I recently spent a night at the new Maashotel in Rotterdam. The hotel will eventually be called DoubleTree by Hilton Rotterdam Centre. It will use this temporary name until the conversion is completed. Until recently it was called 'Inntel hotel' and earlier it said 'Golden Tulip Hotel' on the roof. Initially the building was erected in a standard block-shape, with bedrooms on floors 2 to 7, and with a slightly protruding wellness floor on top. At the beginning of this century, a tower was added, twice as high, with rooms overlooking the river. On the top of the tower they placed an imposing "baseball cap" floor. It contained meeting and event spaces and as I believe also a sky bar. But this floor is not open currently. In any case, they are no luxury penthouses, as you might think when you see those huge balconies.

From 1989 to 2001, an IMAX movie theater was located next to the hotel. It went bankrupt and remained unused for years. At a certain point it was purchased by neighbour Inntel to be replaced with an even more luxurious hotel called Mainport. That hotel is also going to adapt to a Hilton-formula and become a member of Curio Collection. The hotels are connected. To have diner or use the bar, you can walk from Maashotel via a short hallway to Mainport. Maashotel's own bar 'Water' (who would call a bar 'water'? That wouldn't attract any English, would it? They would have better called it Tea!) isn't open and neither is the restaurant-area, except for breakfast. That is a bit of a shame, because it does look attractive and the view is quite nice. But luckily you can enjoy that during breakfast!

The entrance to Maashotel has a grand-looking glass canopy. But afterwards it is uninviting because there is a bit of a wet mop smell when you enter the building. This could be a temporary problem - I happen to experience this now and then, and it will be resolved on my next visit. The hotel name refers to the branch of the 'Rhine'-river it is located on, which is called 'Mass' by the locals.

Although it is not yet a DoubleTree, as an Honors member you are entitled to the usual benefits, such as free breakfast and 1000 points per stay. But you'll have to forgo on the 300-calorie cookie. And probably because I booked my room with a very low number of points I didn't get a free upgrade either (nor did I ask for one). Initially, when the booking window for both new hotels opened, I immediately booked the cheapest possible night (in points) in the adjacent Mainport Hotel, thinking: those Curios will only increase in price over time. But before all else the opposite happened. A few days later all rates and points for both hotels dropped by about 35% on many days. So I canceled my first booking. And immediately got the 37,000 points back, so well done Hilton Honors IT!

After this, I more or less accidentally did not book the Mainport hotel again but I picked the Maashotel - the names then are so very much alike. It's also partly because they put a misleading photo on the Maashotel hotel page. It is a picture of a classic 'Mies van der Rohe' Barcelona Chair - and you expect to find such chairs in a luxury hotel like Mainport. But if you look closely at the picture, you'll notice these chairs are placed on the 16th floor of the Maashotel. But no worry, at a later date I will spent a weekend at the Mainport, for just 33,500 points per night average! Did the trick again, now it's only 28,000 per night (city view, because harbour view bedrooms are nearly twice as many points at Mainport.)

At the Maashotel I could choose between city view for 26,000 points or harbour view for 28,000. Again this was the cheapest night I could find. In any case, I would recommend everyone to book a 'harbour view', which gives much more of the local 'vibe' with that sight of the water and the ships and water taxis. 'Eg wel!' as they would add in Rotterdam. (which means really!!)

I slept in the back room on the 7th floor, which I selected myself via online check in. The app didn't contain a map, but I guessed: the highest number would be the back room and this was correct. Although it was furthest from the road, you could clearly hear car traffic passing over the metal deck of the bridge if you kept the window open. I think next time I will choose a room a lower number, maybe 720, for a slightly different view. I will upload more pics and a deeper review soon.

Layout of the hotels room numbers (wasn't available in the app). The tower rooms are 702-716/17.