I had a problem at this hotel. The husband and wife team that run this hotel seem like nice people, but try to complain, and they go on the attack, and they are vicious and relentless. Be warned. I expect to be harassed because I am posting this review. The following is a true account of what happened to me.
After kicking us out two days in a row to clean our room, the maid had yet to remove the dirty glassware or clean the room properly. The mirror in the bathroom had tooth flossing specks on it, not from us. There was mildew on the grout in the bathtub. The glass topped coffee table had grease on both sides of the glass and the rug and not been vacuumed. The windows on the french doors were dirty on both sides--these windows were easily accessible, and oddly, the other windows in the window seat area, which were harder to get at, were clean.
The room was actually very nice, one of the best in the hotel. And with 10 minutes and some windex and bleach, all would have been fine.
However, when I tried to explain this to Hans, one of the owners of the hotel, he went ballistic. I was not aware that complaining was not permitted in their hotel.
While we were alone in my room, this intimidating man became irate. He yelled at me for being too demanding! I told him maybe he was unaware that the maid wasn't taking care of all the details when cleaning even though she made such a point of kicking us out of our room for her to clean it.
The first day we were there. We were so jet lagged we went back to bed and were fast asleep when the maid walked in on us! We had put the "do not disturb" sign on the door, but she said it had fallen on the floor. She didn't even knock! She insisted that she had to clean the room immediately and gave us 10 minutes to dress and get out.
We were too groggy to stand up for ourselves, or to complain about such treatment. The next day, my husband had left to work at the trade show but I was still in the room when she came in and wanted to clean it. So I grabbed my stuff and got out.
When I got back I noticed she made the bed and changed the towels. I went downstairs to get some ice and since the ice bucket that had been in our room was not clean, I went into the kitchen and washed it in the sink with some dish soap. I was approached by one of the other employees who asked what I was doing. I told her that the ice bucket had not been clean and I wanted to wash it before putting ice in it. I told her things in our room were not as clean as I would have hoped they would be.
A few minutes later, Hans came up with windex and bleach. He said something about that he had told the maid to bleach the mildew in the tub, and he went in to do that. I took the windex and started to do the bathroom mirror and he went ballistic. I pointed out the toothpaste spray on the mirror and said that it had been there since we arrived, and suggested that he might have a problem with his maid not doing her job properly. And we didn't appreciate her walking in on us or kicking us out of our room when we had obviously been asleep! Hans started shouting at me about how unreasonably picky I was being and that everything can't be perfect in a room. He then ran his hand over the top of the armoire and it came down covered with dust! I had no idea what his point was, I wasn't even complaining about the dust, but it was comic how he was raging defensively about how clean the room was and it was actually even dirtier than I had noticed.
About a half hour later I was having trouble using the wireless internet, so I went downstairs to try the set-up they have for the guests that don't have laptops, and I saw some windex and a towel next to the computer. So I borrowed these items and took the opportunity to clean the stuff that had been bothering me. I replaced the items when I was done.
I sent an email to Loes, who was my initial contact when I booked my stay. She is the wife of Hans and from what I can tell, a co-owner. I told her "This is not acceptable behavior. I would like someone to apologize to me in a civil manner and I expect polite treatment and good service for the remainder of my stay."
Then she called to shout at me and tell me how happy she is with all of her staff. And since I did not like my room, I could move out immediately!
Now she was being spiteful. With the one of the biggest trade shows of the year in town, there was no way I was going to be able to find anything, and I was not the one that was unable to control my temper. I told her I would see what I could do. And I told her that since I had had a chance to clean the room, it was satisfactory. But that only made her angrier. She came to my door and pounded on it! I told her I was not going to open the door or participate in a shouting match. I told her if she could find a comparable room at another hotel, I would move. She tried, but couldn't come up with anything. So I was stuck wondering everytime I went out whether my stuff was safe in a place where they were so rude and wanted to get me out so badly. And worrying every time I came in that I would see Hans or Loes and they would yell at me again. They got to save some money, because we did not go down to breakfast. We ate out rather than risk any confrontation. That's okay. Hans rules over the breakfast room and our first morning we must have come down later than he wished, even though it was still within the allotted breakfast time. So there was no fresh squeezed orange juice for us!
I went online to trip advisor and sorted by one star reviews. I found multiple complaints about them bullying their customers! Guess I should have done more research...
To prevent more confrontations, I sent her an email telling her that since she and Hans could not seem to control their tempers, that the only way I would communicate with them was by email. And that they both owed me an apology. There was no apology, and though we had scheduled more days after the trade show, we got out of there as soon as we could.
One more little annoyance. We paid extra to get the largest room size because it featured a double bed that was a real double bed, not two singles stuck together. But the bed was topped by two small (probably single size) duvet-like things instead of one that fit the bed. The overlap was pretty small, so In the middle of the night, they would slip around on the bed and create a gap right where we were trying to sleep together. They topped it with a thin chenille bedspread that was the right size, so things looked okay on the surface.
It's a shame. It is a nice hotel with a lot of great perks. But the inability of the management to control their negative emotions makes it intolerable. Amsterdam has lots of wonderful places to stay. This is not one of them.