wkndtraveler

Introduction It was time to return to Amsterdam after a few years' break and I decided without hesitation to stay at Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam because of good experiences in past. It's easily reachable by foot from the central railway station.First issue: no one welcomed guests nor helped with the luggage. We dragged everything inside by ourself. Check In Check-in procedures could have been in any hotel. I’ve been at this hotel three times and still it was necessary to give credit card, scan passport and sign doucments. No thank you for the loyalty and wrong Le Club status in the papers.After all the paperwork had been done, the experience improved: a front of house manager and a guest relations officer came to personally greet us before a butler guided us to the room which was ready before 12pm.I had booked a superior room and, according to the butler, got upgraded to a luxury room which is the next category. On the way to our room the butler explained the facilities and our benefits. Really nice personalized service.Later, we were moved to a prestige suite due to some issues in the luxury room. You’ll find more about it below.Art work above the front desk.Lobby.Welcome treats beside the font desk.Cold towels are always nice.Altar of celebrities.Lenny Kravitz, too, was here.Stairs leading to rooms. Luxury room The room was splendid: spacious and well-equipped. However, the location of it wasn’t the most ideal: next to elevators – opposity to my preference, actually.At check-in, we were informed that housekeeping is making a final inspection in our room. Despite that, I found a good amound of leftover goodies of a previous customer in the minibar.Also, shower hadn’t been cleaned properly. There were finger prints and soap marks in the chromed faucet which is unacceptable for any hotel not to mention a five-star luxury hotel that charged us over 900 euros for a two-night stay.The front of house manager was very apologetic and offered to move us to one of the prestige suites which we accepted. Prestige suite The suite was lovely. It had a large living room, a separate bedroom, a handy walk-in closet, a huge bathroom and two toilets.Unlike the luxury room, the suite had fresh flowers. However, the suite didn’t come with Bose audio player which I found odd. Both the luxury room and the prestige suite had two big bottles of mineral water and plenty of Hermes bath amenities. As too often in Sofitel, dental and shaving kits needed to be requested.The suite had added amenities, though: Ritual’s hand cream and Evian’s morning face spray. Very nice. Our butler proactively offered to prepare an oil bath for us while we were having dinner outside, free of charge of course. Again, amazing. Service The service was exemplary almost everywhere in the hotel, housekeeping being the only department leaving room for improvement. It was just indifferent. For example, the used bath amenities weren’t always replenished and sometimes towels weren’t changed, not to mention the cleaning issues we had in our first room. They need to pay attention to details. Dining The hotel has a Michelin-star restaurant called Bridges. It’s owened by the hotel and breakfast is served there, too.The breakfast was mostly of high quality. Guests could collect items from the buffet and order hot dishes from an extensive menu. They also had dim sums which, unfortunately, were just okay. Considering the price, almost 40 euros, chamapange should be included to the breakfast instead of charging extra for it.We ate once in Bistro that shares same kitchen with the Bridges. The ”Michelin-star” burger we had was super good.Bistro.Bistro bar.Breakfast.Bridges.Flying Dutchman bar.Library bar. Location Very central, walkable location. The central railway station and shopping streets were within 5–10 minutes walk. Spa Too few hotels in Europe has a spa. Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam is one of those that has: a swimming pool and two different kind of saunas, beside a tiny gym. It was nice to use after exploring the city. Loyalty treatment In addition to the early check-in and the room upgrade I, as a platinum member, received a drink voucher that could be used for anything at the bar called Flying Dutchman, including a glass of Collet champagne.Newspaper was brought to room each day and late check-out was granted until 4:30pm without fuss.We received two welcome gifts, one in each day: first yammy marmalades and then dark chocolate butterflies. In both days we also got a fruit platter. I liked the stories on how the hotel has inspired their pastry chef. Those were provided with the delicacies.The management of the hotel organizes cocktail hours every uneven Thursday. This isn’t advertied anywhere which is weird. We just coincidentally happened to go to the bar just at the right time. There weren’t much people and we had a good talk with one of the guest relations officers. Champagne was on the house. I hope more hotels would do the same.Welcome letter.Drink voucher.Drink voucher.First welcome amenity: marmalades.Story of the marmalades.Second welcome amenity: chocolate butterfly and fruits.Story of the butterflies. Overall The hotel is really nice and that’s what one should expect for the price. It’s very pricey and thus there shoudn’t be any troubles, really. Even though there were some things I wasn’t very happy about, the management solved them quick after pointed out. 8/10.