Amstel Botel Hotel

We have visited many hotels in Amsterdam, but never have we visited a hotel wich is so poor as this Amstel Botel.
The staff is not very friendly, the rooms are very very small, old and dirty,
even the tv and the phone didn't work at all.
We had many drunk tourists shouting all night.
Because all of this we have left this terrible hotel in the night!
It's a waist of quality time and money

Right here we go, I have been to Amsterdam twice now and the second time i stayed in the boatel.
When me and my friend arrived at Centrall station, the boat wasen't there, we had to get some stupid ferry over the canal to get to it.
This taking half n hour each time, tour people did not know that it had been moved, happy days.....
It was pouring down at this point, and it was looking pretty bleak, when we walked into the hotel, dripping wet may i add, the staff just looked at us and smiled a bit sarcastically, but she was ok.
The hotel/boatel is pretty simple, but nice and clean to be honest. Most of the staff were pleasent even though i kicked off at one for not letting me in for my free breakfast one morning. The Manager was well alright and had words with her. yeah thats what im paying for!
The room was small and the window view was a massive shipnext too it...nice.
But my i add, Amsterdam is a fantasic city, good nightlife, good women, what more could you ask for really, so go to Amsterdam, just not the botel, its a bit pants. love

1 reader found this review helpful

Having stayed at the Amstel Botel in Amsterdam on a few occasions the main plus was the location. You had to turn left outside of Dam Central Station and it was just a few hundred yards up the road right next door to the floating Chinese Restaurant; imagine our shock when we got there and the boat had gone - literally sailed away!! There were no directions posted as to where the boat had relocated and the Dutch we asked just kept sending us to the wrong place. In fact, the Boat has been relocated to the North side of Amsterdam and you need to take a ferry across which takes about 10 minutes, but as we didn't know this we got in a taxi and the driver told us everyone was complaining about this and that the hotel was NOT LETTING PEOPLE KNOW THIS in case they lost bookings!! The taxi cost us 21 Euros which as you can imagine, you do not want to pay every time you go out - the ferry to the hotel ran until 12:45am then if you missed this one you had to take a short ferry across then ring a minibus at the hotel to pick you up, as you can imagine, you don't want all this messing around on a short break!! When we got to the hotel the location was awful, an industrial docklands out in the sticks that has one wine bar nearby. Everyone was complaining in the hotel and the Dutch who work there were very honest and admitted that everyone who arrived was unhappy at the location. Also, we had stayed there about 18 months ago, and found the breakfast OK, but this time it was 10 Euros each and was awful would not recommend it at all – it was 1.80 Euros for a can of coke/lemonade in the Vending Machine. In general, I would not stay in Amsterdam again, so expensive now 10 euros for two beers and the Amstel Botel well I can see this place going out of business because in all honesty who wants to stay out in the middle of nowhere and I certainly don't think elderly people should be misled over the location and if they had told me when I booked of the location change I certainly WOULD HAVE CANCELLED MY BOOKING and stayed elsewhere. Also, in addition to not letting us know of the location change, they also did not let us know about the ferry – I stress change your hotel if you have booked this hotel and stay in the centre of Amsterdam.

We have just come back from our second stay at the Botel and again we found that it was excellent.
The rooms are fantastic and they are equipped to make sure that you have a fantastic stay.
I find that the prices are cheap enough and if you manage to eat breakfast then you can guarantee a good feast. It’s lovely and clean and the staff are very helpful and friendly.
We would go back to the Botel, as it is a very friendly place and near to everything.

My partner and I both went to Amsterdam for a quiet relaxed break from the kids. We stopped at Amstel Botel which is based next to central station. The staff there are very friendly and helpful. Our room was very nice. The view from the window was beautiful. We looked out onto the canal.
There was ducks and barges passing outside are window. The food there was very nice. We found Amsterdam very relaxed with very friendly people. There are plenty of places to eat, from having a sandwich to having a sit down meal in a restaurant. There’s plenty of places to visit. Museums, parks, the zoo.
We even found the red light district friendly. I fully recommend Amsterdam to anyone.

We booked the Botel on-line because we’d used it before and had liked it. It was very easy to book. I just searched using Copernic, which brought up the Botel site and I E-mailed them with our requirements. They replied within 24 hours to say our requested dates were free. They offered a double room with land view for 84 euros or 89 euros (about £65) with canal view. We went for the canal view as our last visit had been land view and the only sight to be seen out of the window was the massive concrete Post Office building. For an extra 9 euros we could have breakfast, so we asked for this, remembering the wonderful breakfasts we had years ago.
When we arrived in Amsterdam, a city we have visited twice before and loved (but not for what you think…bad people!!) we were a bit disconcerted to find that Central Station, the place where you inevitably arrive and depart had changed beyond all recognition. We could not get our bearings as we failed to recognise the view from the doorway and spent several minutes lugging a too-heavy suitcase from doorway to doorway before we emerged into the bustle of an Amsterdam tram depot.
There are now extensive building works in progress in Amsterdam, which took us by surprise. There is a new coach station outside Central Station, as well as the tram station, which has changed the vista considerably. There are fences and machinery, some of it colossal, along the pavements and roads outside of the old impressive façade of Central Station itself. It seems that there is a five-year plan in progress to completely renovate the centre of Amsterdam, including a huge new metro system so you can imagine the scale of the building works!
When we finally realised where we were, and could see the Botel in the near distance, we headed in that direction and reached it within minutes (one of the reasons we had chosen this hotel).
The Botel itself had changed. Where previously the entrance was on the left of the floating structure, there was now a completely new wooden boardwalk on the right, the canal side. We realised that the whole vessel had been turned around and were later informed that this had taken three days to do and the reason was that the large Post Office building on the land side was being slowly demolished making the land side of the hotel lonely and uninhabited, resulting in too many unwelcome intruders late at night.
Now, this attractive promenade has been used to link the Botel and the floating Chinese restaurant next door and is also an ideal pathway to the large scientific “Nemo” building and Maritime Museum farther along the canal.
We were very glad that we had chosen a room with a view over the canal and enjoyed watching the canal boats, houseboats, the lights of Amsterdam at night and people walking along the boardwalk beneath us, as our room was on the top floor.
When you walk into the Botel you are immediately struck by how simple and unpretentious it is. The entrance is on 2nd floor and contains the reception desk manned usually by a minimum of two very friendly, smiling young people who speak excellent English. Check-in took a matter of minutes and we were presented with a modern card-key for our room. We then examined the many brochures and cards offering discounts on everything from the local cafes to the museums, and took what we thought we would use.
There was also a very helpful booklet, which explained the public transport system, essential for new visitors as you can save an awful lot of money by buying a combined ticket that gives access to the trams, buses, canal buses and metro in one. The breakfast room and bar are also on this floor along with a jukebox, pool table, toilets, two fruit machines and TV. The bar serves a wide selection of drinks with a large beer costing 3euro and a small bottle of red wine (2 glassfuls) costing 4. Spirits cost approximately 3 euro per shot which isn’t too much more expensive than here. The bar also sells a limited supply of sandwiches and “Toasties” (toasted sarnies) for 2.5-3 euros.
We took the lift to our room on the 4th floor (There are also rooms below the reception area which I think are cheaper.) The room seemed smaller than I remembered, but perhaps I’m just larger! It wasn’t luxurious by any means, but it was very clean and perfectly adequate. The double bed was wider than the one we use at home (my husband complained that he couldn’t find me in the night as I was so far away!) There was only a crisp white sheet and a heavy patterned bedspread, but we had such warm weather that we didn’t need anything other than the sheet. The pillows were the large square continental jobbies that look like miniature duvets and when I requested an extra four so that we could prop ourselves up against the headboard that jutted out of the wall, these were quickly supplied. (This headboard was a bit of a problem as my husband banged his head twice because it juts out over the pillow.)
There was a very small built-in wardrobe (containing a safe) with a mirrored dressing table attached. (I had to request extra hangers because they usually don’t have people staying more than a few nights at a time.) The en-suite bathroom contained a toilet, washbasin and shower, complete with liquid soap/shampoo/conditioner dispenser, shower cap and shoe cleaner. There were 2 white fluffy hand towels and 2 matching bath towels, which were changed every day of our stay. In fact, the room was cleaned regularly every day while we were out. When our remote didn’t work properly, they immediately provided us with another television.
Breakfast was served between 7:30 and 10:30 and we usually got there somewhere in the middle. This had changed a little from our previous stay. Where before a waitress had circulated with pots of hot coffee and tea, filling up cups on demand, there was now a self service machine for coffee, tea, orange and apple juice, however they all still tasted fresh and delicious so no complaints there. The breakfast rolls were the soft kind, which disappointed, as I prefer crusty, a minor point, and the croissants were cold so I was unable to eat them.
The plates of different meats, cheese, salad and tomatoes were there though, also the lovely unsalted butter, pumpernickel bread and sesame crackers, yoghurt, jams, boiled eggs, sausages and bacon (this latter always seemed cold but tasted delicious). I ate more each morning for breakfast than I would the whole day at home, always a disadvantage with a buffet breakfast. You were allowed to eat as much as you wanted but not to remove food from the breakfast room, though I managed to take some bread to feed the numerous swans, ducks and moor hens outside, not to mention the seagulls who scooped what I threw out of the air before it reached the canal!
I don’t remember being woken up by noisy neighbours before, which is unusual as the walls in these places are always paper-thin. We didn’t get off so lightly this time. On our second night, at about 1am we realised that an American woman had taken the room next to ours because we were awoken to cries of “Oh my god!” This was her talking on the telephone in her normal tone of voice using an expression we came to realise was her favourite, along with the interjection of the word “like” at regular intervals. We learned that her luggage had gone astray and she only had the clothes in which she stood. We learned a considerable amount about her that morning and tolerated it only up to the point where she turned on the radio which blasted out a heavy rock programme to the accompaniment of my husband’s fist slamming into the wall above our bed and his shout of “Shut the **** up.” After that, things went quiet and we slept.
So, in conclusion, I think that this hotel is very good value for money, very clean and the staff helpful and friendly, and, despite the noise, I would recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam.

The hotel was a boat floating in water. The rooms were very congested and small. And we got rear view facing room with no site of water but some construction going on so was not very nice. But was in very close proximity to central Amsterdam and train station. Room service was not very good.
I mean during our 3 days stay they came just once to clean the rooms and change sheets...so it was bad. Very narrow corridors and the hotel itself. But the fact that it is actually on water and you feel like being in a cruise ...its really nice.