"Our direct flight from Budapest was cancelled, so we had to rebook and ended up with a long connection in Amsterdam. Since our next flight was the following morning, I decided to find a hotel close to Schiphol. As an ALL Accor member, I naturally looked at Accor properties and eventually chose Novotel Schiphol Amsterdam.
I booked directly through the Accor website and used my points, which gave me around €40 off the booking. The online booking process was straightforward, and I also received an email inviting me to complete the online check-in. This included entering my card details for the security deposit, and the email indicated that our key cards would simply be waiting for us at reception.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Unfortunately, not quite.
The hotel is conveniently located near the train station, with Schiphol Airport only around six minutes away by train. The downside is that the hotel doesn't offer a complimentary airport shuttle, so you need to take the train or arrange your own transport.
We arrived at around 3pm, right around check-in time, and there was only one person working at reception. There was one couple before us, but we waited for what felt like more than 20 minutes before it was finally our turn and a queue was forming behind us.
What made it more frustrating was that the receptionist then proceeded to do the entire check-in process again, despite the fact that I had already completed the online check-in. He also asked me to pay the full amount and provide the security deposit again.
I explained that I had used Accor points for part of the booking and had already provided the security deposit online. After checking, he eventually found everything in the system and processed our key cards.
I couldn't help wondering what the point of online check-in was if I still had to stand there and repeat the entire process. It felt like an unnecessary waste of time, particularly after a cancelled flight and a long journey.
The requests I had made with the booking also seemed to have disappeared into the void. We were assigned a room on the third floor, quite far from the elevator. I didn't bother raising the issue since we were only staying one night, although there appeared to be plenty of rooms in our category available that day.
The room itself was clean at first glance, but looking a little closer revealed a different story. The telephone was extremely dirty and also didn't work properly. There were no slippers and, surprisingly, no toiletries.
For a Novotel, particularly one positioned as an airport hotel, I found that quite strange.
I tried calling reception about the missing toiletries and spent around 20 minutes waiting for someone to answer. Eventually, I called room service instead. After about five minutes, a woman answered and sounded rather annoyed. I explained that I needed some basic toiletries. She told me she couldn't send them because she was in the restaurant.
I suggested that perhaps she could ask someone from reception or housekeeping to help. Her response was essentially that I should keep calling them myself.
So I gave up.
At that point, I was tired and only staying for one night, so I wasn't interested in spending the rest of the day fighting with the hotel over toiletries.
The bed was comfortable though.
Thankfully, check-out was much smoother. The receptionist was a little slow, but at least he was friendly and the process was straightforward.
Overall, this was easily the worst experience I've had at a Novotel property. The location is convenient for Schiphol, particularly with the train station nearby, and the hotel itself has the potential to be a perfectly practical airport stopover.
But the combination of the pointless online check-in, understaffed reception at check-in time, ignored booking requests, lack of basic amenities, direty telephone and particularly unhelpful response when I tried to get toiletries made this a very disappointing stay, especially for a 4 star accor hotel. I've had better experience with 2 and 3 star properties.
There are plenty of other hotels around Schiphol, spend your 100+€ elsewhere."
