stylish. But the smell of the bathroom drains was grim - like the water in the traps was missing so the smells from the sewers came back up. We fixed this by running all taps and shower for 5-10 minutes. A fix that had to be repeated every time we returned to our room. Bits of trim were falling off in the kitchenette, i cut my finger on one bit of sharp metal, and one of the windows was broken with an old sign telling us not to touch it. It must have been broken for some considerable time. The smoke alarm was missing and the fixing plate very discoloured. We mentioned all of this when the lady arrived the next day to formally check us in. She apologised and said a new smoke alarm was on order... We doubted her as ther are available from any hardware store or online retailer. The overall feel was one of neglect. Not good. The positives were also a mixed bag. The view from our first floor winodws was superb. We could lie on the bed and look out across the canals and enjoy some passing life. At night however it all got a bit noisy and stayed so until 3-4am. My wife emailed the person who she had dealt with for the booking to share our feedback and she received no response. I always think the litmus test for any review is "Would we return?" -- sadly the answer is 'No'. We did however LOVE Amsterdam. Such a pretty and walkable city.