My boyfriend and I have just returned from a two night stay at the Banks Mansion. We booked because of the great reviews on TA but had such a bad experience I felt I needed to write my own review.

Although it is undeniably in a great location - no more than 10mins walk to everywhere it seemed, and just around the corner from the picturesque '9 streets' - the hotel is just not worth the money.

Our room (212) was incredibly dark - we felt like we were in the basement despite being on the 2nd floor, and was really way too small to justify the 279Euros it costs a night. We could hardly walk around the bed - and had no-where to put our luggage. On the plus side the bed was very comfy however the pillows were lumpy and really need to be replaced. FYI - Banks Mansion claims to have a 'pillow menu' - but they didn't have any pillows available when we asked so the claim seemed a bit of a let down! We also only had one pair of slippers and one dressing gown. The drinks in the 'free minibar' were never replenished, and after the room was "cleaned" on Saturday morning the maid left old half full cans of coke and beer.
Finally, the room was not clean (by my standards) - hair in the bath and in the sink, soap marks on the mirror, grit on the carpet in the bedroom, and dark marks all over the wallpaper.

FYI - our room was non-smoking but everything including the bathroom towels smelt smoky and dusty. The communal areas - lounge etc are also smoking so it cannot be avoided in this hotel.

The free nibbles (always the same..nuts and crisps, nougat and small waffles) and drinks were great but again they did not make up for the room. The very last bone of contention about this hotel is the breakfast. It's really quite horrible. The pancakes ("made to order") come out of a packet and are literally warmed up on the griddle in front of you. The eggs are worse - they have a tub of orange eggy liquid which they pour into a frying pan...) There were no pastries or croissants, etc. Not much choice at all to be honest.

All in all, based on our experience we would not recommend this hotel. There were simply too many problems to justify the price, and even if we had loved our room it is still too expensive.

Hope you find this review useful.

As usual we booked this hotel after reading the reviews and comparing with other hotels. Again we were not disappointed.
Several days before the weekend holiday we received an email from the hotel bidding us welcome. I replied and because we had booked a Deluxe canal view room asked for one of the corner rooms over the entrance, eg 106, 206, 306 or 406. This was confirmed.
We arrived early having taken the Connexxion hotel shuttle from the airport (19 euro each return) and were told that our room was ready. We were given 401.
I mentioned that we had been promised a corner room and after some deliberation we were reallocated to room 306. That wasn't ready so we left our bags with them and took the tram into the centre and the railway station. Here we collected tickets for the prebooked Candle Light Cruise (no candles!) and the canel bus.
The hotel is right on the canel and ten minutes walk from all the main sights.
We ate out at Visrestaurant Lucius, 5 minutes away, and the mussels and king prawns were delicious.
The room was tastefully decorated and had 4 windows out onto the canal and intersection. There was some road/tram noise.
As mentioned by others the minibar and associated decanters of whisky, brandy and gin are all included, as are drinks/nibbles in the lounge.
Breakfast, served in the basement was OK.
Checkout was at 12 noon. Again we were able to leave our bags and continue sightseeing coming back to the lounge at 5pm for a drink and wait for the shuttle.
The staff were all professional and welcoming. We would stay there again.

Believe all of the reviews here, this is a brilliant hotel. We booked from reading the reviews here. It can look a bit more expensive than a lot of the hotels in Amsterdam but the accomodation and use of facilities is worth every penny.

The free bar was well stocked with loads of chocolate, biscuits, etc. The beer and wine was all good quality and at various times during the day extra food was put out. It was a great area to go to unwind after a busy day in amsterdam.

Breakfast was also included in the rate (we found the best deal via opodo.co.uk) which was a very good range of food and anything you needed made up to order.

In the room the free mini-bar was well stocked with chocolate and drinks, the in house movies were also included in the price. I don't think any hotel rooms in Amsterdam are particularly large but the rooms were modern, clean and very comfortable.

The location is also very good, right by the flower market and a short walk to almost all attractions. Probably a 15 minute walk from the central station or accessable on the tram routes.

If your off to Amsterdam you have to try this hotel - it is as good as every review here.

I stayed at BM this past August and I must say this was one of the best if not best hotel I have stayed at in terms of everything working right.

Everything in the rooms are in the right place and working properly.
The front desk staff is great and goes out of their way to make your stay a great one.

The free drinks in the lobby and in the room along with free snacks and chef prepared breakfast was amazing. I would stay here again any time in the area.