Having visited the UK for 11 days, we took a short flight to Amsterdam to extend our European visit by a few days.
When looking into our accommodation options, I had a hard time finding somewhere suitable to stay. The most affordable hotels were outside of the city center, while the hotels located centrally were much more expensive.
In the end I was able to find the sweet spot of a hotel in a great location that wasn’t too expensive – the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station. We stayed there for 3 of our 4 nights in Amsterdam and had a very good stay, assisted by the fact that we had access to the Executive Lounge.
Here’s a review of our stay at the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station.
Check-In
Amsterdam has excellent public transportation which made it easy getting into the city from the airport. There was a direct train from Schiphol Airport to Centraal Station that only took 15 minutes, with tickets costing €5.50 ($6.20) per person.
While on the train, we got chatting to a family visiting from Dubai who mentioned that they were staying at the DoubleTree too, so we all headed to the hotel together. The hotel is only a few minutes from the train station – just turn left when exiting the station and head towards this building:
There was a line when we arrived, so we let our new friends go ahead of us as they were traveling with a young child. Unfortunately it turned out that they were staying at a different DoubleTree in the city, so they’d traipsed with us to the wrong hotel. We felt bad that they’d wasted their time, but the other DoubleTree was apparently not too far away by taxi.
After a few minutes we were next up to get checked in. At the time, Shae had Diamond status and so we asked if we could get an upgrade to a one bedroom suite. The hotel was apparently full that weekend (Ford had a conference there), so although we got some kind of upgrade, we weren’t able to get a one bedroom suite.
I realized that we didn’t have adapter plugs for European outlets, so we were able to borrow a couple from the hotel. They had something like a €25 deposit, but that wasn’t charged provided we returned them when checking out.
The person checking us in let us know our Diamond benefits which included access to the Executive Lounge. He also advised we could have breakfast there or in the hotel’s restaurant each morning.
We were given keys to room 1005. Incidentally, the 10th floor is the highest roomed floor in the hotel, as the 11th floor only has the SkyLounge.
Bedroom
When entering the room, the bathroom was immediately on the right, with the bedroom area ahead and round to the right. While the room wasn’t too big, it was large enough for what we needed.
The king bed was on the right of the room and was very comfortable, as were the pillows.
On the opposite side of the room in the corner was a desk and office chair. To the left was a luggage rack and there was an iMac on top of the desk, with its keyboard on a drawer beneath. The iMac monitor doubled up as the room’s TV, so it was probably the smallest hotel TV we’ve ever had.
Most of the TV channels were in Dutch, although a few of them carried UK and US TV shows. About half a dozen of the channels listed below were no longer available, including Fox Life and AMC.
The tea and coffee making facilities were in the desk’s bottom drawer. There was a selection of different tea bags and a couple of types of instant coffee.
Opposite the desk (and to the left of the bed) was the room’s closet and mini fridge, along with a sitting chair and table.
The fridge contained a couple of bottles of water. If the bottle on the right in the photo below looks empty, that’s because it was – we were parched when we arrived, so we cracked open that bottle immediately before I’d finished taking photos.
The closet contained an iron, ironing board and safe, along with a couple of bath robes.
There was a temperature control on the wall, although it didn’t give specific temperature options. We found the middle setting was usually the most comfortable, although we sometimes had to use a heating or cooling option depending on the time of day.
The lights on the control were very bright at night which was a little frustrating the first couple of nights. What we hadn’t realized until our final night was that the flap with the usage instructions could be flipped down to cover the lights.
Our room overlooked the river, with the train tracks leading to Centraal Station in between.
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the toilet was on the right hand side. The large bath towels were hung on a rack above, with a hairdryer hanging on the wall.
It didn’t seem like housekeeping had done a particularly good job before our arrival as there were some dry pee stains on the toilet seat. Other than the toilet seat though, the bedroom and bathroom were very clean.
The bathroom had a fairly small shower, although it had pretty good water pressure.
There was a wall-mounted bottle of shower gel inside the shower.
In addition to the large bottle of shower gel, there were small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion and mouthwash, as well as a small bar of soap.
The sink was on the left hand side of the bathroom, with a bottle of hand soap mounted to the wall.
Overall, we were happy with our room. The bed was very comfortable, it was nice having a view of the river and appreciated having water and a mini fridge in the room.
On the downside, the TV was much smaller than we’re used to and the toilet seat hadn’t been cleaned properly.
Amenities
One of the best features of staying at any DoubleTree hotel worldwide is that they offer warm chocolate chip cookies. These are free and you can pick up as many as you like from the front desk.
If you need to work out after eating too many cookies, the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station has a fairly good-sized fitness room, complete with numerous pieces of equipment and weights.
You can rent bikes for free from the hotel to explore the city in its dedicated cycle lanes.
The bikes are kept in the lobby which is also where you can find the hotel’s business center. The business center has a couple of iMacs and a printer. It didn’t seem like they wanted you to get too comfortable there though as the only seating options were a couple of short footrests.
To the right of the business center was a small children’s play area which is probably helpful if you’re traveling with kids and have a long check-in/check-out line.
The hotel has all kinds of eating and drinking options. There’s the SkyLounge on the 11th floor and an Executive Lounge on the ground floor – there’s more about both of those below.
On the ground floor there’s another bar area with a library next to it.
There’s a Starbucks at the far end of the hotel, along with a restaurant where you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner. We never ate there though as we had access to the Executive Lounge.
There’s a long row of outdoor seating along one side of the hotel for people using the Executive Lounge, restaurant, bar and Starbucks.
Executive Lounge
We booked our stay at the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station under Shae’s name as she still had Diamond status as of the date we checked in. One of the benefits of Diamond status is that you get complimentary access to the Executive Lounge.
The lounge is open 24/7, with breakfast being served from 6:30am-10:30am on weekdays and 7am-11am on weekends. They also serve complimentary drinks and appetizers in the evening from 6pm-8pm.
Executive Lounge Breakfast
There was a pretty good selection of food for breakfast in the Executive Lounge, with hot options, cold cuts, fruit, cereal, pastries and more. They even offered complimentary Prosecco at breakfast, so we took advantage of that every morning.
Executive Lounge Evening Drinks & Appetizers
In the evening, the Executive Lounge offered complimentary red and white wine, as well as Heineken on tap.
The food options differed each night and seemed to consist of Dutch-style sandwiches and snacks like bitterballen. They also had a few bite-sized desserts, chips, vegetable sticks and more.
There were also large jars with a variety of nuts and types of candy. There was a better selection in the evenings, although there seemed to be a couple of these jars available in the lounge during the day.
SkyLounge
One of the best features of the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station is the SkyLounge on the top floor of the hotel. This rooftop bar was voted the best hotel bar in Amsterdam in 2017 and it’s easy to see why.
Shae and I went for a drink up there on our second night as there was a live band. They were a cover band, but were very good quality. It also wasn’t deafening in there, so we were still able to chat without having to shout loudly which was nice.
There are two parts to the SkyLounge. There’s a fairly large indoor area with lots of tables and chairs.
The city lights looked good from up there at night time.
We returned to the bar the next day during the day to check out the other part of the SkyLounge – the rooftop deck overlooking the city. Amsterdam is a little like Paris in that it doesn’t have skyscrapers dominating the skyline, so “only” being 11 floors up still offered a great view of the city.
The SkyLounge was a popular place to hang out as it was busy both times we visited.
The bartenders provided a fun experience too as they mixed the cocktails with flair. Even ordering my whiskey on the rocks involved them throwing ice cubes from one end of the bar to the other.
Pet Policy
The DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station is a pet-friendly hotel. From what I can tell based on the hotel’s website, there’s no pet fee. There is a 20kg (44lb) weight limit for dogs though.
The downside of the hotel’s location is that there didn’t seem to be any grassy areas or parks nearby.
Service
Service at the DoubleTree was very good. All the front desk staff we chatted to were friendly, helpful and all spoke excellent English.
The housekeeping staff were like ninjas. We didn’t see or hear them during our stay, but our room was made each day, even when we’d only been out for a couple of hours.
I also want to give a special mention to our server at the SkyLounge. She was lovely and did a great job both times we visited. Unfortunately we can’t remember her name (I need to keep better notes), but we think it was something like Teha.
Check-In & Checkout Times
The check-in time at the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station was 3pm, while checkout was at 12pm. They offer a late checkout of 6pm to Diamond members, but that wasn’t available the day we left as the hotel was fully booked.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel was free and had a good connection and speed.
Location
This hotel is in an excellent location. It’s only a 5 minute walk from Centraal Station which has trains going directly to and from the airport, so that was extremely convenient.
It’s located in the city center which also meant it was within walking/biking distance of anywhere in the city. The hotel is a 10 minute walk to Zeedijk, a street in Chinatown with tons of restaurants, both Asian and other cuisines. It’s also 10 minutes from the Red Light District, 25 minutes from the Anne Frank House and about 30 minutes from Rijksmuseum.
Parking
Public transport is excellent in Amsterdam and it’s a very pedestrian and bike-friendly city. As a result, there shouldn’t be much need to drive there, but if you do have a car then the hotel offers self-parking for €20 ($22.50) per day.
Cost
We paid €148.46 ($166.50) per night for our stay at the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station. While that’s more than we usually pay for hotels, it was very good value given how expensive Amsterdam hotels were during our visit and how great its location is.
We managed to get even more value from our stay thanks to the Executive Lounge access, but that’s only available for Diamond members unless you pay for a more expensive room with lounge access.
I’d booked the stay having clicked through from TopCashback. They were offering 1% cashback at the time, so we should earn $4.70 back.
We also earned 12,520 Hilton Honors points from our stay. That consisted of 5,289 base points, 4,231 bonus points for having Gold status (Shae’s Diamond status had expired by the end of our stay), 2,000 bonus points from their Points Unlimited promotion and 1,000 MyWay welcome amenity points.
If we’d booked using points, it would’ve cost 54,000 points per night. That would’ve resulted in a redemption rate of 0.31cpp (cents per point) which, even by Hilton’s standards, isn’t very good, so paying the cash rate was a better option.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for somewhere to stay in Amsterdam, the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station is a great option. The beds are comfortable, service is very good and they have an excellent rooftop bar – the SkyLounge.
Members with Gold status get free breakfast in the restaurant, while Diamond members get both that and access to the Executive Lounge with free food and alcohol in the morning and evenings.
If we ever return to Amsterdam – and we hopefully will as we loved it there – this will be our first choice hotel to stay at provided the room rate isn’t too high.
Check out this post for everything else we got up to in Amsterdam.
Our Rating
Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.7 / 5
Food = 4.6 / 5
Location = 4.9 / 5
Service = 4.6 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.65 / 5
Address
DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station, Oosterdoksstraat 4, 1011 DK Amsterdam, Netherlands
I noticed the fitness center had a Concept2 rowing machine. That is very unusual for a hotel fitness center and good to see.
I also liked the bicycle rental option. That makes sense for Amsterdam.
We didn’t make use of the bikes in the end unfortunately. We’d planned to use them the day we checked out, but I wasn’t feeling good that day and so we gave it a miss. It was especially nice that they were free to use – the hotel we stayed at on our final night charged something like 12 EUR for 3 hours.