When arranging our mini-trip to Amsterdam after visiting the UK, I booked an overnight stay at the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for our final night as we were flying out the following morning.
That ended up being unnecessary as I hadn’t realized at the time how easy it was getting from Centraal Station to the airport. We’d stayed the first three nights at the DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal Station, so we could’ve easily stayed there on our final night and gotten the train to the airport in the morning.
Ultimately, it wasn’t a bad thing that we moved to the Renaissance on our final night as we got a sweet ride from the airport and a suite upgrade at the hotel.
Here’s a review of our stay at the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
Getting To The Hotel
Shae and I took the train from Centraal Station to Schiphol airport and made our way to the shuttle bus area. We couldn’t find a sign for the Renaissance hotel, so we gave them a call. They advised that the shuttle bus had just left the airport which meant it’d be another 40 minutes until it returned.
(Side note – this Flyer Talk post mentions that the Renaissance shuttle picks up from C23, rather than the ‘A’ area we’d gone to.)
I’d not been feeling well that day, so the prospect of waiting 40 minutes wasn’t appealing. There weren’t any Ubers particularly nearby, so we headed to the taxi rank which turned out to be a great choice.
That’s because about half the taxis were Teslas and we were among the lucky 50% who got one.
The ride ended up costing us €30 ($34) whereas waiting for the shuttle bus would’ve been free. Getting to ride in a Tesla for the first time was worth it though.
Check-In
We arrived at the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at 2pm, an hour before check-in. They were happy to check us in an hour early though which we appreciated.
I have Platinum status with Marriott and chose 5 suite night upgrades as one of my benefits this year. I tried applying one of them to our stay beforehand but neither the hotel nor Marriott Bonvoy had been able to do that. We’d booked their standard room (a Superior King) but were wanting to upgrade to the 1 bedroom king suite with a whirlpool tub.
When checking in, I asked if there was a possibility that we could be upgraded to the 1 bedroom suite even though I hadn’t been able to use one of my specific suite night upgrades.
They had a suite available and so they upgraded us which meant we saved one of the upgrades for another time. After a couple of minutes we had our keys to room 5099 and headed upstairs.
The hotel opened in September 2018, so it was barely 6 months old when we visited. It therefore felt clean and modern throughout the hotel.
Room
The 1 bedroom suite turned out to be even nicer than I thought it would be as there were no photos on the website. When entering the room, there was a hallway leading to the dining area. There was a bench in the hallway and a desk and chair in the far corner.
Round to the right was a dining table for six people, with the living area beyond that.
To the right of the dining room were the tea and coffee making facilities which included an electric kettle and espresso machine. Somewhat strangely there was no milk or creamer provided – I’m not sure if that’s always the case or if housekeeping simply forgot to replenish them. (n.b. Those little tubs on the left weren’t milk – they were for the espresso machine.)
Beneath that was a safe and mini fridge.
Inside the fridge were a couple of bottles of water – one still and one sparkling.
In a cupboard to the left of the mini fridge was a hairdryer, shoe mitt and laundry bag. It seemed a little strange that this was where they kept the hairdryer rather than in the bathroom.
The living room had a comfortable sofa, three armchairs and some tree trunk coffee tables. The TV had a good selection of worldwide TV channels and had an on-screen channel guide listing current and upcoming shows.
Bedroom
Although this was described as a one bedroom suite, there were no bedroom doors. Instead, the TV unit served as a wide room divider, although there were spaces on the left and right hand side to enter the bedroom.
The bedroom itself had a king bed which was very comfortable.
Our room looked out towards a canal and fields belonging to a local horse riding stable.
Opposite the bed was another TV.
There were closets on both sides of the room divider. The one closest to the window had a couple of bathrobes, an iron and ironing board. The photo below only shows one bathrobe as Shae had used one before I realized there was this closet.
The closet on the opposite side was empty other than having a few shelves.
As the photos hopefully show, it was a very stylish 1 bedroom suite that’s 700 sq ft.
The only negative aspect of the room – and this seems to go for all rooms at the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – is that there aren’t any international power outlets. I asked the front desk if they had any adapters we could borrow, but they didn’t have any. If you’re wanting to use your laptop at this hotel, you’ll therefore need to bring along your own adapter plug.
Bathroom
As if the dining room, living room and bedroom weren’t large enough, there was a spacious bathroom too. On the right hand side were the toilet, sink and vanity.
The toiletries were TokyoMilk which I’m assuming is the standard toiletry brand for Renaissance properties. This was our first stay at a Renaissance, so I’m not certain if that’s always the case.
On the opposite side of the bathroom was the whirlpool tub. This was a decent size and Shae very much enjoyed checking it out.
The whirlpool tub can become a party tub if you like with its multi-colored lights.
To the right of the whirlpool tub was a walk-in shower with a rainfall shower head. It wasn’t as nice as the rainfall shower at the Park Hyatt New York – still the best shower in the world – but it was very refreshing nonetheless. There was a second handheld shower head available too.
There was no shower door, but the short ledge prevented any water escaping into the rest of the bathroom.
Amenities
Seeing as it’s an airport hotel, the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport doesn’t have as many amenities as some other properties. Although it has a restaurant (Signature) and bar (Bar BLOOM), there’s no Executive Lounge.
It also doesn’t have a pool, although there is a fitness room which is an OK size.
There’s a business center in the lobby which has a couple of computers for you to use.
If you want to relax outside on a nice day, there’s plenty of outdoor seating available.
The hotel also has bikes you can rent. Unlike many other Amsterdam hotels that rent them to guests for free, the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport charges guests. Unfortunately I didn’t make a note of the exact costs, but it was something like €15 for three hours or €30 for the day which seemed a little expensive.
Shuttle Bus
As mentioned earlier, the hotel has a shuttle bus that goes to and from the airport. This is free and runs every 20 minutes in the morning and every 40 minutes the rest of the day. It’s best to book your place on the bus with the front desk to ensure you get a spot.
Signature Restaurant – Dinner
Due to not feeling well, I hadn’t eaten anything all day. By 7pm my appetite had come back with a vengeance, so Shae and I went down to the hotel’s Signature restaurant for dinner.
Here are the food and drink menus:
Although I’d gotten my appetite back, I wanted something fairly plain and so ordered the bread with butter, olive oil and tapenade as a starter and a smoked turkey sandwich.
The bread came out fairly quickly and Shae helped out with the tapenade as I don’t care for olives.
Shae ordered the cheese plate as part of her main course. This came with a selection of Dutch cheeses, fig jam and fig bread.
She also ordered the ‘Van Dobben’ bitterballen as she hadn’t tried bitterballen yet. I think our server said they contained beef and veal and were in a breadcrumb coating. They tasted pretty good, although Shae wasn’t fond of the soft texture inside.
My smoked turkey sandwich was nowhere to be seen though. I waited for a while and then asked our server about it. Apparently it had been given to a completely different table, so it took almost 30 minutes to get the sandwich after I’d originally ordered it. It felt like a lifetime though seeing as I’d not eaten that day!
It was a tasty sandwich and ended up being worth the wait.
Despite having to wait so long for my sandwich, that wasn’t the most disappointing aspect of the meal. Shae and I had both asked for water to drink and assumed we’d be given tap water. It was served in a glass bottle, but that’s what we’d had for free in our hotel room at the DoubleTree, so we didn’t think anything of it.
It wasn’t until we got the bill for our meal that we discovered we were being charged €7 ($8) per bottle and we’d drunk two bottles. Paying €14 for what we’d expected to be tap water was therefore unexpected and disappointing. If you eat in Signature restaurant and only want tap water, it’d be best to be explicit about this.
Signature Restaurant – Breakfast
The next morning we went down to the Signature restaurant for breakfast. This usually costs €22.50 ($25.50) per person which is a little pricey but we got it for free thanks to having Platinum status.
Although the breakfast cost is somewhat expensive, there’s a pretty good spread of food:
There was also an omelet station which I didn’t happen to get a photo of. If you like eggs in the morning, that’s probably your best option as the scrambled eggs tasted mank.
If you’d prefer to have breakfast in your room, you can order it as room service. Just be aware that the options are more expensive than eating down in the restaurant, plus they tack on a €9.50 ($10.75) delivery charge.
Pet Policy
The Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is a pet-friendly hotel and charges €25 per pet, per night.
Service
The front desk staff were polite, but not particularly warm. They did accommodate our request for an upgrade to the 1 bedroom suite with a whirlpool tub though, so props to them for that.
Check-In & Checkout Times
Check-in is at 3pm, while checkout is at 12pm. Like I mentioned earlier though, we were able to check in an hour early.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel is free for all guests. I don’t remember having any issues with the speed, although I didn’t use my laptop much seeing as we didn’t have an adapter plug for it.
Location
This is potentially the hotel’s biggest drawback. Despite it being an airport hotel with a free shuttle, it takes about 15 minutes to get from the hotel to the airport. It takes the same amount of time to get from Centraal Station to the airport, so there’s not much benefit to staying at the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport with nothing around if there’s an alternative hotel option close to Centraal Station in the center of all the action.
There are also no shops or restaurants within walking distance, so you’re stuck eating at the hotel’s restaurant if you get hungry unless you want to take the shuttle bus to the airport and eat there instead!
Parking
The hotel has a decent-sized parking lot, but be prepared to pay €17.50 ($20) per day for the privilege.
Cost
We got a fantastic price for our stay which is one of the reasons I’d chosen the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Our room rate was €80.80 ($91.50) including tax which was almost half what we’d paid for the DoubleTree.
This was made even better by the fact that we were upgraded to the 1 bedroom suite with whirlpool tub. That room would’ve cost ~€200 with tax.
When booking our stay, I’d clicked through from the American Airlines shopping portal as it was offering 6x miles for Marriott bookings at the time. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to have tracked and, even more weirdly, didn’t even register a click through from the site. Thankfully this wasn’t a more expensive stay, otherwise I’d have missed out on a ton of miles.
I did earn Marriott Bonvoy points for the stay though – 835 base points and 418 bonus points for having Platinum status. The hotel also offered a choice between 1,000 bonus points or a free drink at the bar as a welcome amenity, so I chose the points.
This property is a category 5 hotel and so costs 35,000 points. Given the low paid rate, that would’ve been an awful use of points.
Final Thoughts
My feelings about the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport fall into two camps. On the one hand, I loved it. It’s a new hotel with beautiful decor and we were upgraded to a wonderful suite, so there are absolutely no complaints there.
There are two areas the hotel falls down in though. The first is its location – it’s isolated and so there are no restaurants or shops nearby, plus it takes 15 minutes to get to the airport which is the same amount of time it takes to get into the center of Amsterdam.
The second downside is that even though the room rates were reasonable, the hotel is overpriced in other ways. €22.50 for breakfast felt expensive (although we got it free thanks to Platinum status), while room service breakfast is potentially significantly more expensive than that. €7 per bottle of water at dinner was excessive given that we wanted tap water, while charging so much for bike rentals wasn’t great given that many other Amsterdam hotels offer them for free. If you have a rental car, you’ll have to pay a fairly expensive parking fee too.
If you’re staying at this hotel for business and get to expense the cost, some of these factors will likely be moot points for you. For those of us paying out of our own pocket though, it’s definitely something to consider.
Our Rating
Room = 4.8 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 3.7 / 5
Food = 4.6 / 5
Location = 3.4 / 5
Service = 4.0 / 5
Overall Value = 4.2 / 5 (This is based on everything; if it was based solely on room rate, the rating would be higher.)
Total = 4.12 / 5
Address
Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Meester Jacob Takkade 35, 1432 CB Aalsmeer, Netherlands
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