Hotwire Hotel: 3* Amsterdam City Center, question

[WillTravel]

Other details: TripAdvisor 3/5 (not great), and 160+ reviews, including December 2007.

I know of two 3* hotels in central Amsterdam that I can get for 68 or 74 Euros for these dates, so for the most part, I doubt Hotwire can do better. I don't want to get a 4* hotel (or 3* for that matter) on Priceline, because I don't like the locations of some possibilities.

However, I am quite intrigued by this Hotwire offering. There are so few hotels in Europe that have laundries available to guests. When you click the laundry icon, it says, "<amenity names only please... not descriptions>"

The Albus Grand is a 3* hotel offered in Priceline's vacation packages, with no amenities. I wrote to them and asked if they had a laundry available to guests, and they said no.

The de Roode Leeuw is another 3* Hotwire package offering, and it has an ironing room for guests, but no laundry, so far as I can see.

I looked, and I could not find any 3* hotel that has coin-operated washers and dryers for guests. The Marriott does allow guests complimentary use of a laundry room, but it's a 4* hotel.

So - in summary, I am very curious to figure out what the hotel is, and in the event it was a well-located, nice hotel (knowing you can never know for sure with Hotwire), I might be interested. But I'm not interested in getting a random 3*, with the way the zones are set up. I tend to think this laundry icon is a mistake on Hotwire's part, but if it led to an erroneous purchase, what would be their response?

Any ideas - I have to say that curiosity is motivating me too, and it's quite likely I wouldn't consider the hotel a good deal once I did find out, but if anyone has any thoughts, I'd be glad to hear.

[thereuare]

I tend to think this laundry icon is a mistake on Hotwire's part, but if it led to an erroneous purchase, what would be their response?

HOTWIRE customer service is typically very good. No guarantees, but in every instance i know of, if an amenity shouldn't be associated with a property and is, hotwire has offered a refund or the option of keeping the reservation and receiving 'hot Dollars'. (this does NOT include instances where the amenity is unavailable for renovation or seasonal reasons)

The Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza also has coin-op laundry facilities, but in Europe i think it would more likely be rated higher than 3 stars?

[WillTravel]

The Holiday Inn is in the south zone and is rated 3.5* on Hotwire (4* on Priceline).

The Crowne Plaza is a 4* on Priceline, but I don't know about Hotwire. It has better reviews than reported for the mystery hotel.

Thanks for the ideas. The laundry thing does seem common with some chains, but I can't think of a chain 3* that would fit these criteria.

[WillTravel]

I have a possible candidate, although not everything fits.

The Hotel de Looier comes up on the Hotwire Vacation Package for dates that include this stay.

Its amenities are not quite the same as the mystery hotel: Restaurant(s), Laundry Facilities, High-speed Internet Access

It is only a 2.5* in the vacation packages, but when I looked up the hotel web site, I see it is listed as a Dutch 3* hotel. However, I think that hotels are almost always consistent in star rating between these two parts of the Hotwire site.

Neither the hotel's web site, nor any other web site, gives any indication that the hotel has any laundry facilities whatsoever, but as noted above, Laundry is a Hotwire amenity for this hotel.

www.hoteldelooier.com/

The reviews are not good enough to get this hotel even if I knew for sure.

I have seen rates drop as low as $96 while I've been watching this.

[WillTravel]

As someone indicated in a different post, this was likely the Golden Tulip Apollo, which has come up with these icons, even though it does not have a bona fide coin-operated guest laundry.

We ended up staying at the 2* Hotel Armada, booked through booking.com , for 49 Euros per night including breakfast, for a twin room. I was a little nervous about whether an Amsterdam 2* hotel would be too sketchy, but the hotel seemed family-oriented, rather than drug-tourist-oriented, and it has a friendly staff and clean rooms. The location was really ideal. The hotel has had some renovations lately, so I felt it was probably justified to overlook many of the previously bad reviews. It's definitely only a 2* hotel, but I liked the location better than anything I was likely to get with PRICELINE or HOTWIRE, and of course the price was right. The problem was that getting a better hotel in a location that we liked just as well would likely have meant spending 2x or 3x more, and I could not justify that.

[rapazfreiburg]

49 Euros is a very nice price for any hotel in the center of Amsterdam. Rates usually start at around 70 to 80 Euros, even for 1-star hotels.