http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092 http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092 http://ie2.trivago.com/images/layoutimages/logos/default.png http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/review-o1164996 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:00:00 +0100
The hotel is located on Spaarndammerdijk in the Westerpark area in the North West of Amsterdam. This is an area easily accessible from the city centre and buses 22 and 48 run from the Central Station (look for bus stop F) and take around 10 to 15 minutes. If you go by car, there’s a secure basement car park.

I arrived by taxi with one of my colleagues at about nine in the evening. From memory we paid around €20 from the station. The reception area is rather striking for having some shockingly awful but very colourful large canvases hanging on the walls. The check in desk was just inside the entrance and two receptionists came to check us in at the same time. They were friendly, keen to answer any questions and to explain where breakfast would be and where our meeting rooms could be found. They then explained that the room key was needed not only to get into the rooms, but also to get into the lift and into the corridors on our floor. This did seem slightly like a security over-kill and I wondered why it was necessary to get your key out three times over to get into your room.

My room was on the back of the hotel, overlooking two outdoor swimming pools which I later learned are public pools but are free for hotel guests to use although the first week of February is not going to be a busy time. I also over-looked a lot of trains but there was no noticeable noise so I assumed they were just parked up there.

The room was a bit on the small size compared to the Novotel where I normally stay in Amsterdam. However, this is a more central location and space is at a premium in the city and I can’t recall too many central Amsterdam hotels I’ve stayed in (and I’ve stayed in many) which could really be called ‘spacious’. The Art Hotel room might have seemed a little larger if they hadn’t been trying to squeeze quite so much furniture into the space.

The bathroom was small but not oppressively so. On a cold day, there’s nothing I like more than warming up in a hot bath so I was pleased to have a bath with a shower over it. The sink unit was made of metal and whilst that might have been intended to look funky, it just reminded me of industrial sinks in factories and anti-vandal public toilets. The mirror over the sink was pleasant but not particularly well lit. I’m not a make up user so that’s not an issue for me but would be for many. There was a hairdryer mounted on the wall and the usual shampoo/shower gel/body lotion bottles were lined up on the sink surround.

The bathroom is tucked to the side as you enter the room, leaving a corridor between the door and the main room. Closest to the door was a bag stand, then a sort of wardrobe unit with a hanging rail, a tea and coffee tray and a few shelves. The presence of the wardrobe between the bag stand and the main room meant that the area was really dark. Whilst I appreciate a bag stand, I want to be able to see into the contents of my bag and that just wasn’t possible. My bag found itself moved onto the bed.

The bed was two singles pushed together, each with a single duvet. That’s not unusual although I found it a little chilly and would have preferred a larger duvet. I could have tugged the extra duvet off the unused bed if it wasn’t held down by the suitcase that I’d moved from the bag stand. There were two noticeable and surprising things about the bed. Firstly was the astonishing fact that the bed was actually quite firm and comfortable not to be expected in a Dutch hotel since national belief is that soft beds are good for your back. Secondly was the enormous canvas on the wall with a painting of the hotel’s emblem who we named “SuperCow and his friend, ‘not quite so super cow’. Anyway, it’s good to reflect that it doesn’t really matter what a hotel sticks on the walls as you’re going to have your eyes closed when you’re sleeping.

Other things in the room included adequately sized bed side tables (no complaint there), and a small desk and chair. There was enough space on the desk despite the flat screen television being placed on it. I only found the one electrical socket by the desk which was enough for what I needed but would probably frustrate anyone with lots of stuff to charge up. In the corner of the room were two small armchairs and a small square table. I’d have preferred they chucked out all three items and replaced them with a single comfy chair as there really wasn’t room for so much furniture. The carpet was probably worth of note, being a wide striped affair that seemed to be making some kind of statement though I’ve no idea what it was trying to say. If anyone thinks stripes make a room look bigger, then they should be aware that sticking too much furniture in the room has the opposite effect.

I can look the other way to strange cow paintings, striped carpets and even the ugly sink unit so long as the room has a good bed and free, easy to access wi-fi. The Art Hotel scored on both points.

I ate two breakfasts and two lunches at the hotel and also had drinks in the bar. The breakfast room was light and airy and looked out over the gardens. The food was a pretty standard 3-star mix of bakery items, cereals, fruit and cold cuts and hot dishes. The coffee came from a machine but was of pretty good quality. I was a little frustrated by the location of some of the crockery and cutlery, for example there are no plates near the hot food or the cold cuts and there are no spoons near the fruit salad. I’m not a morning person and I don’t enjoy having to forage for my breakfast.
Lunch on both days was a bit ‘basic’ but I’ve been travelling to Holland long enough to not expect too much excitement on that front. It wasn’t dreadful although the Dutch belief that if you don’t eat meat you must want cheese, it pretty typical.

The meeting room we had was quite pleasant with plenty of natural light and a superb pod coffee system. The downside was that acoustically it wasn’t great due to being two rooms put together by removing a partition down the middle. This meant the shape was long and narrow and those at the back could hardly hear anyone at the front of the room. We also had horrible problems with the temperature which rarely crept above shivery on the first day. On day two they brought in some portable heaters which made life more bearable but there were still cold drafts in the room. All the audiovisual equipment went well and we were kept well supplied with food and drinks throughout. The breakout rooms were set up in rooms originally designed as the bedrooms for the four-star side of the hotel and were quite pleasant. One small grumble would be that there are no toilets anywhere near the meeting room so you have to go down two flights of stairs to the basement or down one set and along a corridor to find the loos by reception.

My invoice shows I paid €105 per night but I would suggest you don’t pay too much attention to that as we may well have arranged for the room hire and lunches to be included. A quick check on Trivago suggests you can get rooms for less than £60 a night. If you can get a good price and you don’t mind being less central, I would say this is well worth considering. It’s a much quieter area to be than the city centre and you can reach the centre quickly by bus. A one day pass for the public transport is €7.50 so if you build that into your costings, it may well be a better option than a higher priced more central hotel.
]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327556 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:28:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327554 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:28:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327552 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:28:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327550 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:28:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327548 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:27:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327546 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:27:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327544 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:27:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327540 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:27:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i10327538 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:27:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852224 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:46:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852222 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:46:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852220 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:46:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852218 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:46:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852216 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:45:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852214 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:45:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852212 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:45:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4852210 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:45:00 +0100 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4280871 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:02:00 +0200 ]]> http://www.trivago.co.uk/amsterdam-46814/hotel/art-hotel-amsterdam-42092/picture-i4280856 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:58:00 +0200 ]]>