Trip Reports - What on earth is going on in Amsterdam this week?

So I drive to LHR and try to buy a one-way biz ticket to AMS. BA is twice the cost of KL so I go with KL. Even in biz, there are only middle seats available. Ah, that's why BA costs more. Oh well, OK. I call up Intercontinental and ask for a room in Amsterdam. Sorry, but we are all sold out. But I'm Royal Ambassador, I say. Sorry sir, but you have to reserve 72 hours in advance to get into a sold out hotel. And all our reservations are guaranteed. Oh well, I say, I'll try Starwood as I am Platinum there. Starwood says, no dice. Every hotel in Amsterdam is sold out for a large congress. What congress? No one seems to know.

I call Amex Centurion. The best they can do is Rotterdam. So I fly to AMS figuring I'll just walk up to a hotel and squeeze in somewhere. By the time I arrive it is 8pm and there should be cancellations. No dice! I try walking around Central Station to the dive hotels. They each have a sign on the door saying "NO ROOMS". Even the 1 star hotels! I finally find a tourist hotel booking shop and they have a 2 star hotel for me for €80 plus a €12 booking fee. It's a 25 minute walk, so I took a taxi for €14. It cost so much since he had to take a roundabout route since the streets are all torn up for the new metro that will take 10 years to be built.

I get to the Hotel Linda and yes, they have a room for me. On the 4th floor. No elevator. And the stairs from 3 to 4 are like climbing a ladder. And I had two heavy bags. Ugh. This is not luxury! But oh well. I can't have the Four Seasons every day.

So what is going on that takes up every hotel room in the city? I have never had that happen to me in any major city in the world. I am safely ensconced in a wonderful 4-star hotel in Paris now, licking my wounds, but wondering what happened in AMS?

Amsterdam's popular at the best of times, but you're in prime conference season at the moment. Hotels get booked up waaaaay in advance. This week is METS - the Marine Equipment Trade Show.

Personally, I end up booking apartments in this situation. http://www.de-monnik.nl/ is a personal favourite.

On my first extended trip to Europe 13 years ago, my girlfriend and I had the misfortune of arriving in Frankfurt during their massive booksellers congress, at about 11pm after not having found any rooms in Mainz where we had planned to spend the night. Thanks to a very kind concierge at one of the major hotels (I want to say the I-C), we got directions to the last S-Bahn of the night to Wiesbaden where they had sent some of their walked customers. At about 2am, we got to this little 2* (just what we were looking for) and the cops were trying to get the proprietor to take in a drunk for a night and the proprietor was telling the cops "no rooms." So now even if there really is a room free, we're not going to get it! :mad:

We were ready to spend the night in the Wiesbaden train station when I spotted over the rooftops the familiar curvature of the top of a Holiday Inn sign. Ten minutes and $209 later (about four nights worth of budget), we were in the "luxury" of a sterotypical American hotel, sufficiently exhausted that we decided to make use of both of the two double beds!

Lesson learned: always check the convention schedules when planning out a vacation!!

Actually - meant to point out before - using the HRS (http://www.hrs.de/) booking engine, it'll tell you if there's a major conference on, so you can understand why the rates are so high...

And stimpy, even if you had gotten a room at a decent hotel, the price would have been through the roof!

I attend a trade show in AMS each Sept that takes over the entire town. Even the dive places jack up their rates cuz they know it's a captive market. The Marriott goes from 219E to 395E during the days of the show; doesn't matter if you're there for the show or not. ALL the hotels raise their rates during primetime & they can get away w/ it since European cities aren't like a Vegas w/ a gazillion # of rooms.

Cheers & better luck next time. Sharon

Thanks Stut for that HRS link.

Sharon, I can't believe anything like this would ever happen in Paris or London. I guess AMS is just too short of rooms. And you are right about the price gouging they do.

No idea what's going on there. I am home this weekend, but in Rotterdam there is nothing special and you could have gotten a nice Westin there. But it is at least 45-60 min from Amsterdam by car when traffic is at least running. In Hilversum and Oegstgeest you could have found a nicer room for a lot less.

AMS hotels cost a fortune, Blakes always over 300 EUR, the IC and *Wood not much less, around 250 EUR all the time. Crazy, for bad hotels with old interior and below average service.