Singel Hotel - Amsterdam, Netherlands     

We are a couple from Bergen, Norway and we stayed at the picturesque Singel Hotel last week. Because the hotel is situated right in the middle of the city centre at one of the canals of Amsterdam and the buildings along these canals are hundreds of years old we didn't expect a modern, spacious hotel. When we make a citytrip we prefer to book a hotel which offers a local atmosphere in stead of for example a 400 rooms Hilton Hotel which looks completely the same in every city... Indeed our room was not spacious but it was clean. The location is perfect (only a few minutes from central station) and the friendly staff, magnificent hospitality and great services like free wifi and free in-house movies are much better then average hotels (so far I always had to pay for internet access). When you ask the people at the reception for information they do everything to help you. The places they recommended us were really great. Especially the “Jordaan” area was outstanding! Here you will find the caf?’s and restaurants the locals are going to (everywhere non-smoking as from July 1st!). And only ten minutes from the hotel. So, our overall experience of the Singel Hotel is very good. If you expect swimming pools, wellness centres and giant rooms you’ll better book a Hilton Hotel. But why you go to Amsterdam anyway ? If you want to book a hotel in Amsterdam which make you feel like a local for a few days, go to Singel Hotel!!

We stayed there just one night, didn't book hotel in advance so relied on some tourist agency near train station and they booked it for us. Location is good, the hotel had some bad smell and it looked pretty worn out inside, the room was very small, well, clean but you still feel like you are in a hostel. The bathroom was also very small and looked old. In the morning we asked the guy (at the reception) if we can have breakfast 10-15 minutes earlier breakfast time (we needed to catch train), i understand he is not obliged to say - yes. But he was so indifferent to our request and kind of rude. It was very unpleasant. Don't waste your money! There are much better hotels in Amsterdam.