The Hotel Ibis Westcorner is located in Westpoort, to the north-west of the city centre. Because of this it probably isn't too popular with tourists who prefer central locations. However, it is very easy to get to - just take the train to Sloterdjik station, 6 minutes and one stop away from Amsterdam Centraal Station. Almost every train west from Amsterdam stops there, so you can get back late at night without any problems, and it's also relatively cheap, at under 2 Euros one-way. There is also a bus, but we didn't try it. Actually, we found the tyrain station by trial and error - when we asked the hotel staff how to get in to the centre, they didn't even mention it, and we had trouble navigating to it from the hotel, as Westpoort is a district of tall glass-and-steel buildings, motorways and dual carriageways, and disused lots. Maps in the hotel would have been a good idea.
The hotel itself was very comfy. It was built in 2004, as stated by the advertising blurb. The rooms are comfy but a bit on the small side: however the top floor rooms give a very enjoyable view. The doors seem soundproofed but are not - the cleaners can be heard all the time in the morning. The bathrooms are clean and of the plastic self-contained pod variety (bathroom/shower in one), with a power shower which was very welcome at the end of a long day! The rooms also come equipped with an electric safe and TV.
However for the price - 150 euros for 2 nights - the Hotel Ibis Amsterdam Westcorner has some catching up to do with the competition. We had three main gripes.
The first was the lack of small 'creature comforts' in the room, such as a kettlle and tea/coffee in the room. These don't cost much to provide and give a positive customer experience. However, when we asked at the reception for a kettle, they said that none were provided for guests.
Secondly, there was no breakfast included in the room price. Instead, we were offered breakfast at the price of 10 Euros per person. That is quite a high price for a small breakfast. So we decamped instead to the nearby Sloterdjik Station, where at the restaurant a good hearty breakfast can be had for less than 10 Euros - for two people!
Lastly, and this is a major problem with the hotel if you use it for business of leisure, the costs for telephone calling from the room seem to be sky-high. We made two 3-4 minute calls to the UK from our room on the hotel's 'international credit card call' number. The total cost of less than 10 minutes' talk time came to 70 Euros (about 50 pounds). The prices for the calls were not advertised in the rooms. Unluckily, we only found out about the extortionate charges when we got back to the UK. A complaints email to Ibis has not solicited a reply. This is clearly unacceptable - especially the lack of transparency in pricing the calls.
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18.04.2005 17:52
nice review, will consider thnaks