Max Brown Hotel Museum Square — Hotel in Amsterdam

Booking this trip to Amsterdam for the Christmas holidays was a result of misheard eavesdropping on conversations between my husband and 11 year old son. Not the best place to start, I know.

Google Maps took us on a one-hour walkabout around central Amsterdam when trying to find the hotel and so, we reached the Max Brown Museum Square absolutely exhausted. The reception lady got our reservation dealt with immediately and was so courteous and cheerful, it made such a difference to our first impression of Amsterdam.

The hotel is centrally located and ideal for transport links or walking, if that's your thing. The room was small, compared to some, but perfect for our family of four.

The beds were extremely comfortable, with the only downside being that they were too high up for our 7 (built like a 6) year old to climb on. The sofa bed was her sleeping space of choice and from the one night I parted with the big bed to swap places with her, I can safely say it was comfortable enough for an adult too.

We booked breakfast in with the room for our one-week stay at this hotel. The options available range from healthy to not so healthy. All of it was delicious and available in plenty. I think this is one of the very few hotels, where the staff clear breakfast food items away only after 11 am, when the breakfast service ends. I particularly remember with astonishment, when the butter slabs were refilled without being told or asked at ten minutes before breakfast closing time. In the UK, you'd be lucky to get anything at all if you turned up to a breakfast service half an hour before it closed.

The staff (Eileen, Hugo and Sara among the few people we interacted with, there were two other Dutch people people at reception, but unfortunately I didn't get their names) were so helpful, whenever I went to them to ask them about places to visit or interesting things for our family to do. I went to them with the silliest things ranging from pronunciation of street names to why are there flags with three crosses everywhere. Not once did any of them complain or groan at me and ask me to just 'Google it'. The Travel Game that we included on the price of our room was a bit too complicated for our lot to get done in time, but could be interesting if it's two of you looking to discover a city.

In summary, the hotel and the rooms are quaint and comfy. The staff are brilliant. The food is scrumptious. And we would definitely book here the next time we're...

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

If I could give this hotel a zero, I would. Unfortunately, my stay at Max Brown Hotel was a complete disappointment. Here’s why:

• Room Size and Cleanliness: The room was incredibly tiny, barely allowing one person to move at a time. There was no storage for luggage, making it feel even more cramped. The cleaning service was abysmal—they only came every second day and merely folded the sheets and emptied the bins. No new towels, no proper cleaning, and no effort to refresh the room.

• Room Features: The window didn’t fully open because the furniture was in the way. The lack of ventilation, combined with the lack of proper cleaning, made the room feel suffocating. On top of that, there was no fridge to store essentials like milk, which is a basic amenity for most hotels.

• Location: The hotel is far from the city centre, requiring a 20-30 minute walk to get to any attractions. This was not accurately conveyed in the description, and it was a huge inconvenience. There are far better options closer to the centre or near metro stations that offer more value for money.

• Bike Rental Disaster: The hotel offers bike rentals at €17 a day, but the bikes were in horrible condition. The brakes barely worked—you had to press down extremely hard or use your feet to stop, putting us in dangerous situations multiple times. When we reported this to reception, they brushed off our concerns and nothing was fixed. This level of negligence is unacceptable.

• Breakfast Buffet: The breakfast option, also €17, was absolutely not worth it. The choices were extremely limited, and the quality was appalling. Save your money and find a café nearby—you’ll thank yourself later.

• Toilet Issues: The toilet in our room wouldn’t flush properly. We informed reception, and maintenance supposedly looked into it while we were out, but the issue persisted. When we called again, we were told to flush twice, which not only wasted water but didn’t solve the problem. The result? Days of an unflushed toilet that left the room smelling foul, with no way to properly ventilate due to the window issue.

In summary, Max Brown Hotel failed to meet even the most basic expectations of comfort, cleanliness, and service. Do yourself a favour and avoid this hotel at all costs. Stay somewhere closer to the city centre or near a metro station—there are far better options in Amsterdam. This was a regrettable experience, and I would never...

The whole experience was much, much worse than with other 3 stars in Amsterdam. The room was the tiniest "hotel" room I've been to. The bed was only accessible from one side so the person sleeping by the wall would have to climb over the other one. The bathroom was so small, it required my male partner to do some acrobatics every time he needed to go to the loo. In addition to the space available, it wasn't exactly very clean - the walls and tile links in the bathroom had some mould and the toilet could use some refreshing too. There is no AC in the rooms - fair enough - but what the hotel doesn't mention is that you can't open the window either so you practically sleep in a terrarium. The room is equipped with a floor-level fan in case you want to keep your feet nice and cool but definitely not suitable for sleeping given how loud it is. A whole different story (also testifying for the mediocrity of Max Brown) is the fact that upon check in they ask you for your preferred time slot for the breakfast (due to covid). Having booked 9:00, I was told a table would be booked for me from 9 until 9:45. Since I don't necessarily need 45 minutes to eat a croissant (don't expect anything warm or a variety: they give you a brioche, a croissant, a fruit, one slice of cheese, a sweet fruity yoghurt and some jam/Nutella), I went downstairs at 9:10 to find that the table is not only not booked, it was actually not even cleaned after the 8:00 guests and so I waited 10 more minutes to just sit down because the staff was busy servings another glass of juice to those already seated. Let me point out that there were 2 servers for a whole of 15 tables/30 ppl which any restaurateur would confirm is not many people to serve a pre-packaged breakfast to. I definitely will not be coming back, even for the fabulous location or indeed quite...