Ibis Styles Amsterdam Centraal Station Review

A budget hotel #fail. The best things about the Ibis Amsterdam Centre for my friend and I was the close proximity to everything we wanted to do as tourist, and our clean and more modern hotel room. We stayed in room 586 at the end of the hall. It had a view of the train tracks, and the noisy rail systems could be drowned out by keeping the windows closed.

However, starting from least annoying to most annoying are the following:

1. No tea kettle or coffee maker, or iron in the rooms at this Ibis. You have to borrow these items from the front desk. No refrigerators are supplied at all.

2. The cleaning staff does not do a good job with making your bed. They pretty much just cover up your bed with the duvet haphazardly, and don't change sheets or pillowcases unless you specifically ask.

3. The wi-fi was abysmal in room 586. If you could connect it was slow, and it would drop constantly.

4. The cleaning service leaves their cleaning bins out in the open right next to our room when they are done for the day, and then noisily collect them at around 8a:m every morning. A noisy eye-sore to say the least.

5. The room this Ibis uses to hold your suitcases (should your room not be ready when you arrive) is insufficiently monitored. They allow travellers to self-check their suitcases in and out of the room. They have a man posted about 8 metres from the room who keeps an eye on the entry and exit, however he cannot see every angle of the room. They have a visible camera in the room at a viewing angle that I strategically placed my luggage near (more on this in a minute).

The fourth point leads me tell of my experience with the luggage room.

The lock on my suitcase was missing when I took it out. I had made sure my bag was locked with the combination lock before I left the luggage room. The bag had only been in the room for about 45 minutes. My friend's suitcase was fine. Panicked, I took the luggage upstairs to our room and took everything out. Thankfully, nothing was missing. However, I still had a missing lock, and realized that perhaps there was a thief somewhere around. When I spoke to the manager on duty "Sacha" she said she would review the camera footage and get back to me, but she would not be able to release any information about any persons, or details of what happened. Sacha did not follow up with me directly. I had to then speak to another manager "Geoffrey" later in the day. He said that Sacha had not seen anything on the camera footage, because the camera was "out of view" (remember I had put my luggage within view of the camera on purpose). Geoffrey was quite condescending. He dwelled on the fact that nothing was missing, and "why would a thief take a lock off and not continue"? The answer to that is perhaps he/she didn't have time. How would I know? Geoffrey was quite unconcerned with the implications of what had happened, and didn't make a convincing argument that the camera was even working, otherwise how could my luggage be "out of view"? When I asked for reimbursement for my lock if I went and bought another one, he flat out refused.

I contacted the Accord customer service via social media and by email, and after some initial back forth, I haven't heard back from them regarding their own inquiry into the incident.

I wouldn't stay here again, and I don't recommend this hotel when staying in Amsterdam.

Room Tip: Do not choose room 586. As a matter of fact, just stay at the Doubletree Hilton.