On our flight home in April 2017 from Stockholm, we had a 20-hour layover in Amsterdam. We enjoyed Amsterdam on our last visit, so decided to splurge on our hotel stay since it was the last night in Europe. It was a pretty last minute booking, but we ended up choosing to stay at the W Amsterdam due to its close proximity to the downtown core. Out of all the hotels available, I chose this hotel as the W brand is pretty synonymous for luxury hotels, and caters toward a more younger generation.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not sponsored. The views and opinions expressed in this review are purely my own.
We arrived at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with the worst news ever - all trains were stopped. A man decided to get super drunk and passed out on the train tracks. He was grazed by an incoming train, so they had to stop all service to assist him. Most trains in the city share the same tracks, so this man's action stopped all incoming and outgoing trains. Luckily, he wasn't severely hurt. Anyway, we didn't arrive at the hotel until a little after 4 pm and didn't get to really enjoy the amenities like the pool or lobby as we wanted to eat lunch (a very late one).
W Amsterdam is a modern and hip upscale hotel located near Dam Square. The hotel is split into two buildings, a former telephone exchange building, and a bank. We stayed in the bank building, which was an intriguing design mix of heritage and contemporary style. Our room was the Wonderful Exchange room with a King bed. We opted for the Atrium view in the Exchange building, and it was €322 for the night. That converted to $481.80 CAD a night. For a few euro more, you can get a city view for €340. At the time, I didn't really take many pictures for my Instagram (and I don't think stories existed yet), so I didn't care to have a city view or not.
The hotel room was pretty well-stocked with all kinds of amenities and drinks. Some were free, while others you had to pay.
Two cons - it can get loud on weekends and the layout of the hotel was a little confusing (a lot of different glass doors on each floor). While it is a luxury hotel, the above outdoor pool turns into a lounge on the weekends. So, it can get loud as the lounge goers come/go. We stayed there on a Saturday, so it was pretty bustling. Luckily, we were exhausted after a day of exploring and shopping, so we slept pretty well despite the noise (you don’t hear the music too clearly, but the beats were noticeable).
Just a heads up that upon checking out, there is also an additional 5% city tax (of the room) collected by the hotel on behalf of the Amsterdam City.
This particular stay in early 2017 was very memorable to us, as it was our first luxury hotel experience. Our logistics and e-commerce business was starting to do well at the time, and it really made us believe that we were heading in the right direction. We no longer regretted quitting our full-time careers to become entrepreneurs. It was the right decision! To this day, I still believe in experiences over materialistic goods, so I do think it was money well-spent. My parents would contradict that though cause you know ... Asian parents =)
Address: Spuistraat 175, 1012 VN Amsterdam, Netherlands
