Category: Hoteliers

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.

Carlton Ambassador in The Hague

The Carlton Ambassador celebrated the 10th anniversary of operating in its present format.

In 2004 Mr J. Schoon published a small history (ISBN 90-9018992-0) of the Ambassador. Already in the 19nd century the hotel was set up and operated by Mrs Geertruida Vos, a daughter of the owner of the then famous hotel “Zalm” (Salmon) in Gouda – yes Gouda is one of the cheese centers of Holland – which hotel Salmon was one of the first hotels in the Netherlands.

Mrs Vos was very successful and therefor her nickname became “Goudvosje” (“little Gold Fox”).

Until 1973 the property was operated uninterruptedly as a hotel by the same family, lately under a great grandson of Goudvosje, Mr Anton Krulder.

Between 1973 and 1994 Mr Krulder let the property to an institute that housed former psychiatric patients. In 1994 he sold the property to Hotel Management International that operated 4 Carlton hotels in The Netherlands.

After a thorough renovation of 15 months, the Carlton Ambassador reopened as fifth Dutch Carlton Hotel on March 10, 1995.

Philippe Starck

Because jack of all trades designer Philippe Starck has designed the interiors of a few hotels already, it is not strange that he announces a partnership to create 35 hotels under his own label, Starck International Hotels and Resorts.

Dutch Design (3): Lute Suites to open 13nd January, 2005

Lute Suites
After Haagsche Suites (Suites of The Hague) that opened 29th September 2002 and after Maison le Dragon in Bruges, we now see a new Dutch small all suite hotel initiative in Ouderkerk a/d Amstel, just outside of Amsterdam. Ouderkerk is boarding on the small Amstel river from which Amsterdam derived its name: The Dam in the Amstel.

Lute Suites is developed by Peter Lute, from Restaurant and Marcel Wanders of Marcel Wanders Studio

Seven picturesque small houses for rent as suites with or without breakfast, with or without personal shopper, with or without dinner in either the restaurant or served in your suite. No lobby, but a mini reception desk, because it is not supposed to be a hotel. More suites to follow in Amsterdam.

I like the idea and the design, but not the Lute website design, because of its cumbersome accessibility.

Update: Discovered the term Notel, created the Notel category and added this post to it.

Last edited by gje on December 13, 2016

Fashion makers into hotels

Miauw

Analik has her own fashion label and a shop in Amsterdam (9 streets shopping area).

Now she has purchased a property in Antwerpen where she will start a new shop and a hotel. In autumn she will open a hotel next to her Amsterdam shop. More to follow under the name: Miauw Suites.

Other fashion makers preceded her: