Lapershoek Hotel, Hilversum

...stayed.

The Lapershoek is a rather grand looking place, from the front at least, and is built in the style of the many grand villas of the town. It has some charming striped awnings on the front façade which give it a spot of colour. Towards the back of the hotel the more modern accommodation blocks are less characterful but the main public areas are in the old part. There's a small bar where the barman is always happy to chat and ...
...toiletries. Looking recently at the Lapershoek website it looks as if the rooms have had a bit of a refurb with some slightly more stylish furniture but it's still a rather basic layout. The rooms were certainly in need of some attention when I used to stay there. You'll get a phone, a TV (probably with some truly shocking porn channels so be careful when you are channel flicking). Room sizes can vary quite a lot and it's also worth asking for a ... more

Hilversum is a funny sort of place. It's only about a half hour train ride from Amsterdam but unless you own a very old radio and have studied the front panel very carefully, it's not the sort of place that people tend to have heard of. It briefly hit the headlines a few years ago when the leader of a right-wing Dutch political party with rather unsavoury views on immigration was gunned down in the city. Other than that, it's not well known unless you have connections to Nike or media companies like Endemol, the people we have to blame for Big Brother.

My connections were more mundane. For almost six years I worked for a company with its European head office in Hilversum and I stayed many times at the Lapershoek, sometimes as often as two or three times a month. I've known this hotel in bad times and good - the bad times mostly predating the acquisition of the hotel by the Amrath chain and the good post-dating the change. Amrath did a great job though they changed almost nothing about the fabric of the hotel but certainly made major changes to the spirit and attitude of the staff who became a lot more positive, friendly and helpful under the Amrath team.

When Amrath took over they invited a bunch of us regular visitors to have drinks with the management in the hotel's tiny bar. We were very pleasantly 'interrogated' about what we liked and didn't like about the place and - much to the amazement of all of us - they not only listened, but showed that they had listened too. My greatest bug-bear about the hotel had always been the beds. It's typical in Dutch hotels to get horribly soft mattresses. Dutch colleagues claim that they are thought to be healthier for the back but I suspect - given the famous tendency of the nation to be shall we say 'careful' with their money - it's mostly because a soft mattress is always cheaper than a firm one. After telling the deputy manager how much I hated the beds and explaining that whenever there was enough floor room in my room I had to drag the mattress onto the floor, my problems were solved. A note went onto my hotel records saying I needed a board in the bed and from then on I was almost always allocated the same room. Rather than move the bed board around the hotel, they just kept that room with the board and gave it to me every time I stayed.

The Lapershoek is a rather grand looking place, from the front at least, and is built in the style of the many grand villas of the town. It has some charming striped awnings on the front façade which give it a spot of colour. Towards the back of the hotel the more modern accommodation blocks are less characterful but the main public areas are in the old part. There's a small bar where the barman is always happy to chat and a large restaurant that offers a great choice of food at prices that aren't too scary. When I used to visit there was a wealthy and elderly lady who lived locally who would turn up almost every night to have her dinner in the restaurant because she liked it so much. In the warmer months the restaurant and bar spill out onto the front driveway of the hotel and take on a rather festive air. Breakfast is served in the same restaurant every morning and always offered a lot of choice, however often you stayed. We often had large group meals at the restaurant and surprisingly I have no horror stories to tell - nothing ever went badly wrong, the service was always fine and some of the waiters were absolutely charming and one in particular was very entertaining.

The hotel is quite a popular wedding (weekends) and conference (weekdays) venue and there are several conference rooms towards the back of the hotel. I've not used the conference facilities but could tell that they always seemed to take a lot of care to prepare the rooms nicely with flowers.

The guest rooms are mostly quite basic as tends to be typical in Dutch hotels. There aren't too many 'frills' with a standard room - a bed, a desk and chair, a wardrobe and not too much else. The bathrooms are clean and functional though some have only a shower which can be frustrating if you prefer a bath. They all have hairdryers if I remember correctly and some rather basic toiletries. Looking recently at the Lapershoek website it looks as if the rooms have had a bit of a refurb with some slightly more stylish furniture but it's still a rather basic layout. The rooms were certainly in need of some attention when I used to stay there. You'll get a phone, a TV (probably with some truly shocking porn channels so be careful when you are channel flicking). Room sizes can vary quite a lot and it's also worth asking for a quiet room as some on the back and side of the hotel near to the car park can get quite noisy.

The only time when staying at the Lapershoek was really tough was in the summer months. Amazingly Holland sometimes gets half-decent weather but it happens rarely enough that most hotels haven't invested in air-con leaving the rooms absolutely sweltering when the temperature rises. On those occasions it was pretty horrible to stay at the Lapershoek but the same could be said about most Dutch hotels.

The reception staff were generally very efficient and polite and I would usually find a big vase filled with shiny apples and a bowl of sweets on the reception desk. They were very good about arranging taxis and tended to recognise the regulars who stayed often and took time to chat to us and make us welcome. In the early days the service on reception had been really poor.

I can't envisage any reason why I'd need to go back to Hilversum in future which is actually a bit sad. The Lapershoek became like a second home to me and despite its strange ways, I do quite miss it.
 

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