Hotel Pulitzer Amsterdam, a Luxury Collection hotel
Prinsengracht 315-331
Platinum recognition was quite good at this hotel. I could see that my reservation was upgraded to an ‘executive room’ the night before, which turned out to be a 2 floor mini suite. I was also asked if I wanted late check out without prompting. Went for the 500 points for my Plat amenity again.
The décor of this hotel was pretty strange. I came to Amsterdam to visit the Anne Frank Huis, but I didn’t expect to sleep in its replica. The hotel had pretty quaint looking furniture throughout, and there were odd corridors you had to negotiate to get to your room. As much as I don’t mind looking at museums and theme parks at times, I don’t think I want to stay in them. At least the Hotel Eden felt like a proper luxury hotel.
I got a canal-view room. As mentioned my room was split into 2 floors, with the bed on the upper floor. This was cute at first but after the novelty wore off it got tiresome climbing stairs just to get to bed, which was an especially difficult task after I got home from a rave one morning! I’d considered sleeping on the sofa as I didn’t want to risk falling off the stairs, but didn’t want to wake up with an even worse hangover.
The bed was superb, one of the best I’ve ever slept on and possibly even nicer than some Heavenly and Wonderful Beds! The mattress was SO soft, and the duvet sumptuous. The rest of the furniture was comfy but looked pretty cheap and worn.
There was also a rather cramped bathroom, filled with some pretty crappy bath amenities. They all smelt odd, and the conditioner was rather watery. I resorted to using my own stuff which I’d brought for emergencies like this.
I had a stropwaffle and a complimentary bottle of water in my room daily. And a card containing info about the next day’s weather and some ‘this day in history’ trivia (seemed like something significant happened historically each day of my stay!), as well as some penis-shaped chocolates (no other way to describe this!!) during turndown.
What was supposed to be an image of the phallic chocolates – see photobucket agrees with me!
The service was pretty good at this hotel. The concierge got me a table at some pretty good restaurants with very little notice. Staff were all extremely efficient and only too eager to help. The hotel also owns a boat (named
The Tourist), and organizes private boat tours on it for hotel guests. The tour leaves daily at 1700 and lasts for approximately an hour and 15 minutes – there were only 3 pax on mine (a couple and myself) and so we were able to get a very personalized tour from our excellent guide.
The location of the hotel is very central and within walking distance to everything – the shopping, restaurants, coffee, nightlife, Anne Frank Huis, the red light district etc.
On the whole this hotel’s strengths are its staff, location and that very comfy bed. However the quirky décor, cheap furnishings in general, and poor bath amenities make it feel more like a B+B, and I do not see how it’s a 5 star hotel, let alone ‘luxury.’
Next: Amsterdam; BA8116/2490 AMS-xLGW-BCN whY; Le Meridien Barcelona