OK, so the hotel is very nice. The room was elegant and stylish. The view of the small canal from the room was a nice bonus. The common areas of the hotel, particularly the courtyard, were gorgeous. The location is OK, not bad, not great. The air-conditioning was somewhat feeble in our room, bringing the temperature to about 72 degrees or so only when set at about 50 degrees. I wanted badly to think of this as the 5-star hotel that it attempts to be.
BUT...
The service was spotty. Everyone that we encountered was very pleasant, and the concierge was very useful, especially as they sold tickets to the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh museum, and the Rijksmuseum, the 3 attractions in Amsterdam most likely to generate a line at the door for tickets. The ability to get the tickets from the concierge was a nice bonus. The front desk staff was pleasant enough as well; that was not the problem. Check-in, when we arrived, was OK, a little slow, but not enough so as to put up a fuss. When I attempted to exchange some currency at the desk, however, it took about 20 minutes to do so (and there was no line at the desk). The desk clerk seemed repeatedly distracted by doing other things, and was not really focusing on making the exchange for us. Even when he did it, for whatever reason, he was repeatedly shuffling papers, as if distracted. Regardless, I didn't think much of it.
It was check-out that I found to be a fiasco. I called down to have our bags brought down and to have a taxi called to take us to the train station. I was assured that a taxi would be called and that it would be waiting for us after we checked out. We followed the bags down shortly. There was one person in front of me in line checking out already. I waited for about 10 minutes for this person to check out, as there appeared to be an endless amount of paper shuffling once again, by a different front desk clerk. When I arrived at the desk to check out, it took another 10 minutes or so to check me out as well, with the same paper shuffling routine as well as the desk clerk disappearing to the back for a few minutes for whatever reason. After finally getting checked out, we exited to the front, where no taxi was waiting, despite the fact that about 25 minutes had passed since I was assured on the phone that a cab would be called immediately. I asked the bellboy/doorman about the cab, and he replied that he knew that we were going to the train station and that a taxi had been called and would be there any minute. About 10 more minutes passed, and I asked him again about the taxi. He replied that he had just called for one, implying that he had not called earlier and had not been frank about it initially. We then waited another 10 minutes or so before the taxi arrived. Needless to say, we needed to hustle a little to catch our train when we got to the station.
Now, I am not snobby or snooty about hotels, travel, or service. I am simply being frank about this, because I don't think that the process of checking out and getting a taxi for transportation should take the better part of an hour, not at a hotel that fancies itself a five star luxury hotel and not at $500 per night. It's a shame, since I think that Sofitel hotels in general maintain a wonderful level of excellence.
