#6
Disappointing!!!
We were extremely excited about our visit to Hotel Seven One Seven that we booked through Mr and Mrs Smith. Based on the reviews we had read, we were expecting a truly indulgent and special holiday. Alas this couldn’t have been further from the truth and I’m incredibly surprised with many of the outstanding comments about this place. It’s like we stayed at a completely different hotel.
After a long journey we arrived at the hotel to be ushered inside in an uncomfortable and awkward manor. When I asked whether the porter would like my name he said “no- just a credit card” which we found provided a unprofessional and cold first impression.
We chose this hotel based on the fact it seemed laid back and casual. However, we found the atmosphere in the hotel incredibly uncomfortable.
As an example; every evening we were asked what time we would be down for breakfast in the morning. Both my partner and I work hard and the last thing we want to do on holiday is to stick to pre organised time schedules(!). We stay in a lot of upmarket hotels and we’ve never been asked this. The hotel shouldn’t offer a breakfast window if they don’t expect people to make use of it.
Next: breakfast. What a massive let down. Bacon was hard, sausages tasteless, bread from a packet and stale. The Porridge consisted of raw oats with hot milk poured on top, and the pancakes were caked in lard- completely inedible. My partner requested soft boiled eggs which arrived rock hard on both mornings. When she questioned it the waiter said they couldn’t be hard as they were cooked for 5 and a half minutes(!). It transpired that the waiter was also cooking the breakfast, and as polite as he was, surely a soft boiled egg shouldn’t have been too hard. There should be a designate chef in a 5 star hotel- not random staff mucking in and attempting to cook.
The icing on the cake was the fact we were charged €25 per head for breakfast- which amounted to €150 over the 3 days. This additional charge was not made clear to us. We had assumed by how the porter had initially told us about breakfast at check in that this was included in the price. This definitely needs to be made more clear to customers. We were really quite upset to find out that we had been charged this amount despite the food not even being cooked by a chef. Really incredibly poor and not in line with the expectations one has when staying at a 5 star hotel.
The room itself was nicely designed but- again there were some key issues that urgently need to be addressed.
A five star hotel should provide a variety of coffee and always have milk and sugar on hand. I personally prefer instant coffee- not Nespresso and it was disappointing this wasn’t catered for (even on request). When I called room service for some milk they sent a tiny amount that was curdled and off. Drinks etc weren’t refilled as you would expect which is really disappointing.
I understand that space is at a premium in Amsterdam but the toilet in our room
(Room 9) was far too small. My partner and I aren’t big people but we struggled to use the loo. Especially since the loo seat was broken and swung round when you went to sit on it. An average sized man would not be able to use the toilet.
The shower was broken- the button had snapped off which made turning it on and off very difficult. It looked like it had been broken for a while. The tiling needs some attention and looks tatty and unkempt.
The fake plants in the corner were covered in dust, which was unpleasant. There was also only one tiny bin in the whole suite, and while this isn’t a game changer, it’s just another oversight by someone who obviously lacks attention to detail.
On arrival home after a day out we realised that the person who cleaned the room had left their key in our door all day, meaning our valuables were left unsecured. There was no apology or acknowledgement of this when we handed the key back.
At no point during our visit were we asked how we were finding our stay at the hotel. We felt we were more of an inconvenience than paying guests. We spent over £1000 at the hotel and I have never felt so unwelcome.
We travel a lot and appreciate sometimes the odd thing slips but this was truly terrible from start to finish. We mentioned the appalling quality of the breakfast plus the hidden cost in front of the porter on check out but this was ignored.
We will be contacting Mr and Mrs Smith separately as we feel this hotel has been massively misrepresented on their website. Its a clear case of miss advertising and we feel that the poor level of service we were provided with really tarnished what should have been a great holiday.
Insulted, disappointed and never again