The College Hotel - Amsterdam, Netherlands     

We booked the College Hotel for two nights over our wedding in Amsterdam. From the reviews I'd read here, I was fully expecting a beautiful hotel with some poor service. However, everything was top notch from start to finish! There was always a doorman at the entrance, and we were offered 'fresh organic apple foam' while we were checking in. (I made such a fuss about how delicious it was that they gave me another one!) The hotel was even more stunning than in the photos. We were given a tour of the hotel after we checked in, and then our luggage was taken upstairs to our incredible room. We booked the deluxe double through Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and it was HUGE, with an incredible bathroom! Everyone was so friendly while we were there. They pressed our wedding outfits for us, free of charge. They brought us apples and bottles of water every night before bed. They ordered a limousine to take us to our wedding ceremony, and took some really arty photos of us on our camera before we left. The nicest touch was the bottle of complimentary champagne that they brought up to our room while we were getting dressed for the wedding.... with a really nice note from the front desk staff congratulating us. The only thing I thought that was a little out of order was the price of the breakfast - 19 euros (!!!) gives you a basket of bread cheese and meats. If you want eggs, cereal or yogurt, you pay extra (up to 6 euros extra) for each item. We were planning to treat ourselves on the morning after the wedding to a breakfast in bed, but we just couldn't justify the cost! So we walked up to the Pancake Bakery instead (on Prinsengracht) which was delicious. All in all, a wonderful stay in a beautiful hotel with really friendly staff. You'd be hard pressed to find a hotel of this quality and luxury for the same price anywhere else in Amsterdam!

Stayed for a couple of nights to celebrate our tenth anniversary. The building itself is charming, but the overall experience is underwhelming. In particular, a blocked sink, a small room, single beds and the absence of any facility to prepare a hot drink made the whole experience less 'boutique' than I had hoped. Given this was a luxury outfit, I thought maybe we were simply not expected to be able to operate a kettle and therefore called room service for two cups of tea. An hour later the order arrived. In future I'd rather stay somewhere rather less 'boutique' and spend the excess on a couple of lavish meals whilst I'm there.