Review

This review covers a two night stay at Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam in January 2023. This stay was booked on points, costing a total of 110,000 Hilton Honors points per night. This represented a pretty good deal as the cash price for the stay would have been £750 night, which works out at around 0.66p per point – double the typical value of around 0.3p per point. At £750 per night, our expectations were obviously quite high, but the hotel definitely didn’t disappoint.

The Hotel

The Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam opened in 2014, occupying six adjoining canal palaces on the Herengracht canal. It has been finished to a very high standard, emphasising the six different buildings’ own individual features and character. At check-in we were offered a short tour of the main spaces, which included key information about the history of the buildings. As you walk through the corridors between the buildings there is also signage telling you which individual palace you are in. The basement vault is now a cocktail bar and the main dining room is preserved in its original state and only used for special private events.

As you’d expect at such a high end hotel, there was a significant amount of attention to detail at check-in. There was no waiting at all (which was a feature of the whole stay given the very high staff to guest ratio), we were offered drinks and comfortable seating and told a little bit about the hotel. The check-in process had lots of attention to detail, including the opportunity to choose a specific scent to be used in the room as part of the turn down service and an introduction to the concierge. Interestingly, we had selected a room via the App, which we had incorrectly assumed to be a canal view room – the hotel had noticed this and had actually changed it for us and offered us the choice of rooms on arrival. We had also arrived at 9 a.m. (6 hours before check in time) and our rooms was immediately available, with our luggage delivered whilst we were checking in. This level of service and attention to detail was consistent throughout our stay. For example, on the day we left we were given a gift – a wax melt with the scent we had chosen for our room – and allocated a late check out time.

The hotel is located about a mile from Amsterdam Centraal station. We bought an Amsterdam public transport pass and used the underground to move around the city, taking advantage of the Waldorf Astoria umbrellas when we needed to! However I got the impression most people staying at the hotel used cars, or even taxi boats, booked through the hotel.

The Room

We were upgraded to a King Premier Room with a canal view, courtesy of our Hilton Gold status. Our room was on the 2nd floor at one end of the hotel, with a view of the bridge across the canal and the giant Booking.com HQ which is located opposite.

The room was relatively spacious, the large bath included a TV and there was a large walk in shower. The main room had sufficient space for a small sofa and desk at the far end, in addition to the main bedroom space. The room was exceptionally clean and well-maintained, I looked around the full space and couldn’t find as much as a small mark or speck of dirt – if someone had told me the room was redecorated yesterday I’d have believed them! There is obviously a very efficient process for cleaning and maintenance as this was pretty consistent throughout the hotel.

On arrival the room had fresh flowers, in the booking notes I had mentioned that we were travelling for my wife’s birthday and the hotel had also left a card and some cake on the table in the room.

Facilities

The Waldorf Astoria has several high end dining spaces; a spa with a pool sauna, steam room, relaxation room and treatment spaces; and there is also a large garden (although it was quite rainy during our visit!).

We visited the spa on our second day, there were only 2 other guests using it and again the facilities were all very well maintained and finished to a high standard. It is worth noting that, because the hotel only has 93 rooms, it rarely felt busy anywhere. As noted above, each space is also very well staffed, so there was no waiting anywhere at any point.

Food

Breakfast at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam was exceptional, the dining room is beautiful and has a view out into the garden. Again, breakfast was very well staffed, at many points there were 3-4 waiting staff and fewer than 8 guests including us. Breakfast is included with Hilton Gold status, which is a fantastic perk here, because you could easily spend £40+ per person. The standard breakfast format is branded ‘Taste of Waldorf’ and includes a selection of pastries, bread, cheese, ham and fruit, served on a tiered stand, this is then followed by your choice from the breakfast menu. Most dishes are included, with the exception of some of the more expensive options, such as the caviar. Both days we opted for the Taste of Waldorf, we included options such as the smoked salmon omelette, French toast and eggs benedict, all of which were amazing. On our first day we were also offered complimentary champagne to celebrate my wife’s birthday.

Despite the other menus and dining options looking great we actually didn’t try options for lunch and dinner as we were always out and about in Amsterdam at these times.

Summary

A stay at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam was a real treat – this is an amazing hotel with a fantastic level of service. There is a lot of attention to detail here and we felt spoilt throughout. This is obviously reflected in the price of rooms, but you get what you pay for.

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