Hotel & Wellness Zuiver — Hotel in Amsterdam

I went to Zuiver several times over the last year and was happy to receive a birthday offer from them in my inbox, inviting me to visit the spa for free. They knew my birthday date because I provided it with the initial registration. When I followed the link in the email, I arrived at their booking system, which allowed me to select a date when I was available. I then received an email confirmation, which clearly states that the price for the booking would be “€0,00”.

When I showed up on the date of the booking, I was informed that I couldn’t use the free entry because it was a week before my birthday and the offer was only valid on the actual day of the birthday. That would be fair enough, but there seems to be a problem with the booking system, since it allows you to make a booking and then sends you a confirmation clearly stating the price as “€0,00”.

While I accepted the fact that I could not use the free entry offer on that day, I was very disappointed by the attitudes of the two people I spoke to at the reception (one was apparently the manager), because they absolutely refused to acknowledge that there was a problem with their booking system, or to consider the possibility that they could try in future to provide more clear information to their guests. The confirmation email I received contains a lot of detailed information, in English, about the spa’s age restrictions, swimwear days, opening hours, cancellation policies, etc, but it says nothing about the birthday offer limitations.

The people at the front desk just kept saying that it would be “impossible” for them to allow people to use the birthday offer on a day before the actual birthday, because then the spa would be filled with too many people. First of all, it is actually not uncommon for businesses to give one-off birthday vouchers which people can use throughout the month of their birthday, or indeed at another time. Secondly, if you do not want to offer such a thing, then don’t send people email invitations and confirmations which are clearly misleading!

Anyway, I accepted, and ended up paying full price for entry to the spa anyway, since I had put the day aside and travelled all the way there with my towels etc.

Then I planned to come back on my actual birthday day, and actually use the voucher, in the following week. Once again, I followed the link that was provided, and I completed the steps to make the booking. One of the steps in the booking process allows you to also book for a friend, free of charge. I found a friend who would be free to join me on my birthday, and I completed the booking. Once again, I received an email confirmation, which said that the cost for each entry would be “€0,00” and the total due for two people would be “€0,00”. Once again, the email contained no information about the specifics of the birthday offer that I had used to make the booking.

But when we arrived we were informed that the entry would not be free for my friend, she would have to pay full price. When I asked why there was the option to also make a reservation for a friend at the price of “€0,00”, I was given a bizarre answer: “that’s only if you have a friend who has the same birthday as you.” Whaaaaat? Do you know what the chances are that the friend who is available to join me at the spa on that particular day has the same birthday as me?

Once again, the Zuiver staff refused to acknowledge any responsibility. So we ended up paying another full price ticket, since my friend had come all the way to be there. And that’s when I decided to never visit...

While it is advertised as a "Wellness" centre, coming here on a cold winters day made it simply more likely that going forward I would be "Unwell".

For 50 euros a person I would expect for the water temperature in any of the pools, jacuzzis, rooms etc to be more than luke-warm. The warmest water in the centre was the showers, which were colder than the ones in my home. The hottest pool was outdoors, and probably a measly 40c or so... so upon exiting the pool you ran the risk of pneumonia due to a low core body temperature, which should never be an issue if the pools were actually hot. My average bath is far warmer than anything I encountered there. Which was the main reason that the main pool was virtually empty. It was too cold for anyone with any sense to spend more than a few minutes in. (and I say that as someone who used to swim open-water year round.) Not exactly very relaxing.

When we spoke to a staff member they said that, after checking, yes, the pools were colder than usual... and that they would go and speak to the technicians. 5 minutes later they returned and informed us that the technicians had "all gone home".

The bar seemed appealing as a potential way to warm up, with alcohol in our bellies raising our core temperatures and countering the frigid conditions elsewhere at the centre. However, we were not informed in advance that the bar was only accessible if you were a member of "robe-club"... cant go in unless you have a robe. No towel, no clothes, no nudity... just robes. Bizarre. We were then informed that we could enter if we bought a robe... but at that point we really did not feel like giving any more money to the centre.

The BEST thing there were the saunas. They were okay overall. However, if you have ever experienced a sauna before you would also likely find them slightly unsatisfying. The HOTTEST sauna there was only 85c, and most were 70c to 80c.

That might sound warm if you are not a regular sauna attendee... but if you were in Nordic countries that kind of temperature is for babies and the frail. Part of the issue was that due to the far too large size of the saunas they took time to heat up, and with people coming and going the 85c sauna was probably more like 75-80c most of the time.

I LOVE saunas, I LOVE spas. I have been to (at face value) equivalent venues in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Germany and England. And I have never been as disappointed before.

I left feeling like I had just gone for a swim in the adjacent Nieuwe Meer Lake, when every other spa I have left made me feel warmed and relaxed to the core. Won't be coming back, will just run a hot...

Hotel: Don’t stay here if you’re expecting some luxury experience. For the price of Hotel Room per night you can find much better options. There were some tiny flies in the floor carpet(and a lot of them!), so if you absolutely have to stay there make sure you wear shoes at all times. Hotel here has only purpose of allowing you to use the Sauna/Swimming facilities until late & to take a walk in Amsterdamse Bos park in the morning.

Breakfast: Terrible, just not worth it. Cheese was dried out, Prosciutto bad quality, scrambled eggs where mixed with water and milk to the point where the taste was completely gone. Mix of fruits seemed to have been there for a few days.

Hot stone massage: amazing! 25min was quite short time, but they did not have any other availability, would suggest to book a week or two earlier before arrival.

Sauna/Swimming Pool:

If you’re young and woman do not go there on usual no swimsuit days. There are old disgusting men staring and deliberately getting into pool/jacuzzi when they see you go there. There were disgusting men just walking around not covering themselves from one pool to another, staring at every women possible. Men that showed up there during the day were just staring and looking around, some even following you from sauna to other rooms.

Swimming Pool: Big swimming pool is COLD. It’s July 10th and still not hot enough weather outside to enjoy such a cold pool. If you go there swimming there’s a whole audience of people(men) staring at you, at all times!

Outdoor small pool/Music Sauna: was quite nice in the evening, during the day some horrible guys try to make sure they get in there at the same time as women just to stare and smile and try to talk to you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re comfortable being around naked people or not, I don’t believe any women enjoys being looked at when they’re trying to relax. Either management has to introduce only women’s days, or at least age range access (per time/day), so that there are no Old disgusting men allowed in at the same time as young people, as they were there clearly just to look around.

In the evening all sauna facilities were much better, more couples and normal people were present that don’t stare at you and we could finally relax.

I would only suggest people to go there during the evening and on Swimsuit days, to avoid the kind of horrible discomfort we had to experience by being there along with these people that do not know how to act in a public place and are present there only to “enjoy the view”.

Very disappointing considering also that it was quite an expensive stay for the...