Hampshire Hotel Savoy, Amsterdam

I haven’t written anything for Ciao in a really long time, and for some reason today, I decided time had come to write a new review. I have visited a lot of places lately, mostly as weekend breaks, and I always love to share my experience.
My review is based on personal experience and is more a story of my stay than a list of features. If you are after the latter, I recommend you check their website. But if you read my story, you will know ...
...mind hearing about my personal ageing issues, and lots more unnecessary details, read on.

How I came to book this hotel
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Last December, I turned 25. In the past few years, I have come to hate birthdays. They make me feel depressed, I always have high expectations on how great the day will be, and let’s face it, it is just a normal day, ... more

I haven’t written anything for Ciao in a really long time, and for some reason today, I decided time had come to write a new review. I have visited a lot of places lately, mostly as weekend breaks, and I always love to share my experience.
My review is based on personal experience and is more a story of my stay than a list of features. If you are after the latter, I recommend you check their website. But if you read my story, you will know not to trust it too much! So, if you don’t mind hearing about my personal ageing issues, and lots more unnecessary details, read on.

How I came to book this hotel
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Last December, I turned 25. In the past few years, I have come to hate birthdays. They make me feel depressed, I always have high expectations on how great the day will be, and let’s face it, it is just a normal day, so I always end up disappointed and dreading the next one! I guess a lot of people probably feel the same, but I’m sad I have cone to feel this way.
In October, I started thinking about how I would survive turning 25. Other birthdays had been hard enough to live through, but this one just seemed impossible to overcome. It then occurred to me that I had always celebrated my birthdays either in France or in England, so a change of scenery could only do me some good. I get really excited about travelling, and I thought being abroad in an unknown place on my birthday could be really exhilarating and special, and take my mind off feeling old and useless! I started a hunt for cheap flights, and after much effort, I settled for Amsterdam. I had always wanted to go, and it seemed romantic enough to go with my boyfriend in the winter.
Next step was booking the hotel. I must say, I don’t normally mind about accommodation, I feel comfortable nearly anywhere, but this time, I wanted to treat myself. Unfortunately, I soon found out that Amsterdam is a really pricey place when it comes to hotel stays, and I was going to have to spend a lot of money to keep away from a shabby room in the red light district. I was going to settle for a basic double room in the centre for 105 Euros a night (breakfast not included) when I came across the Savoy Hotel Amsterdam. The price was only al little bit more, and included a lot of extras. I decided to book us in for the week end. Unfortunately, as I booked our double room and changed the number of guests to 2, the price went up to 294 Euros for 2 nights. More than I wanted to pay, but it was too late; I had already set my mind on it.

The hotel -or what the website promised
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The Savoy (previously called Hampshire) is a four-star hotel , with 43 rooms and entirely non-smoking. On arrival, you are greeted by a host/hostess who will tell you about the hotel features.
The room rate includes:
-breakfast (unlimited and cooked on the spot by a chef according to your desires)
-drinks in the lobby
-mini-bar in the room
-afternoon snacks in the lobby
-wireless internet
Needless to say that seemed really appealing. The room is also equipped with a flat screen TV (20 channels) and a DVD player. You can ask for films at the reception free of charge.
It seemed like the perfect place to chill out in the evening after a day of sightseeing, drinking some wine in the room while watching a movie. I was really excited about the whole experience and couldn’t wait for our stay.

Location
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The hotel is located in De Pijp, a multicultural area close to the RAI congress and slightly out of the centre. The tram and bus stop is right outside though, and it is possible to reach the Museumplein in about 5 minutes. Other sights (near central station) were a 15-minute tram ride away in tram 25 –trams are every 15 minutes.
I thought the location was good but not ideal. It was very quiet, and the tram stop was just across the road, which was very handy, but it was fairly far from most sights and we had to rely on the tram all the time. Looking back, I would have preferred something a little bit more central, even though it was still convenient enough.

Arriving
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We arrived at reception at midday, and were let to check into our room earlier, which was a relief as we were exhausted from the trip. However, we were not greeted by a hostess. “Only” a friendly receptionist. I assumed it was because we were early, but during the rest of our stay I did not see any hosts like they show you on the website picture. We were given a card key to enter our room, which was on the 3rd floor.

The room
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As we arrived in the room came my second disappointment. The website stated that you could choose your type of bed and, being with my boyfriend ,I had chosen a queen-size bed. Instead, we were given two twin beds pushed together with single bedding. I understand this is common in certain countries but since I had been asked to specify, I wasn’t particularly happy about the prospect of sleeping by myself on what I had planned to be a romantic trip.
The beds, however, were really comfortable and adjustable through a remote control. The bathroom was really big, with a very powerful shower. It felt like being under a waterfall and it was for sure the best shower I had ever had.

The mini-bar
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Obviously, the free mini bar was a nice feature. You could help yourself to white wine, red wine, beer, Pepsi, mineral water and different sort of juices. It was refilled every day, along with some crisps and peanuts.

The lobby
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It was a nice area near reception, with a log fire to seat nearby. There are different magazines and books about Amsterdam available and you could help yourself to a large choice of drinks (soft drinks, wine, beers, spirits, etc) or make yourself a hot drink from the machine in the breakfast room. There are peanuts to munch on and in the fridge, some nice appetizers that were different every day .

The DVD player, part 1
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On our first evening, we came back after dinner and I suggested we watch a movie that I had brought with me and hoping to see for a while. For some reason, though, we couldn’t get the DVD player to work as it seemed there was something wrong with the connection to the TV. Somebody from reception came to have a look and said there was nothing to be done. I went to bed very unhappy.

Breakfast
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Breakfast was a buffet served in a large modern breakfast room. You had a large variety of food to choose from; baked beans, eggs, bacon, yoghurts, different sorts of bread, ham, salami, etc. No chef asked us how we wanted our eggs (like stated both on the website and on a card in the bedroom). I’m not fussy enough to be bothered by it, I am happy to just help myself, but there were only hard boiled eggs or scrambled eggs (I would have like some fried eggs), the scrambled eggs were overcooked in my opinion, and I was starting to get really annoyed at how everything I had read about the Savoy was just one big lie.
It is hard to explain, because I do not want to sound fussy and posh and horrible. I am usually happy with anything, but I do not usually spend 150 Euros a night in a hotel room, so for the one time I went overboard, I expected something a little extraordinary. And I don’t think I quite got it. That’s when I decided something had to be done about the DVD player.

The DVD player, part 2
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I don’t think I had ever complained before in my life and wasn’t sure how to handle it, but I can cry easily and decided to play the innocent girl card to the male receptionist. I tried to sound very upset by the player not working (which I was) and explained how I had brought my own movie to watch especially on my birthday, and blah blah blah. The person was very nice and gave us another player to try but the connection still didn’t work, so eventually, we were given another room, with twin beds still, slightly less nice and with a smaller bathroom. We decided to watch the film right away before going out to dinner. That way I could sip on some wine in bed on my special day. That sounded like a plan. After just 5 minutes, the screen turned black. And we could never get it to work again. I felt so bad for already bothering the poor receptionist earlier that we decided not to tell him. We had a good laugh and went out for dinner. We went for Indonesian and shared 25 little dishes and I forgot all about the movie!

A few more things
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-I mentioned that the price of the room went up when I updated the number of people. However, today, as I visited the website again, they seem to have changed a few things in the booking part and it looks like the price stays the same now, and that you can’t choose your bed type (maybe because they do not have queen-size beds, I don’t know).
-Check-in is from 2 (but we were let in our room at 12) and check out at 12.
-The hotel offers a luggage room to store your luggage after check out, which we happily used.
-a 5% city tax is added to the price when paying
-the website says there soon will be a fitness room to use free of charge, but for some reason I’m not sure whether I would believe it.
- To book in this hotel, only book via their website as they offer the best available rate.
- Wireless is included but if you do not bring your laptop, there is a computer to use for free near the reception.

Conclusion
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It has to be said, the hotel was nice. The rooms were a good size, the shower was magical, the TV was massive, staffs were friendly and helpful, breakfast was good, the lobby area was cosy and the free food and drinks were a nice way to end a long day walking around the canals of the city. The location wasn’t quite central but convenient. No, it was a good hotel. It just wasn’t like what is says it is on the website, it just wasn’t so special. Would I go again? Sure. But only if you’re paying!
 

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