Amsterdam Marriott [Master Thread]
 

It's been awhile since there were any posts about the Amsterdam Marriott - NOT the REN. Does anyone have any recent experience at the hotel ?

Any suggestions about better / larger rooms or the hotel in general would be appreciated. I'm not a MR premium member so an upgrade to club seems unlikely.

Traveling there in early Oct on business.

Thanks in advance.

Yes - I stayed there for 4 days in June 2002.

I am not sure I recieved an upgrade as I was on an award ticket but the room was perfectly adequate. I was on the 5th floor facing downtown. (I requested it in advance and as a plat. member was given it) It is definately worth seeing if you can get access to the concierge lounge as it is one of the best I have seen. Great picture windows overlooking the canals and great food.

While the hotel is perfectly fine, the best thing about it is the location. It is perfectly situated for business and touring. Walk everywhere! Have a good trip!

I stayed at the Marriott at the beginning of September (as usual, I checked in without showing my Platinum card, without asking for an upgrade and/or amenity):
- I stayed one night; got a good weekend-rate (booked via web - so the hotel had my profile with status)
- upgrade to the lounge level. The room was nice, new and - as usual with Marriott - very functual.
- platinum amenity: water, chocolate, fruit basket, cashew nuts
- lounge: offers a varienty of soft drinks, you've to pay for alcoholic beverages, breakfast was quite good for a lounge

I arrived early in the morning (10.00am). The room was already prepared. The service was superb in the hotel.
Express check-out worked very well: my bill was correct - so I could leave without going to the cashier.

As already mentioned in older threads: the location of the hotel is very good:
-Public transport is 50m in front of the hotel
- Leidseplein offers a variety of night live (actually there are two interesting night live destricts: Leidseplein and Jordaan)
- Rijksmuseum http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/ and Van Gogh museum http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/ are in walking distance (5-10min)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif Thumbs up for my recent stay. I'll return.

Platinum upgrade Marriott AMS - what a pain!!
 

Marriott Platinum member, booked at the Marriott Amsterdam, Leiseplein, a regular deluxe room, through Marriott's website. Checked in 7 Oct through 10 Oct. Upon checkin, refused to upgrade to exec. level, although was given club access. They stated no exec. rooms avail. Checked online and thru Marriott reservations, found exec. level rooms were indeed avail. Went to front desk, spoke with front desk mgr, who stated they expected to sell out the exec. level rooms, thus no upgrade. He acknowledged they had not done so, and for entire stay, exec rooms were avail. But again, he stated they thought they would sell. Finally, as a "good will gesture" they put me on the exec floor (better beds and amenities). First time this happenned to me as PLT at any Marriott. Is this normal?? Where they can refuse to upgrade rooms for PLT's although avail for stay?

MileGuy

You may want to read the response from Marriott corporate on this matter just last week in this thread. It is the bottom half of the first post.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum63/HTML/003300.html

Yes, this is very very normal at Marriott. Thus, why I have switched to staying with Starwood as much as possible. As a Platinum for over 3 years now (first 2 years at over 150+ nights each), I have only received a suite upgrade 2 times. Most US and Canadian hotels do upgrade to the Concierge floor though, but is not the case in Europe or Asia. I have stay at the New York Marriott Eastside (I really do like the hotel) at least 15 times (and am there today as well) this year, without ever seeing a Conceirge level room or a suite.

Stayed there for 2 nights about 18 months ago. Got an upgrade to a suite on the club level without asking. Maybe they have a recent change of management and/or policy.

Amsterdam hotel, that is.

[This message has been edited by boltor (edited 10-18-2003).]

Thanks for the heads up I was just going to book 5 nites there. I am going to book it at the Swissotel instead who always goes out of their way to upgrade me.
Even if I only do 14 nites a year there!
Pathetic policy and sad. What a way to destroy the loyalty effect.

------------------
AA & Starwood,Marriott Platinum
Hyatt, Hilton Diamond
Swissotel Club Gold
U/A 1k

Amsterdam Marriott
 

Anyone stayed at the Amsterdam Marriott? I have three nights there in mid February. Any opinions/thoughts/comments negative or positive?

First of all welcome to FT.

And before upgrademe can respond I would suggest you try this link located in the upper right of this screen....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forumcgi/se...tro&default=63

I think you will find plenty of information to answer any question you may have. The search function will bring up links that will answer most of your questions. If you find one that is close but no cigar, asked the question in that thread. This keeps the number of threads small and makes searching for answers in the future easier to find.
If the search does not answer your questions I'm sure folks here can answer them for you.

Again welcome.


[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited Jan 16, 2004).]

Amsterdam Marriott Advice
 

To all:

I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a stay in Amsterdam?

I can choose either the Renaissance or the Amsterdam Marriott...does anyone have any experience with either (or both)?

Thank you in advance. :)

Have stayed at Am Mt. many times. Found it to be good hotel/good location for sights and museums etc. Never stayed at Ren.

Here is a lengthy thread on the topic. Go to the last two pages to find the most recent discussion.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8320/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

I stayed at the Marriott over the summer on SkiAdcock's recommendation. We liked it a lot - nice lounge with substantial snacks and free (incl alcoholic) drinks, great location, etc. Hotel looks old from the outside but everything inside is new. We were upgraded to a large room - there are two rooms on each floor which are larger than the rest. Had a nice view, as well.

Can't comment on the Ren, but we liked the Marriott a lot.

MC over Ren at this time
 

Not knowing when your traveling can affect this, but right now the Renaisance is under a major renovation. the whole of the first level is affected, lobby, restaurant, and public area as well as rooms are torn up and being replaced. The exec lounge too is in a temp. location. Not sure when they will finish all this and no doubt it will be grand in the end, but right now it's a mess. Stay with the Marriott for now.
Both hotels are well located, but in different areas.

Another vote for the Marriott. Great location, good rooms, got a good view too.

Do not stay at the Renaissance. As stated above , it is under renovation. The new thing is they start work at @ 0630. This is fairly absurd. The front desk told me the the start time just began as they are running very late on schedule. I told them the general manager must be an idiot. If you have to begin work at this hour , you need to close the hotel. They indicated that there had been requests for refunds and lots of cancellations. Not just a little noise - it drowned out the TV.

Here is a good thread for information on the Marriott - pictures, too.

Amsterdam Marriott fees?
 

I have seen some complaints that say that the Amsterdam Marriott charges a fee (~$60USD) per night for rooms booked in the Marriott Rewards Program!:td:

Does anyone know if this is true?

If so, isn't that contrary to the spirit of the program?:confused:

I haven't seen that nor experienced it and I've stayed there 2x using MR points. I would advise you to call their reservations department and ask what is up with the rumours.

I was there in Nov on an award stay and didn't pay the fee.

Nope, they don't charge fees.

Cheers.

BTW - here are pics of the AMS Marriott for anyone interested.

http://public.fotki.com/SkiAdcock/ho...rdam-marriott/

Also, a thought just occurred to me. I remember reading either HKG or one of the China Marriotts people thought they were getting charged a fee, but it was some internal accounting thing & the way Marriott/hotel get compensated. There is no fee to the person redeeming awards & normally you never even see the internal stuff. My guess is that how the 'rumor' started w/ AMS Marriott.

Cheers.

People were being charged service fees for award stays at 7 properties in China/Hong Kong until the practice stopped in 2007 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=593969

Ah, that explains why HKG & China came to mind. But other Marriott properties never charged a fee and definitely not AMS Marriott, so the OP can enjoy his/her award stay if s/he goes.

Cheers.

Not true. I had a reward stay at the Amsterdam Marriott (in Leidseplein) less than a month ago. There was no such fee.

Marriott Amsterdam - Trip Report with Video
 

In early March I stayed at the Amsterdam Marriott on a business trip.

I put a video overview together here http://yelloww.net/blog/2009/03/amsterdam-marriott which covers most of what I have in the text of this review, so if you are a visual person, go ahead and skip to the video -- otherwise, read along and watch the video afterwards.

I arrived in Amsterdam on an early flight at 7:30 am. I took a taxi to the hotel which cost 30 euros and arrived at the hotel at 8:30am. I had called ahead to ask for an early check-in, and indeed my room was ready. As a platinum member, I was upgraded to one of the hotels “Corner Executive Suites” room 423 — overlooking the Leidseplein. The staff at the front desk was very pleasant, they asked if this was my first time in Amsterdam, when I said yes, they pulled out a map, and circled a bunch of interesting touristy places that I might want to visit including the Ann Frank House, and the Van Gogh Museum.

The bell-boy showed me to my room and brought my luggage up. The room itself is quite large, with a king size bed. The room has a desk that faces the window so you can see the view while working on your laptop. The window opens so that you can get some fresh dutch air in the room. The desk also has Europoean 220V plugs and a US 120V outlet which is a nice touch. The US outlet is behind a plastic cover, so it took me a little while to find it. There was also an arm chair, and a small table.

The room has two closets that have lights inside when the doors are opened. There is also a well stocked mini-bar refrigerator that also has some room for your own beverages. I don’t typically partake of the mini-bar, but I do like space to store my own beverages so that they stay cool. Above the mini-bar was a pretty neat electric tea-kettle that would heat a cup of water in what seemed like an astonishing 15 seconds.

The bathroom is one of those “two room” bathrooms that has a room with the sink, and a separate room with the toilet and bathtub/shower. The bathtub’s water faucet is one of those that you’ll typically see in European hotels that has separate controls for the temperature and the water flow which is nice so that once you set your temperature, you can just turn the water on and off without fiddling with the temperature. The sink in the bathroom had two light switches, one for the main light, and another for a dim light underneath the sink which makes for a good night light.

The concierge lounge in the hotel is open 6am-midnight every day, with breakfast being served Mon-Fri 6:30am-10:30am, Hourderves Sun-Thurs 5:30pm-7:30pm and Desert Sun-Thurs 7:30pm-9:30pm. When meals aren’t being served, the lounge is open for “snacks” and beverages. In snacks were oranges, apples, kiwis, pretzels, and cookies. The beverages are a fairly wide selection of soft-drinks and coffee/tea. It looks like they *used* to serve breakfast on the weekends, but lounge cutbacks have hit here as well.

The breakfast served was fairly good, although no hot items. Mainly pastries, breads, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cold breakfast meats, cheeses, and fruit.

The dinner Hourderves were quite good, with a different selection every night. One night I had a pretty tasty beef stew with potatoes. Other nights included shrimp cocktails, chicken wings, and meatballs. Dessert was typically Dutch apple pie and another pie or cake selection depending upon the day.

Overall a great hotel, highly recommended if you are making a trip to Amsterdam.

Marriott Amsterdam Video Review: http://yelloww.net/blog/2009/03/amsterdam-marriott

Very cool a video trip report

Great video! We will be staying there in a few weeks so this was a big help-especially the information about the US electrical outlet. We're staying on points and are hoping for a Plat upgrade, too.

Great report. To add to that, I did a very extensive trip report in 9/07 & updated it after my stay in 9/08. BTW - Chris and I had the same room! My trip report includes additional information on getting to the hotel, phone fees, restaurants, 'hold' fees, pictures including of another room, etc, etc.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...9-13-07-a.html

Cheers.

The interesting thing about the "hold" is that MR desk said that even if your stay is on points they "hold" the cost of the room, taxes, and $50.00-$75.00 day. So,even if your room is free and you don't spend a dime (or Euro) extra (highly unlikely) they still put a full hold on the cc.

Really nice job with the video. My wife and I stayed there in April of 1988, which was pre executive lounge, fitness center etc., however it was still a wonderul stay. Unbeknownst to us, we were in town for Queens day, a celebration of the queen's birthday, where it appeared that the entire downtown area was turned into one giant flea market. We only learned of this when a bell man knocked on our door asking if it would be OK to place a string of balloons on our balcony. Of course we said yes and then set out to find the bargains of Amsterdam. Great time, great memories. And April is the time to go with Tulips in bloom.

My guess a MR agent who is ill-informed. I just stayed at a London property last month which is much higher-priced than the AMS Marriott & there was a 100GBP/night hold for incidentals, but that was it. I know the AMS Marriott uses the 75Euro/night hold.

Cheers.

SkiAdcock -- so it was actually reading your trip report before my trip that clued me in to make sure to ask for the upgrade to a "corner executive suite." So thank you for your very detailed trip report as well!


mjtx -- so the bizarre thing about the outlets is that the 2 european outlets are exposed -- but the US outlet is behind a cover. Took me about half a day before I figured out to open the cover to find the US outlet :).

Amsterdam Marriott & Govt rate Overseas Questions
 

1) I found a government rate online at the Amsterdam Marriott. Am I right to assume this is a US federal govt rate (and not Dutch goverment or something)?
2) Would it be ok to just show my US government employee ID (I don't have travel orders because this is leisure travel)? I know at US Marriotts travel orders are not needed, just ID.
3) At the Amsterdam Marriott when I try to pick a room type, I am given the option for "2 Double Beds" or "2 Double Beds Non-Smoking". Rooms with "2 Double beds" are available, but "2 Double Beds Non-smoking" are not available. However it says the Hotel has a smoke free policy. Also someone on tripadvisor said they were given a smoking room on a review from last month. So my question: Does anyone know if this hotel really is smoke free or is that a mistake?

thanks

I can't answer your other two questions, but in answer to #2 there are plenty of Gov rates at MR properties that DO require the traveler to be on official orders and to show them. There are also many that simply require Gov or Military ID and can be used for leisure trips. The simple rule is to always check the rate rules. If they don't specify travel orders or official business you should be OK.

I've never had to show orders at a Marriott.

I didn't stay at that location - but when i traveled on orders in Europe at various random hotels I don't think I ever actually showed them.

Only time I have ever had to show orders was while renting a car at the govt rate in Tucson and Tampa.

According to the hotel's website, it says it's a smoke-free property.

I stay there each year & think it's smoke-free (especially after the renovation), but given I've always been in a smoke-free room never paid attention to the overall. But at the back of my mind I think I remember the bar being smoke-free when I wandered by it on the way to the room so I think they did convert over.

Cheers.

I've never had to show travel orders at a Marriott either. However, for several years now, if you've booked a government rate, they're almost certain to ask you for a Government ID at check-in. That has always sufficed for me whether I'm TDY or on leisure travel.

It was smoke-free when we were there last October, and it was smoke-free a couple of weeks ago when we were there. I expect it's still smoke-free today.

And I don't care - I'd go back in a heartbeat. :)