Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam — Hotel in Amsterdam

I stayed at Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam for nearly a full week during my Eurotrip in March, booking through the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection, which granted me benefits such as daily breakfast, late check-out, and a $100 USD property credit.||Location and Peacefulness:|The hotel is perfectly located in a lively corner of Amsterdam, surrounded by tourist attractions and shops. While convenient, it can get noisy, especially for light sleepers. Fortunately, my room faced the inner garden, which provided a much quieter environment. I actually preferred this room over a canal-view room due to the reduced street noise, and I recommend garden-facing rooms for those sensitive to sound.||Room and Comfort:|Although there was no upgrade available, I was very satisfied with the original room. It wasn’t overly spacious, but well laid out and comfortable. The bathroom was quite large for two people, even if the room itself didn’t feature a jacuzzi (only available in suites). The bedding was exceptionally soft and comfortable, though the pillows were too soft for my liking. Upon request, a firmer pillow was provided, which was appreciated.||Guest Service and Benefits:|There was a miscommunication regarding the $100 property credit. We were initially told it could be used for the tray charge when requesting in-room breakfast. However, on the last day, a different front desk staff member informed us this wasn’t the case. Thankfully, after expressing our concern, the charge was removed and the credit applied. This inconsistency suggests that front desk staff could benefit from clearer internal communication regarding program benefits.||Breakfast and Service:|Breakfast was the weakest point of our experience. Despite the food being high quality—both at breakfast and during the one dinner we ordered via room service—the dining area was clearly understaffed. During all three visits, we found ourselves having to actively seek staff assistance just to place orders or get basic items like water. This level of service felt below the five-star standard, especially when compared to brands like the Mandarin Oriental.||Final Thoughts:|The Grand offers a refined and elegant stay with a prime location. However, it could improve in areas like consistent guest communication and breakfast service. I still recommend it—especially if you request a room facing the garden for a more tranquil experience.I stayed at Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam for nearly a full week during my Eurotrip in March, booking through the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection, which granted me benefits such as daily breakfast, late check-out, and a $100 USD property credit.||Location and Peacefulness:|The hotel is perfectly located in a lively corner of Amsterdam, surrounded by tourist attractions and shops. While convenient, it can get noisy, especially for light sleepers. Fortunately, my room faced the inner garden, which provided a much quieter environment. I actually preferred this room over a canal-view room due to the reduced street noise, and I recommend garden-facing rooms for those sensitive to sound.||Room and Comfort:|Although there was no upgrade available, I was very satisfied with the original room. It wasn’t overly spacious, but well laid out and comfortable. The bathroom was quite large for two people, even if the room itself didn’t feature a jacuzzi (only available in suites). The bedding was exceptionally soft and comfortable, though the pillows were too soft for my liking. Upon request, a firmer pillow was provided, which was appreciated.||Guest Service and Benefits:|There was a miscommunication regarding the $100 property credit. We were initially told it could be used for the tray charge when requesting in-room breakfast. However, on the last day, a different front desk staff member informed us this wasn’t the case. Thankfully, after expressing our concern, the charge was removed and the credit applied. This inconsistency suggests that front desk staff could benefit from clearer internal communication regarding program benefits.||Breakfast and Service:|Breakfast was the weakest point of our experience. Despite the food being high quality—both at breakfast and during the one dinner we ordered via room service—the dining area was clearly understaffed. During all three visits, we found ourselves having to actively seek staff assistance just to place orders or get basic items like water. This level of service felt below the five-star standard, especially when compared to brands like the Mandarin Oriental.||Final Thoughts:|The Grand offers a refined and elegant stay with a prime location. However, it could improve in areas like consistent guest communication and breakfast service. I still recommend it—especially if you request a room facing the garden for a more...

Our family enjoyed a fantastic week at the Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam. I had booked this hotel through my credit card concierge. I was hesitant at first as I typically prefer to book hotels directly. My concerns were for naught as I found the communication with the hotel to be fabulous even though I hadn't booked directly. We had originally booked 5 nights in a connecting family room. Later we decided to extend for another 2 nights. While that room category was no longer available, the hotel staff went above and beyond to ensure we could stay in the same 2 rooms for the entire week. It was very much appreciated.

The rooms were very spacious for Amsterdam accommodations. They were meticulously clean. There were plenty of outlets but USB outlets were lacking. The room felt plush and we had everything we needed in the room. We requested ice twice during the week and a bucket was delivered very promptly. Our rooms were canal facing and were very quiet after 10pm. We enjoyed that we could open a window to let fresh air in.

The front desk staff were very friendly and accommodating. There was always plenty of staff available to answer our questions and provide area recommendations.

The one area I felt the property fell short was with their dining and bar staff. The buffet breakfast each morning was always delicious but most days it was a challenge to the attention of servers for coffee, water, etc. It was apparent that the service was disorganized as often there were sections of tables without assigned servers. Other patrons were also frustrated. When we could capture someone's attention, service was curt and often the request was not fulfilled without a 2nd or 3rd ask (eg. cream for coffee, ordering toast, water refills, etc.). We suspect that training was underway and the staff was not experienced yet. It started off as amusing but then became frustrating after a few days. The service issue wasn't only with breakfast staff, we experienced several service issues with our afternoon drinks on the patio. One afternoon it took 45+ minutes to be served our drink order, which was incorrect. There were no apologies or even acknowledgement of the stretch of time or the errors. We were on vacation and took it in stride but I'm not sure other travellers would have been so tolerant. We didn't let these small issues blemish our stay. They were minor in the whole scope of things but for a hotel of that caliber, we were surprised.

The location of the hotel was great for first time tourists of Amsterdam. While we were not fans of the Red Light District, we learned how to traverse the city without having to go through the heart of that section. Most of the sights and attractions we were interested in were a 10-15 minute walk. The Rokin tram and metro station was less than 5 minutes away as well. Centraal Stations was a 15 minute walk or a 5 minutes metro ride. Very convenient. There are tons of restaurants and cafes available in all directions.

The hotel will be going through a major renovation in the fall of 2025. We look forward to returning to see the...

Love the hotel, the people. Unfortunately, some management choices have made my stay less satisfying: -- Internet access used to be great during my past stays. Easily 90+ Mbps. Now, I could barely get 8, even after IT intervention and help. So, my plans to watch a couple of episodes of TV shows before bedtime, streamed from Apple TV+ on my iPad, well, that did not work out at all. Facetime with family at home. Nope. Upload vacation photos and videos back to my home computer for backup. Nope. -- The soap. The entire hospitality industry is using the excuse of nature saving to remove all soap bars and replace them with liquid soap in a bottle. So, instead of two bars of soap (bathtub / shower & sink), I had five plastic bottles, with absolutely none of them having a working pump. So, while you are all wet, you get to struggle with a bottle, them finally unscrew it to pour sticky liquid out, and then try washing yourself, while putting the open shower gel bottle down--all without slipping (soapy hands!) and breaking your head. By the way, I hope the hotel is proud of their efforts to increase plastic bottle use. After all, five plastic bottles must definitely be safer for nature than a soap bar, wrapped in a paper wrapper. -- Air conditioner. I realize than Europeans are used to tolerating higher summer temperatures than us, Americans. But when I am paying over $$$$ per night, I should be able to cool MY room to MY liking. The thermostat is locked to 19 degrees Celsius as the lowest AC setting. Like it or leave it. --Butler. I have stayed in suites that had butler service before. I am a planner, so I usually have everything prepared and booked in advance and rarely needed their service. But it's nice to have, just in case. Except, of course, when you cannot reach him. In my seven day stay, I have successfully reached our butler ONE time. That's it. I called at least twice each day (morning -- museum taxi; evening - restaurant taxi), plus several times in hope of getting some last minute tickets we did not plan for. Useless. Completely unreachable and unresponsive. My two minute listening to the phone ring attempt was usually followed by another attempt and then by the call to the main Concierge desk, with apologies and explanation that I am only calling because I could not reach my butler. So not like nobody knew this was a persistent problem. As I said before, I still love the hotel, first and foremost because of the people I have interacted with on daily basis: front desk, concierge, breakfast restaurant, bell boy -- all of them have been consistently impeccable. Their absolute dedication to making me and my family happy during our stay will easily overshadow any shortcomings. It is just so unfortunate that at a time when just about every industry suffers from the lack of quality personnel, this hotel actually has them, yet undermines their hard work with idiotic...