We arrived at Banks Mansion to find ourselves in a 200-300 square foot room, with a canal view, but that was just about the only nice thing about this hotel. Sure, there are three glass carafes of alcohol in the room, a mini-bar which gets restocked daily by the maids, and a coffee machine in the lobby, but for me, the open glass containers of liquor seemed particularly unsafe - as a previous guest could easily put whatever they want inside them and the next guest would never know (they are merely refilled, not new for each guest). The window/doors overlooking the canal were openable, sort of, as the side of the bed was within 2 feet of that wall, and the room was only 3 feet wider than the length of the bed anyway. It made for a lot of zig zagging around to get past the furniture to look out the window. We wanted to change rooms, but there weren't any better/larger ones, other than the honeymoon suite, which already had occupants. We told the front desk person, Pamela, that we would let her know by the next morning if we were going to move to a new hotel, but as we were only staying for 3 days, we decided to just deal with the cramped quarters and try to have a good time outside the room. The next morning Pamela called and asked whether we were leaving. We confirmed that we were going to stay, as we would have told her otherwise by 10am. When we left the hotel to sight-see around 11am, Pamela accosted us and basically demanded that we check out. She had told another person that they could have our room, even though we never said we were actually leaving. She was extremely rude, and was trying to salvage herself due to her own poor decision to try to book the room without confirmation from us that we were leaving. She argued with my boyfriend for about 30 minutes as we were leaving, and made me feel very uncomfortable in that I wasn't sure if she was crazy enough to actually move our things from the room and kick us out. I hoped it wouldn't come to that, but this was my first trip to Europe, so I wasn't sure! Once my boyfriend got tired of arguing with her he told her to sort it out with American Express, and I guess that must have convinced her to give up on trying to kick us out. I spent the entire day somewhat worried about it though until we got back that evening to find our room still accessible by keycard. I wish we had never even gone into that hotel.

The hotel is located just around the corner from Rembrandtplein, which is a reasonably safe area with coffee shops, restaurants, and vendors.

I definitely do NOT recommend Banks Mansion! Stay elsewhere and you will be much happier!

Lovely hotel in great location in Amsterdam. We spent most days out and about and would drop in to the hotel for 'lunch/afternoon' tea from the complimentary all day open bar (drinks and snacks plus internet access) and head back out again all afternoon until pre-dinner drinks at the hotel bar again! So we probably saved a bit of money on lunches and cocktails and it was very nice to have a sense of feeling 'at home' in the hotel without having to put our hands into our pockets for everything. Rooms are a little squeezy but clean and tasteful. If you are going to Amsterdam, hiring a bicycle for the duration is a great idea as you can cover lots of ground and even head on out to their lovely countryside in no time. This is a very nice hotel if you want a very comfortable and convenient stay in Amsterdam.

Got a great deal - the all inclusive drinks package was amazing
Rooms very stylish - all art deco
Breakfast was good - made to order eggs and pancakes
location near flower market - bit of a walk into the city centre but ok once you figured out the trams

I will start by saying I found it hard in general to find a nice room in Amsterdam from the information you can find on the internet; just didn’t seem like allot of options out there for how I like to roll. Ok here’s the beef nobody seems to be talking about on this Thread; the rooms are VERY SMALL, maybe one of the smallest rooms for the $ I have ever stayed in. This next grievance might not matter for everybody, but I really like to use the Internet in my room on my computer, and they have this bogus scratch off card racket to use the Internet wirelessly; otherwise you can use the free computers downstairs. Ok. Ok. The final negative thing I will say is if you are the type of person who might want to sleep in one day and dial up some room service; not happening, instead they have three options. Noodles, Ice Cream and Champagne. Really weird combo but did make me laugh hysterically for about a hour when I saw it.
The upsides are great location, free minibar and open bar in the lobby , as well as a good free breakfast. the staff was helpful and nice . Overall we had a great time in Amsterdam and really enjoyed this location if nothing else.