The Happier the Hotelier, The Happier the Guest
The Hague has a new initiative: “Winkelnach” which means so much as the title of this post indicates. Tonight, June 21st, most shops in the City Center will stay open until midnight. The idea is that it has to become a same sort of happening as “Koninginnenach”, or Queen’s Night, the night before Queens Day when the Dutch celebrate the Queen’s birthday.
I will keep you posted.
On June 8, 2007, only a couple of months later than planned, the new five star Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam opened in the beautiful historic Art Deco building, the “Scheepvaarthuis” (The Shipping Companies’ Building) once belonging to the rich Amsterdam shipping companies.
The shipping companies have long disappeared, and their ships no longer proudly sail the oceans of the world. But the Scheepvaarthuis still stands, completely intact, as a beautiful monument to those times.The romance of the sea and the building’s creators can still be seen and admired, given shape in authentic materials of the time.Within this space and ambiance, a grand five-star hotel is being created with all the respect due to the monumental beauty of the building. It is a new lease of life for the Scheepvaarthuis! The grandeur of the past is being combined with modern-day comfort and luxury – technically perfect and benignly comfortable. The guests are accommodated in the past as well as the present – in a unique artwork as well as the most
beautiful luxury hotel in modern-day Amsterdam.
So far the quote.
It has 160 rooms and 15 suites which will be available as of December 2007. It is located on walking distance of the Central Station and has some beautiful views on the Historic Shipping quarter with the still active Dutch Royal Marine basis (yes blocked out on Google Maps) and the
Historic Shipping Museum of Amsterdam with its replica of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) trader “Amsterdam”. Alas, for the time being the shipping museum is closed due to an extensive renovation.
Last edited by GJE on December 5, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Recently Dutch privately owned Eden Hotel Group (E.H.G.), established in 1977, acquired four hotels:
I discovered Grijs, a nice Blog with a nice style about Dutch Design and more important in the English language. Started in January, 2007 by a Dutch lady and mainly about European design.
Going back in time to December 28, 2004:
My friend Bas had wiped off the snow from ABN AMRO 2’s name, later nicknamed White Betty, just prior to its launch.
Bas was responsible for the styling of the two ABN AMRO sponsored sailing boats and the styling of all means of communication around the two ABN AMRO teams competing in the round the world Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006 edition that was won by White Betty’s sister competitor, ABN AMRO 1, aptly nicknamed Black Betty. After the America’s Cup the Volvo Ocean Race is the second most prestigious sailing race.
The Volvo Ocean campaign gave ABN AMRO Bank enormous media coverage and established the brand and the logo very well.
Today the press announced an unfriendly take over bid from three banks, Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Santander, who want to divide ABN AMRO in several digestible chunks. It is the second bid after one from Barclay’s that seemingly intends to keep ABN AMRO BANK more in tact than the threesome, but conditioned its bid upon the sale by ABN AMRO Bank of its US subsidiary La Salle to Bank of America. In the meantime a Dutch judge has ordered that ABN AMRO seek approval for the La Salle sale from its shareholders, something I believe would only be normal, but what the ABN AMRO board wants to contest up to the Dutch supreme court.
A real take over fight in our otherwise reasonable peaceful corporate landscape here in The Netherlands…
So, probably the logo and the brand will disappear with the company before long, which is a pity for a company that goes back to the nineteenth century when the Dutch King initiated one of its predecessors.