175 Rooms

I booked online to stay at this hotel in November of last year. It was to be a happy weekend away with my partner to celebrate her 19th birthday. It wasn't to be.

So, we flew out of Gatwick on a foggy Friday late afternoon and arrived in Amsterdam airport as planned. We caught a train shuttle which is located under the airport which headed towards Amsterdam itself. This journey took about 45 minutes. When you get to Amsterdam central station, turn right out of the main doors, not left as we did, which will bring you out into a main square where the tram station is based. Bear left and walk along the main street heading towards the first bridge you will see (of many). To the left of this lies the Amstel Botel which is a floating boat, doubling up as a budget hotel. The hotel is literally two minutes away from the central station, one of the main reasons why we chose it in the first place.

We went to reception where we were served by two very smart, young people. However this is where our problems started. I handed over my booking details to one of the people who tapped the details into her computer. After a minute of tapping away and a few raised eyebrows, she informed us that she couldn't find our booking. Her colleague also tapped away, they conversed in Dutch, then he too confirmed there was no booking. I said "how can this be, as you can see, I have my booking confirmation details including the booking reference number ?" She said that her computer didn't have any such booking which meant that it didn't exist, therefore we woudn't be able to stay in the Amstel Botel and in any case they were completely full with no extra rooms to offer us. The time was roughly 9 o clock at night so as you can imagine, I was tired from travelling therefore wasn't going to go down without a fight. I demanded to speak to someone more senior. They were reluctant at first but complied after some 'friendly persuasion'. This man was Chinese as most of the other staff on the boat turned out to be as we found out later. He spoke to us very abruptly without a care for our situation. When I raised my voice and pointed out how my documents confirmed a booking had taken place and that any mistake that had taken place was firmly his responsibility and not mine, he backed down a little. And as if by magic, a room suddenly became available which we were offered. But at this stage, he offered no apology or even claimed responsibility and in fact thought he was a suffering rough justice.

The room itself was disappointing to put it bluntly. We were paying 89 euros a night for our 2 night stay which roughly equates to £63. I've had a better room in a £15 B&B in Blackpool. It was tiny, cabin like in appearance and there was not enough room to swing a cat. There was just enough room for a double bed, which left you just enough space to work yourself around it. The bathroom was 2 feet by 2 feet. The worst thing though was how cold it was. We were six feet above the waterline, the window was single glazed and the heater barely worked (I think the room was out of action for this reason and only offered to us once I kicked up). We were truly freezing that night.

We went to see the manager of the Amstel Botel who was Dutch. We complained about the room and the breakfast and our poor treatment the night before. He apologized and explained what had happened. The third party booking company they use for taking bookings hadn't forwarded to them our booking or it had been misplaced, therefore our room had been double booked. He said this had never happened before and that usually the third party company were reliable. He also said we couldn't stay the saturday night as they were fully booked but would offer us a free weekend in the future as a token of goodwill. I said I'd never stay there again even if he paid me. I was so furious, we were discounted on our single night to 69 euros, roughly £49 and left.

Across the road from the Amstel Botel just happened to be an agency selling hotel rooms in Amsterdam. So we went inside to find another hotel for the night. I explained our situation to the man who ran the place. He said that this happened on a weekly basis and that I was just one of many with the same story. The booking company weren't to blame at all, the Botel overbooked rooms it seemed at will with the late arrivals the unlucky ones as we were. We found another hotel which was absolutely fantastic and we enjoyed the rest of our stay thoroughly. The double booking at the Botel turned out to be a blessing in a way.