Renaissance Hotel Amsterdam Schiphol Airport [Master Thread]
 

Just noticed this new hotel on the website of Marriott. The hotel should open in Q3-2018. I just looked up the location and it's not a hotel anywhere near Amsterdam..

So be aware when you book, from what I can see they do not offer shuttle services and there is no real option to use public transport from Schiphol airport. I am from the area and if you want to use this hotel as an airport hotel or you want to do a citytrip to Amsterdam there are much better options. Do not want to be negative, just a warning ;)

I mentioned it in the Amsterdam family thread yesterday, including that it's not near the airport & doesn't offer a free shuttle. Was going to create a stand-alone through next year as it got closer to opening, but no problem w/ starting one now & good to have a local perspective.

Cheers.

From a press release re: Renaissances. Excerpt:

"The design of the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hotel draws inspiration from Amsterdam Bos, the city’s largest park situated adjacent to the hotel. Because the verdurous park was created in the beginning of the twentieth century, at the same time as Dutch modern art, architecture and design gained popularity, the hotel is peppered with playful unexpected moments that reveal a sense of time and place. Notably, the interiors juxtapose a natural color palette with high gloss furniture, contemporary accents and a modern twist on famous Dutch art throughout the public spaces, buzzy bar and guestrooms."

Booked a stay here for early October. Anyone stayed here yet? Looks like they have decided to offer a free airport shuttle after all, which made the difference for us. Is there an executive lounge open yet or will be captive to the restaurant?

Room description doesn't mention anything about an exec lounge. Please do a trip report after your stay. Thx!

Cheers.

After seeing this posting, I decided to cancel my stay at the Renaissance Amsterdam and stay here instead. I am looking for something close to the airport where I can get some work done. This looks like it will definitely fit the bill. I am staying next week. I will post a review after I arrive.

It's not that close to the airport & might take a similar amount of time to get there. But look forward to your trip report. Thx!

Cheers.

I've stayed in the hotel twice so far. I've been happily surprised by their readiness in the first days after opening: the hotel seemed fully operational. Bar, restaurant (dinner and breakfast), rooms.. most things seemed to be up and running. I believe the official opening date was September 24th (last week Monday). Some general comments:

Reservation
Went smoothly, just like any other hotel via the Marriott app/website.

Transportation
The hotel has a shuttle to Schiphol airport, running about once per hour. It's a 10-15 min. drive but they take a margin because they have to cross a canal-bridge that can be open for a while. I arrived by car and the parking in front of the hotel was not fully operational yet last week (barriers opened and closed randomly), that seems to be fixed now. The barriers open and automatically register your number plate - when leaving the parking your number plate is recognized again and then shows the amount you have to pay. Even though I asked the reception to put the charges on my bill, I have been stuck at the exit twice. This morning I had to call the hotel reception with my cell phone from my car because I was stuck at the exit barrier, they asked me to leave the car, walk back to the hotel, discuss what I wanted to discuss at the front desk, then go back to my car. In total it took me almost 20 minutes to exit the parking, which had me running late for a meeting. It probably has to do with the opening phase.

Check-in
Long wait (about 12-13 minutes) to check-in. One desk available, about 5 people in line. Platinum status was recognized, got free breakfast offered since there is no lounge (explicitly limited to continental, both at check-in and during the breakfast) and a message that the room was upgraded, though I don't know to what since the room didn't meet any of the specifics of room types different from what I booked.

Rooms
I got a room on the 2nd floor, nice room, no specific view or characteristics.
Nice design, very Amsterdam-ish with a touch of the forest (Amsterdamse Bos) next to the hotel.
The rooms are quite noisy: you can easily hear doors from surrounding rooms opening and closing or listen to conversations in the corridor. Curtains are dark enough to continue sleeping when the sun comes up. The a/c seems to work fine. There are a couple of 220v European power outlets, though I expected at least some USB-outlets and a bit more power outlets. Had to unplug the coffee machine or a light to use the iron, for example.
The bathroom has a rain shower and a separate showerhead, the shower is very spacious. The towels seemed to be high-quality heavy towels, but they were quite molting and left a lot of towel fluff behind. Had to wash my hair again after drying them with the towel, because of white fluff spread out everywhere.
The room was pretty dirty (many hairs in the bathroom, dust in the closets and shelves, leftover construction materials in the corners and so on. Housekeeping hasn't visited my room once during my 3 days stay. No clean towels, nothing. I wouldn't have posted it it was based on one experience, but since it happened both times it's worth mentioning. Have another stay in two weeks so I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Wifi
A serious remark on the state of wifi. I have stayed in 2 different rooms and both had an extremely slow internet connection: ping 150+ms, downstream 0,1-0,4 mbps / upstream 2-4 mbps. I couldn't even manage to load marriott.com or other not too heavy web pages. I've tried several times between 19h-midnight and 7h-9.30am. In the bar, the internet seemed to work fine.

Staff
In general staff is very friendly. Reception staff lacks competence in following-up on basic stuff: my room didn't have a remote control for the TV, called the reception and I had to call back 45 minutes later because they forgot it. Same for additional shower gel that I asked for and new towels (since housekeeping didn't visit my room) - had to call or pass by the reception at minimum twice to get easy requests done. Also, the parking issue, resolved via the reception, took way too much time.
Bar and restaurant staff are very motivated, friendly and caring even though they've possibly worked day and night to get everything ready for the opening date. Same goes for the room divisions manager, whom I occasionally crossed in the hallway.

Bar / Restaurant
Nice bar and restaurant, quite busy already in the first week. Had a very nice dinner, prices are okay for the Amsterdam area. As described very caring staff, good menu and good food. The bar was a bit pricey. Breakfast though strictly limited (and enforced) to continental breakfast for platinums using vouchers had more than enough choice in bread, pastries, dairy, juices, Dutch cheeses, meat, some fish, fruits etc.

Gym
I've walked to the gym once, but since there were no towels or water bottles/cups I went to the reception to ask for it. Then a very friendly associate convinced me to run in the forest instead and that was very convenient, just across the road there's a forest/park with easy running tracks. Haven't used the gym in the end.

I've paid around 110 euro/night for the first stay, 80 euro/night the second stay. Prices seem to be pretty low now, matching the surrounding Steigenberger and Tulip Inn. Since the hotel is located in the municipality of Aalsmeer city taxes are really low as well. For the total price I've paid I've had a very good stay and I will most probably come back, hoping the cleaning and reception issues will be resolved when the hotel is fully up and running.

Thanks for the detailed trip report. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

Cost? Doubt Sheraton is going for 80-110E/night (but agree it's a good property).

Cheers.

Just checked out yesterday after a 2 day stay. Picked the location due to the seemingly below market price (82 euro/night I believe) knowing it would be 30-40 minutes each way to get into the city each day. Overall pleased with the visit although they still have a bit of work to do as they move from soft launch to full launch.

Good:

• Rooms are good size for Europe with exactly what you'd expect in a brand new Renaissance
• Breakfast in restaurant for Platinum+ is one of the better buffets I've seen for the brand
• Staff is friendly and looking to help (especially as they're learning and figuring out things for the first time)
• Check in was quick, recognized status and gave "upgrade" but seems like all rooms are pretty much the same and there are no worthwhile views

Needs Improvement

• Shuttle from airport. It runs a 40 minute loop, and at least twice in 3 days I'm convinced it didn't make the scheduled pickup at airport. There is also no signage at airport helping you find it (C23 is the correct spot, not the A area where most other hotel shuttles pick up). FYI current schedule is first hotel departure at 6 AM, first airport pickup is 6:20 and runs until around midnight.
• Toiletries. At arrival the room had 2 lotions and 2 conditioners. After first day maid service we had 2 lotions and 1 shampoo.
• No international power outlets in rooms and no adapters to buy/borrow at front desk. There are 2 USB outlets by the bed, but I couldn't charge my laptop after discovering I forgot my travel adapter at home. Friendly front desk agent happened to have HP power cord he was willing to loan me the first day which was awesome, but had to pick up a new adapter at the airport the next morning.

Tips

• I originally thought the WiFi speeds were atrocious (<2 mbps down, 2-10 up) which was preventing me from getting much work done. Then I wondered if I was getting the regular level instead of the enhanced since I was auto-logged in through the new Marriott feature. After a little googling to see if I could upgrade, i found internetupgrade.marriott.com which let me enter my name & room number to sign up for enhanced and boom I was back in modern era. Don't plan on anything with the regular tier of internet.
• Without a car you're going to be captive to the hotel for food unless you're looking to take the airport shuttle which will take at least an hour round trip. Not sure if there are any food options if you take the 5-10 minute walk across the main road to the office park.
• Discovered several brand new bikes sitting outside the entrance on our last day. Assume they could be borrowed, not sure how much is within reasonable biking distance.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5b9881efec.png
This could be a reason..

You've made my day! I just tried it and the wifi now literally goes 10 times faster. I already went to the reception 3 times to ask if they could move me to a room closer to their access point or any other solution - in the end they gave me the password to their staff network. Didn't work either. The page that you've shared here directed to a Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol branded web page for gold and platinum members - strange that front desk staff isn't aware of its existence.