Stay Report: Marriott Amsterdam (February 2017)

Stay Report: Marriott Amsterdam
comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

I was meeting a friend in Amsterdam, and through work they were staying at the Marriott Amsterdam hotel so decided to stay with them for one night.  The Marriott is located in the southern part of the city, near the Rijksmuseum.  The hotel is located within walking distance to many restaurants and bars, as well as to bus and tram lines.  Via the tram, it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the main square and downtown.  Another convenience is that the airport-to-city bus stops across the street from the Marriott. 

From the outside, the hotel itself looks old and more like a converted apartment building.  Inside, however, the hotel has been refurbished so it looks nice and modern.  The main entrance to the hotel is on the side street, while the main street has the entrance to the hotel via the bar/restaurant.  From the main entrance, you enter into the lobby with the check-in desks and concierge on your right, lounge straight ahead, and elevators and restaurant to your left.

My friend had arrived early (around 7am) and had requested an early room but it was not

ready; it seemed to be consistent with the hotel that rooms were generally not ready until close to the stated check-in time of 12p.  I was staying in another hotel so my friend came and joined me while the room was being ready.  Around 10:30a we got a message stating that the room was ready.

The room was located right next to the elevators and throughout the night noise could be heard from the hallway.  Also, it was very cold in Amsterdam but the heat in the room didn’t seem to work properly as the room never seemed to get warm – even though the heat was set to the max.  The room itself was spacious a big, more akin to American-size rooms versus European sizes.

As you entered into the room, on the right side were shelves and the closet while on the left was the bathroom.  There was a small closed closet along with open shelves and a space to put your luggage.  In the closed section was the safe.  The bathroom was spacious and contained a sink, a toilet, and a rain shower.  The only problem was the lack of the barrier between the shower and the bathroom – there was no barrier to the water went everywhere.  Bathroom amenities included toiletries, robes as well as slippers.

As you went further in the room, on the right hand side was a chest with drawers on the

bottom and a TV on top.  Next to that was a desk and next to the desk was the window which looked outside.  Even though we had requested two beds, the hotel only had a king-size bed room available so on the other side of the room was the king-size bed with a nightstand on either side.  The bed was comfortable and spacious enough for two people to sleep comfortably.  Updates to the hotel included USB ports on other side of the bed – a nice addition.  There was also some nice Dutch touches to the room, including an art piece of traditional Dutch shoes on the wall. 

Amenities to the hotel included free wifi, a gym, a lounge, restaurant/bar, and concierge.  Due to the limited time, I was only able to use the free wifi and the concierge.  The wifi was free, with decent speeds that were fast enough to stream youtube videos.  We used the concierge to ask for advice as well as to store luggage – the advice was decent and the hotel was able to store luggage for almost the entire day.

Overall, it was a nice stay at the Marriott.  It was a full-service hotel and felt like it with spacious rooms and convenient access.  However, the costs for the room was a lot higher than the surrounding hotels, so I am not sure I saw the value given the higher price.