Category: Netherlands

Dutch red tape: Rules Rule

Victoria Hotel Amsterdam

Hotel Victoria in Amsterdam, also known as the Amsterdam Park Plaza Victoria Hotel, originally built in 1890, was subject of a very strange decision wherin the Dutch “Raad van State” ruled that the entire hotel qualified as a monument, while only the front, the stairs and a few windows still are original and the rest of the hotel dated from 1988 when the hotel had been rebuilt entirely behind its facade.

The Raad van State is the ultimate legal body that decides public law cases as opposed to private law cases that are decided ultimately by the Dutch “Hoge Raad” (Dutch Supreme Court).

Off course the hotelier in question is not happy at all: whenever he wants to replace a washbasin from 1988, he has to ask permission from the Dutch Monuments Board, while buildings from 1988 rarely qualify as a monument,….

Suite Hotel Posthoorn in Monickendam

Another small luxury all Suite Hotel opened in May 2005. It is located north of Amsterdam in one of the old towns around the IJsselmeer, also known as Zuiderzee before a dyke seperated it from the Waddenzee (a shallow sea between the Dutch Wadden Islands and the coast).
It has a long history and even Napoleon should have slept there. The Flashy site of the 5 suites »Hotel Posthoorn gives a nice impression of this Restaurant Cum Suites.

FT and NYT cover small Dutch and Belgian Luxury Design Hotels

FT

The “How To Spend It” magazine of the Financial Times covered Haagsche Suites in The Hague (see pictures), Park Tower Suite in Haarlem en Brugsche Suites and Maison le Dragon, both in Brugge, Belgium.

The New York Times addressed designers Analik of Miauw Suites in Antwerp and Marcel Wanders of Lute Suites near Amsterdam.

Maastricht: Beaumont reopened

Beaumont

Hotel Beaumont in Maastricht has been restyled and reopened recently. It won the “Dutch Hotel Award” for its renovation.

Renovation of Wilhelmina Hotel and Beach Hotel Duinheuvel in Domburg almost ready

By coincidence we stayed at the Wilhelmina Hotel in Domburg, province of Zeeland, on May 5, 2005, which is Dutch Liberation Day. It was celebrated as a holiday (once every 5 years it is a holiday, as it is already some time ago that we were liberated….ever heard of the stingy Dutch?). Consequently the adjacent Beach Hotel Duinheuvel where family of us stayed, was entirely booked, but there was a room available in Wilhelmina Hotel. However, it was possible to have a sumptuous breakfast together in the Gallery of Beach Hotel Duinheuvel.

Ontbijt in de Gallerie

Such breakfast is an experience as all guests are draped around a very expensive piano and all sorts of paintings look upon your fresh eggs. The artwork exposed is for sale.

We actually bought a nice bronze of a dancing lady as a present for our dancing daughter who was going to graduate from the Rotterdam Dancing Academy. (How happy a hotelier can be ;-)).

We stayed in one of the renovated Wilhelmina rooms. Very clean, wooden floors, all amenities available and a pleasant atmosphere.

One of the owners is the third generation of the family that operated Wilhelmina Hotel.

Together with his partner, the one who mainly operates the Art Gallery, he bought the Beach Hotel Duinheuvel a couple of years ago. Wilhelmina has been renovated in 2004 and now the renovation of Duinheuvel is almost ready.

I loved the location just two steps over a dune from the beach. The Coasters heading to and from Antwerp sail so close to the coast there, that you can almost touch them.

Service is friendly and very professional.