Hotel TwentySeven

Hotel TwentySeven

Two minutes from Dam Square, past the Royal Palace and the New Church, Hotel TwentySeven runs to just sixteen rooms, and every one of them is a suite, from a 431-square-foot Junior Suite up to a 1,367-square-foot Terrace Grand Suite with its own outdoor space, and a Luxury Suite that sleeps up to eight. That is the thing most five-star addresses in this city do not manage: an entire suite-only hotel, small enough that the doorman and the 24-hour reception staff know who is coming and going. Breakfast is cooked to order, dinner is served at Restaurant Bougainville or brought up by room service, and there is a bar for the hour before bed. Rooms are individually decorated rather than uniform, with a bathtub or shower, bathrobe and slippers, and a television. Recreation on site means a spa tub and a picnic area rather than a full leisure floor, so days are better spent walking to the Anne Frank House or the Nine Streets than lingering at a spa desk. Staff speak English, French, German and Spanish, and the concierge handles laundry, dry cleaning, ironing, and a babysitter for the evening, though the last comes at a surcharge. This suits a couple or a small family who want a whole suite to themselves and don't mind everyone at the desk knowing their name by day two. It does not suit a solo traveller who wants to disappear into a big lobby, or anyone who measures a five-star stay by the size of its gym. Sixteen rooms, all suites, in the middle of Amsterdam: rarer than the star rating suggests. Sixteen rooms, all of them suites, two minutes from Dam Square: a five-star hotel that runs closer to a serviced apartment than a resort. It suits couples and small families who want space and a doorman who knows them, not anyone chasing a pool or a gym.