Bob W Amsterdam Noord — Hotel in Amsterdam

Check in/Check out/Contact with hotel management: This is all seamless via Whatsapp. Entry: You are given a code which you need to punch in twice to get to your room (entry door and then your room door - the main front door to the hotel itself seems to be permanently open which is fine as it seems to be a very safe area). Bathroom: Smart, well built and the shower was lovely and hot. Bed: Nice and soft as well as clean. View: Adequate (what you see is a semi-industrial park with lots of new builds as I think this area is being "gentrified"), view is improved of course at dusk when you also see several birds flying overhead. Thankfully you can also open at least one window. Kitchen: Good amount of space with an electric hob, microwave, dishwasher etc. plus essential accessories. Location: I believe this is a regular residential area so it's quite nice as you get to see ordinary Dutch people/ordinary residential spaces rather than endless stream of tourists you get in the centre of Amsterdam. It is about 30 mins walk to the ferry terminal that takes you to the city centre and takes about 20 mins by Uber to get to central Amsterdam. Initially you will think you are in an urban wilderness but a 5/7 min walk will bring you to a subway and various shops etc. including small supermarkets. I got a lot of steps in by exploring the area and found the best supermarket in the world (Jumbo) though this is about a 30 min walk. It is also so quiet around the late evening/night and early morning which is really nice. Cleaning: Mercifully, there is no daily cleaning. Instead you get 2 room cleans included in the price which you schedule with hotel management. The room was cleaned to a good standard. Extras: There is a room in the basement called Washteria where you can take extra fresh towels etc. and do any laundry. In the room itself you also get spare water bottles, a tote bag and an adapter and spare charger which are all genuinely useful (have to be returned before check out of course). Of course you are given complimentary tea, coffee, sugar and creamer which is always nice. There are many other Extras but too many to list here.

Feedback: There appears to be no way to access the hotel without ascending a set of white stairs which lead onto a platform as the hotel is not on street level. This is not ideal due having heavy luggage. I don't think the positioning of kitchen cupboards directly above the sink is safe and there should not be open sockets near the kitchen tap. I was given a kettle that spilled out water after boiling even though it was not overfilled. This was replaced once I raised this issue. The bathroom sink kept retaining water which I was able to work around by just using the mini shower. At one point I got an email about door maintenance with contradictory dates. Management did not seem to be aware of this when I raised it. This issue disrupted two of my mornings. The room needs at least one strong white light.

In all this was great value for money and it's the Extras that set this model of hotel above and apart...

Read this before you book||||My two friends and I booked here (and paid dearly) a studio for 3 via Booking.com for two nights.||||We checked in at 4pm on the day, and we saw that the room was prepared for 2 (only the double bed was prepared), and there was no made bed - or even additional bedding - for the third of us. We contacted their WhatsApp service immediately, since like other guests already pointed out there are no staff members on site, to let them know about the issue.||||10 hours later and after many back and forth messages, we’ve been told that the hotel was unfortunately fully booked and since there are no staff members on site, we can’t have any bedding for the third person. At this point, it’s almost 2am, and I’ve been asked by the staff member on the phone to go and look in EVERY storage room on EVERY floor for bedsheets. So here I am, 2am, looking among dirty disgusting bedsheets they dumped in storage rooms for a set of clean ones. Of course, I found nothing.||||The staff member nicely informed me on the phone that, unfortunately, there is nothing they can do other than a partial refund and accept their incompetence.||||So, I paid 700 euros for 2 nights in a hotel, where I asked for a clean set of bedding (very basic, ah?), and 10 hours were not enough for the staff members to solve the issue because they are simply non-existent.||||Take a moment before you book and ask yourselves, do I want this in case I find myself in the unfortunate position of needing ANYTHING while I stay in this hotel? If not, go for another option where the customer is more valuable.||||I know the hotel will probably apologise here too, but my answer (and your answer) to that should be: apologies are just words. What you did as a business, putting a female traveller in a vulnerable position, almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and forcing her to sleep in the cold with no bedding, is all that should really matter. This shows a lot about this business’ approach to problem solving, and how much they don’t...

Read this before you book

My two friends and I booked here (and paid dearly) a studio for 3 via Booking.com for two nights.

We checked in at 4pm on the day, and we saw that the room was prepared for 2 (only the double bed was prepared), and there was no made bed - or even additional bedding - for the third of us. We contacted their WhatsApp service immediately, since like other guests already pointed out there are no staff members on site, to let them know about the issue.

10 hours later and after many back and forth messages, we’ve been told that the hotel was unfortunately fully booked and since there are no staff members on site, we can’t have any bedding for the third person. At this point, it’s almost 2am, and I’ve been asked by the staff member on the phone to go and look in EVERY storage room on EVERY floor for bedsheets. So here I am, 2am, looking among dirty disgusting bedsheets they dumped in storage rooms for a set of clean ones. Of course, I found nothing.

The staff member nicely informed me on the phone that, unfortunately, there is nothing they can do other than a partial refund and accept their incompetence.

So, I paid 700 euros for 2 nights in a hotel, where I asked for a clean set of bedding (very basic, ah?), and 10 hours were not enough for the staff members to solve the issue because they are simply non-existent.

Take a moment before you book and ask yourselves, do I want this in case I find myself in the unfortunate position of needing ANYTHING while I stay in this hotel? If not, go for another option where the customer is more valuable.

I know the hotel will probably apologise here too, but my answer (and your answer) to that should be: apologies are just words. What you did as a business, putting a female traveller in a vulnerable position, almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and forcing her to sleep in the cold with no bedding, is all that should really matter. This shows a lot about this business’ approach to problem solving, and how much they don’t...