The staff at this hotel is unbelievably helpful and friendly. Every single person I interacted with during a recent stay was wonderful and went out of their way to answer questions, make arrangements for us, and generally be amazing.

The canal view rooms are quite nice and I did not find noise from the street to be bothersome. The hotel's location is fantastic for exploring the Negen Straatjes area, and easily accessible from all of the major stations via trams that stop just a few minutes' walk away, but it's also located in the middle of a relatively quiet canal block, which is perfect.

I suspect that noise from the bar area might be irritating in a standard atrium room on a Saturday evening, as they have a DJ - but to be fair, it wasn't even as loud in the bar as I was afraid it might be.

The a la carte breakfast options are solid. There's no shortage of places to eat nearby, but if your status or rate includes the Garden Room breakfast, I would not hesitate to dine in. The buffet looked decent as well (more than decent by Dutch hotel standards as far as I can tell) but I stuck to ordering from the menu since they had so many good selections. The piped-in bird sounds in the Garden Room, which sound like they would be corny and ridiculous, actually work really well with the view of the meditation garden within the hotel.

There's a free Jenever tasting in the bar every evening from 5-6pm, where you can try both young and old style Jenever and learn a bit about its history as well as its role as an ancestor of gin.

All in all, this is a very nice, exceptionally well run, well situated property. It will definitely be tops on my list to consider for future Amsterdam visits.