Dorint Sofitel Amsterdam Airport, Amsterdam

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Excellent
Quality of Rooms	Excellent
Standard of Service	Excellent
Quality of Facilities	Excellent

Advantages:	Clean, Helpful Staff, More facilities than you know what to do with
Disadvantages:	A bit pricy a dn not an everyday stopover

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently had the pleasure to stay at this fine establishment during two 3-day trips to Amsterdam, in the NEtherlands. I choose it for it's facilities, and also it's closeness to Schiphol Airport.

When you first look at the hotel on the net or in a magazine, it looks wonderful - not in the sunny beaches and tropical palm treese sense, but in the calm, relaxing, multi-facility sense, and I have to say it lives up to that image perfectly. Being partially sighted myself, things such as the provision of lifts, good lighting and helpful staff were important to me, and these are the sorts of things I'll focus on in this summary.

The hotel is located, as said before close to Schiphol International Airport. In fact you can see the aircraft arriving and departing from runway 19R from that side of the hotel. The hotel is a multi-storey affair, with 300+ rooms. I was on the second floor, in room 284.

On arrival in Amsterdam I was handed over to a representative from the hotel by the KLM ground staff, who then took me to said hotel using the frequent shuttle service between it and the airport. On arrival, I was quickly checked into my room with minimal fuss and with enthusiastic assistance in completing the standard set of arrival forms. Entrance to the room was via a card and didital keylock, with negated the need for keys. On first entering the room, I was pleasantly surprised by the bright and airy atmosphere and the spaciousness of the place. There was a large bed, wall mounted Satellite TV with (I think) DVD player, mini-bar with fully stocked fridge, telephone and wall power. There were also other ammenities such as clock/radio, and towels and full kit in the en-suite bathroom.

The bed was most confortable. In fact since coming back home I've taken to using two blankets just like in the hotel, I likeed the arrangement so much. i was also able to reach the wall power easily so that I could use my laptop in bed, and the cabinet/table beside the bed gave plenty of room for working. The phone was also within easy reach, with free inter-hotel calls. The reception was more than happy to dial outside numbers for me, although I would have had to pay fairly highly for internationally. As this hotels seems the type of place where businessmen and wealthy tourists would stay, I would recommend those travelling with a laptop use VoIP (Voice over IP) (see my reviews on Skype and other products) for their international calls. Incidentally I was able to use a nearby wireless network to get free 14mbps broadband, and between you and me that's perfect for downloads or watching TV/streaming video over the net.

Room service was prompt and efficient. On the one occasion I had to order drinks for the fridge as I'd run out at `1am, they wer more than happy to oblige. the bar and restaurant downstairs are both nice and spacious, with reasonable prices and free meals depending on your tariff, although I didn't eat much down there. It is also a good place to meet other guests, as particularly at the weekends many guests can be found sitting around chatting. The atmosphere there is really quite informal.

Finally the price. Face it, it's pricy. For the amount of stuff you're getting, not to mention the quality of the establishment and the level of service it's going to be considerably more expensive than other hotels. It is of course a 5 star hotel, and prices for a decent stay will typically be over £120 a night. However, this is really nothing for what you're getting.

These are the main points that I thought prudent to mention. By the way, language was never a problem. I do speak some Dutch, broken though it undoubtedly is, but the staff were more than happy to correct me when I made a mistake (of which I made many). They also speak fluent English, French and German.

If you're on business, your company is paying the bill, or you've got money to burn, you can do no wrong by going here. Just remember to have fun and milk it for all it's worth, you won't regret it.

Cheers.

Hussein.