Hotel Okura Amsterdam

+ everything
- internet was very expensive. I would like free wireless internet.

I used our corporate account and stayed here during my business trip. Far from the shopping and nightlife, but ideal for business travelers. Beautiful facilities, loved the bubble baths while enjoying cheesy US tv shots from the 80's. I am not sure, but I think it was McGuyver...

I was curious to see how this hotel would turn out given that previous reviewers either raved about it and recommended the service and excellent staff, or were highly critical and commented on the datedRead more appearance and strange smells! My experience was that both are correct. The staff are very courteous and helpful, there are plenty of amenities and the location is convenient with an easy tram ride into the center of the city and a selection of restaurants and shops within 5 minutes walk. However, my room had the previously reported ' strange smell' (and it was a non-smoking room) and the decor was very 1970s, in the worst sense. Given other reviews, I suspect that there are some more modern renovated rooms and that these are significantly more expensive. I was also disappointed at the premium charges that are slapped on everything, such as internet access (there is WiFi available for 25 Euros per day) and the bar and restaurants are expensive. I certainly would not rate it as a 5 star hotel; more like 3-4 stars. Major renovations are needed to drag it out of the 70s.
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I almost booked to go here, but oriented by an earlier review phoned to check if guests could use the swimming pool, only to discover that this would cost an extra 14 Euros, not per stay, but per person,Read more per day!!! So, given I like to swim each evening, we booked elsewhere. I have never, ever stayed in a hotel where you had to pay a day rate to use the pool before! (In fact, the Hilton where I am a member of the gym extended my membership by a month for free as I had a 3 week stay in the hotel, and all facilities are free for guests!)
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I have stayed in the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam, while on business, on four previous occasions and, in fairness to the hotel, I liked it. For business I found it to be a good hotel - an expensive hotel, but a good one.

So, when planning a family trip to Amsterdam I decided to 'treat' us all to an Okura stay opting to pay the premium for the opulence and then the additional premium for one of their executive suites.

This led to three sleepless nights and my families’ disaffection with the whole ‘premium’ hotel experience.

The problems started just after midnight on the first night of our stay. Our room, we now know, was directly below the roof top ‘Ciel Bleu Restaurant’ – or to be more specific, the kitchen of the ‘Ciel Bleu Restaurant’ (to be pedantic, the tiled floor of the kitchen of the ‘Ciel Bleu Restaurant’). Between 00:30 and 02:45 on Sunday morning, my wife, our eight year old daughter and I lay in our beds listening to the crash and bash of pots and pans being washed, the clink and chink of glasses and crockery being put away and heavens knows what being repeatedly dragged across the kitchen floor just above our beds.

Our complaints were listened to with empathy, but the hotel was fully booked. We were not able to move to another room.

We just made breakfast, somewhat bleary eyed, before it stopped service in the morning whereupon we where confronted by another issue. Our daughter would be charged the same rate as an adult for breakfast: Thirty Euros (that’s Twenty UK Pounds or Forty US Dollars) which has be the most expensive slice of toast, as that is all my daughter ate for breakfast, in any hotel anywhere.

Sunday night/Monday morning was not as bad. Perhaps the ‘Ciel Bleu Restaurant’ had had a quiet night. Anyhow, we got to sleep by around 01:30.

My wife decided to skip breakfast in the morning opting for an extra half an hour in bed, but asked that we bring her back a croissant. The staff, however, did not think much of that idea and so we came to the next issue. Despite paying another thirty Euros for my daughter’s slice of toast – that is now sixty Euros (Forty Pounds or Eighty Dollars) - for two slices of toast, they objected to my taking a croissant back to the room. The staff suggested that I pay another Thirty Euros (standard buffet breakfast charge), plus room service charge, to have the croissant delivered to the room. Needless to say that I left the croissant on the breakfast table and my wife went hungry. I will say that as a consequence of this I was now in the dog house – a noisy, expensive dog house – and everything was my fault. So much for a family ‘treat’!

Monday night/Tuesday morning capped the previous two nights. The noise from the kitchen was preceded by the music from the ‘Champagne and Cocktail Lounge Bar Twenty Third’ (our room was on the twenty second floor). Calls to reception finally managed to reduce the din from both the ‘Champagne and Cocktail Lounge Bar Twenty Third’ and the kitchen of the ‘Ciel Bleu Restaurant’ to a reasonable level, but the occasional accidentally dropped bottle, glass, pot, pan, ladle, cutlery, crockery and who knows what else kept us awake until 03:00.

Between 03:00 and 06:30 on Tuesday morning we had a fantastic sleep. Given the option we would have slept longer, but the final issue put pay to that.

The ‘Okura Executive Lounge’, was next to our room and opens at 07:00. The ‘Okura Executive Lounge’ has a wooden floor. The staff in the ‘Okura Executive Lounge’ are attractive and pleasant young ladies whose smart uniform includes high heal shoes. High heal shoes and wooden floors are not good bed fellows, if it is your intention to sleep that is. Exasperated I trudged down to reception again – in my pyjamas this time, not a pleasant sight for my fellow guests – and vented my thoughts about the Hotel Okura, the ‘Ciel Bleu Restaurant’, the ‘Champagne and Cocktail Lounge Bar Twenty Third’ the ‘Okura Executive Lounge’ and the Sixty Euros for two rounds of toast to the attractive and pleasant young lady whose desk was labelled ‘Guest Relations’ and whose smart uniform included high heal shoes.

I returned to reception a couple of hours later to check out. The attractive and pleasant lady whose desk was labelled ‘Guest Relations’ offered, after listening to my criticisms and much debate, to deduct one nights stay from the bill.

It still is a nice hotel and the staff are very nice and efficient. But, the hotel does not understand or cater for children – do not take yours there. Do not pay the extra on top of the extra to stay at this hotel to stay on the Executive floor (the 22nd), you will get no sleep.

And finally: you (or at least I) usually leave a hotel with a feeling for its rank; ones own star rating if you will. I left the Hotel Okura Amsterdam with a niggling feeling that its modus operandi was that of a money making machine rather than a luxury hotel - the sort of niggling feeling that makes you think when the staff smile at you that there will be a charge for it on your bill. A bad illustration because, as mentioned, the staff were very nice, but the feeling remains and the hotel’s rank, to my mind, is as a consequence a lowly one.