SteveinA2

I stayed in this hotel this week. It was the 4th stay in as many years.

Overall comments

1. The staff seemed to be genuinely helpful. The typical "it is not possible" reply was non existent. Clearly someone has been upgrading the staff and their attitude. Every staff member I passed said hello and smiled. What a pleasant change.

2. On check in the lady said "I'm sorry your room is not ready, it will be an hour, please can you wait...oh you are a frequent traveller - I'll see what I can do"

I moved towards the bell hop and in less than 60 seconds she had run back and got the OK from her manager to move me to a junior suite which was open right away.

Another excellent experience and a great inner room - Personally I hate the canal view rooms due too the noise.

The room was large, bed very comfortable and the bathroom with dual vanities great. Probably not worth the $1300 rack rate but great as a free upgrade from the executive room.

3. The breakfast was unfortunately not as good as I recall. There used to be oranges to freshly squeeze...now replaced with sub par OJ. The food on the buffet was good...but the frequency of replenishment meant that on each of 4 visits (4 days!) not all food was available. Too many open plates or containers were left for too long. Also 27E = $40 was steep for breakfast, although they had a reduction if you chose to dine off peak times (before 9am). I imagine the high price is driven by the fact many rates include breakfast.

4. No paper was delivered any day - but not a problem as many were in the lobby but could have been irritating if I'd ordered room service breakfast.

5. The housekeeping and turndown was better and more reliable than I recall. The cookies, water and chocolates were as good as always (although I don't recall water before)

6. I asked the concierge to book a restaurant and 2 hours later he called back and said it was closed. I happened to walk by it later that evening and it was open and thankfully had room. Not sure why he was not up to speed with their opening hours when a phone call could have confirmed their open times. He booked a cab and there was no problem.

Overall the staff's change in attitude has dramatically improved my perception of this property. I'd recommend it.

/mod

Earlier reports can be found at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...er-thread.html

mod/

ACfly

This attittude speaks volume... As a luxury hotel, this should not matter should it?

elitetraveler

Just returned from a four night SPG award stay at the hotel and I wanted to say the staff was excellent. We were in Room 288 (a junior suite) with a nice sitting room, small but comfortable bedroom and 1.5 baths.

While the room could use an upgrade, the hotel is lovely and the view of the canal from 288 was perfect. The concierge was able to get any reservation we needed and all aspects of the service were first level.

We will definitely be back ^

ZackVLion

i stayed there on a reward stay in july...a few quick comments
1) asked for a canal view when i checked in (im spg gold)...they said everyone wants one so theyre almost all booked but if i could wait until 5pm-ish they could have one available for me. at 5pm when it was ready, a bottle of wine was waiting in the room saying "sorry for making you wait", basically. thought it was a nice touch.
2) id imagine all the rooms are all different sizes and shapes, but my room was very small...and the canal view was alright but imho, id much rather ask for a bigger room next time without a canal view....
3) beds are twins....this is fairly standard around europe, but i hate it....i always feel like im gonna fall off...but i assume thats all they have there...as a side note, in case anyone else hates twin beds...this was what i found during a recent trip around europe: hilton park lane in london: twin beds. sheraton brussels: full size beds. marriott regents park london: full size beds
4) location was excellent. walked many miles (i mean kilometers) everyday. as im sure others have said, the anne frank house is literally a block or two away...staff very nice. concierge very helpful....one thing to note: they have the movie times posted in the lobby for the theaters (just cut out from the newspaper)...i saw a movie playing i wanted to see listed (it was a friday, so i assumed it was opening that day) so i walked down to the theater and it turns out it wasnt opening until the next friday...for some reason they have showtimes for movies that dont open for a week along with all the movies opening that day....perhaps it said in dutch "opening next week!" but i wouldnt have understood...
5) didnt eat at the restaurant, was pretty expensive from what i remember (30-ish euros for an entree).
5) on a side note, i thought amsterdam was by far the most beautiful/greatest city i visited in europe...actually i think my favorite city in the whole word, that ive visited so far. so lovely.

Keith009

Now that I'm staying here the comment about the penis-shaped chocolates make so much sense!!

Not very enamoured by this property actually - feels very threadbare. Wooden floors, plain furnishings. Upgraded to an executive room but it just feels like a B&B instead of a 5 star hotel. I got one of those 2 level rooms with a canal view, which was a novelty but it soon got tiresome climbing the stairs to get to my bed; an especially difficult task at 6am in the morning after a rave!! Great service and very comfy bed though. And I appreciate the comp water and yummy stropwaffle.

And Amsterdam rocks! ^

RDY3238

Currently here....canal view King room. Becomes 100% non smoking in Feb.
Looking pretty worn - Elevators are trashed and dirty. Bed is comfy.

UPDATE: 1.31.08
Noisy, scruffy common areas, I hoped the Hotel would have improved rather than declined since my last stay.
Expectations in check so no surprises. Stay on points. Zero Gold recognition.
Staff very friendly and helpful, but that doesn't substitute for overall property shortcomings.
AMS was great of course...wonderful art and ambiance.

Keith009

My detailed review of the hotel has been posted here, with pics:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...5&postcount=50

Hope that assists.

damon88

Thanks for a well-written (and clever) review Q--

As I was reading it I was trying to decide why the older furniture and quaint layout of the rooms didn't bother us when we stayed at the Pulitzer. After all, we stay in a lot of true luxury hotels and have very high standards.

I think the most important factors were 1) we knew what to expect -- we had viewed photos online and knew that the hotel was furnished more like a flat or apt 2) it was very comfortable and 3) it seemed to fit the atmosphere of the charming Jordaan

I think my biggest disappointments when we travel are when our expectations are not met. After reading all of the wonderful reviews of the Goldener Hirsch, for instance, I was surprised when it was furnished like the Pulitzer-- with older, apt type furniture. I wasn't expecting it and so I was initially disappointed (especially since we had just come from the modern, upgraded Schloss Fuschl and the elegant Imperial)

And I'm sure that at the Pulitzer, as at many hotels in Europe, the furnishings vary in quality from room to room (I know that's true at the Danieli and the Imperial for instance)


We really loved the Pulitzer-- and can't wait to return again. It probably was our most relaxed and comfortable stay we've ever had in Europe.

Keith009

After reading the reviews on FT I kinda knew what to expect decor-wise. So no I wasn't disappointed - just that decor wise my rather low expectations were met. Don't get me wrong, I had a comfy stay. But I've also had comfy stays in B+Bs. I might be more a W or LM Art/Tech person than a St Regis or LC fan, but I was still left wondering what's so luxurious about the Pulitzer given the LC tag - when I've stayed at some LC properties, whose decors I might not be a big fan of but are truly luxurious in every sense of that word.

damon88

I know what you mean-- here in the states we are W afficianadoes and veer toward the modern and upscale. In Europe too, we sometimes choose a more modern option (Hotel Arts Barcelona, Hotel de Russie Rome )


But we have great fondness for the Starwood luxury properties in Europe. Most are in exceptional locations with spectacular views and attentive staffs.
What they lack in modern decor they make up with service and atmosphere.

I'm thinking of the Excelsior in Florence, the Prince de Galles in Paris and the Danieli in Venice-- all places I can't wait to return.

SLF

The website says valet parking is available; does anyone have experience of this, both cost and whether it works well?

stimpy

I haven't tried it there, but personally I would park in a nearby garage myself rather than waiting for one of their staff to get the car.

SQPPS

Dont' stay at the hotel pullitzer! Found this out while spending 500 dollars a night and was "upgraded" to an executive room, which I found out later was about 30% smaller than the room I had originally reserved with lower ceilings.

room service was ordered but never delivered...different departments never minded to answer the telephones.

in general there was nothing luxurious about it.

Stay at the Dylan or Hotel Europe if you go to Amsterdam

Colin

I love the Pulitzer. Love Amsterdam. Love the hotel bar and the gym with free bottled water. The key at the Pulitzer is to always upgrade to specialty select rooms. The basic rooms suck.

SanDiego1K

I've just moved SQPPS's thread into the master thread, and deleted the posts asking that I do so. First, though, I split the master thread. It had to be one of the longest we have in the Starwood forum. When a thread gets so long, the amount of information becomes overwhelming.

I decided to split it beginning with 2006 posts, though debated with doing so at the start of 2007. ACfly and others had posted very informatively in 2006, and I didn't want that information to get lost in the older thread. Also, the GM for the Starwood area posted in 2006. If you think I should have split it at the start of 2007 instead, please PM me.

Otherwise, I return you to the discussion of the Pulitzer, which from my reading of posts from the past two years, appears to have very mixed reactions from FTers.

SanDiego1K
Starwood mod