Tripadvisor.

It was not too long ago, people had to rely on the pictures in travelbrochures to form an idear about the destinations they were going to choose.
Nowadays, with everybody on the WorldWideWeb, it is much easier to get information about where to stay, where to go, what to visit and/or what to avoid.
Everybody can share and read opinions on the numerous websites covering reviews on cities, restaurants, hotels etc.

Basicaly, I think that is a good thing, provided that the writer has actually been in the place reviewed, and the website providing the space to review ,not only hosts the site to earn income out of advertisements.

Having to deal with hotelreviews almost on a daily basis,I pretty much formed my opinion about these sites.

First there are the reviews published on the hotels website itself.Unreliable!
Sure, the reviewer has been there and undoubtly has had a "great time with a very good breakfast, comfortable beds and friendly staff". But let's not forget that in the backoffice of this site, there is the hotelier aproving or deleting the reviews to be published.So you only read the positive comments.

On the other hand, there are the reviews on the various bookingsites, sites where you can book your hotel online. After securing your booking, they send a request if you wish to be contacted after your stay, to review the place you booked. And they publish it, good or bad!
It is never nice to read a bad review, but I think every hotelier should read them carefully and act on them if neccesary. We made numerous changes, big and small, in our hotel. after reading a review and basicaly agreeing with the subject reviewed.
We are only human and cannot know what all those thousands of guests who visit yearly prefer.We learn too and are happy to provide.
Sometimes the review is based on false interpertation or experience and we contact the guest to set the record straight.
But all in all, if you listen to the guest and act upon their comments, you see your review ratings rise.
If only the guest was so brave to spill their comments during their stay, so we can act immediately to make their stay more comfortable to their wishes....

Then there are the commercial review sites. I mention Tripadvisor.com, since they are the biggest, but there are many out there and I include them too.
They provide a platform for everybody to review everything and anything, categorised per country/city/hotel/etc, in the meantime hoping you click on the advertisements so they can make some money.
It's a chatforum where totaly irrelevant questions are asked as:
"where do I buy a busticket in Amsterdam". (I would say....On the bus??!)
And everybody can join every chat and subject, no matter what harm it can do.

Let me give you an example:
About 1 1/2 year ago I came to work at 07.00 AM finding a guest in front of the hotel who was completely out of it. He'd really lost it, obviously having spent most of the night in coffeeshops ( and I don't mean Starbucks).
I escorted him to his room, hoping he would sleep it off and not disturb the neighbours or other guests.
Within half an hour, before the reception/breakfast actually opens, he was banging on the reception door, half clothed, screaming there were rats in his room (...) and he wanted to check out immediately. You cannot handle someone in such a state, so I let him go, ofcourse calling the local authorities there was someone in the neighbourhood needing assistance.
Two weeks later there was a big discussion on Tripadvisor about this case. He posted a review that was absolutely killing for the hotel, still seeing all those rats in his room.Although Tripadvisor disencourages hoteliers to react, I had to, mentioning Amsterdam is a city of many cultural events and not only....
My reaction stayed the top subject for several weeks, and everyone had an opinion about it.
Even people who thought Holland is a provence of Belgium, Amsterdam is the capital of Sweden, people who never visited Europe, let alone Holland, let alone Amsterdam, let alone our hotel.
They all "knew" we were the worst hotel in the world.

So review sites may be helpfull for you to decide where to go and what to book, but,
READ BETWEEN THE LINES!

Harry

Food

Holland is definately not known for its "exquisit cuisine".

For breakfast, if we eat any at all.., we have our coffee or tea, with a slice of bread with cheese or marmalade, on our way out to work, or bringing the kids to school and daycare, before that.
The luxury of making a fresh glass of orange juice, or putting on the oven to bake a fresh roll or croisant...we simply do not take time for it.
Eventhough tv- commercials try to teach us otherwise.
We only boil an egg on sundays.

For lunch, nothing better. If there isn't a cateringcompany at the workplace to provide something healthy and substantial, you bring your own lunchbox.
Yes, it will contain at least that one sandwich with cheese.

Or you go out in the street to pull your lunch out of the wall for a Euro or so.(Something typicly dutch, try it, it's fun).
Dried out burgers, and luke warm ,in old oil fried, things we call Kroketten or Frikandellen (the latter being waste parts of animals grounded in a long shape and only be eaten with a lot of sauce..)

Dinner for the Dutch is simple:
Patatoes, vegetables and meat.
Preferably all mashed together in one pot, (we call it Stampot).
The only variation is what kind of vegatable you wish to smash...

Luckily, Holland has a wide varity of cultures, so many different restaurants with kitchens from all over the world are here, so we can enjoy all their different tastes and kitchens.
A real treat!!

So what has this story to do with a hotel?
Simple..What do you serve for breakfast, with so many people being our guests from so many places around the world..?

Here it is:
Coffee,Tea, Chilled water,Chocolate to make chocolatemilk, Warm milk, 2 kinds of cereal. ,Orange Juice, Fresh milk, canned fruit, 3 kind of crackers, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and pickels, cheese (ofcourse) and 3 kinds of sliced meats,fresh boiled eggs, 3 kinds of marmelades, honey, chocolate spread, Big fresch fruit basket,Bread to make toast. but mostly FRESH BAKED MUFFINS AND WARM ROLLS.
To get you off on a good start in Amsterdam.

If you run a 'bed and breakfast', at least you need clean sheets and a hearty breakfast.
We deliver, to all tastes!
Even serving breakfast till noon.

More about the different cultures and habbits later,

Bye

Harry

Marathon climbing

This is the weekend of the Amsterdam-Marathon. There are hardly any rooms available in town and the atmosphere is nice and sporty, with all those thousands of contestants having their early morning work-out in the various parks, to gear up for the event.



And most of them likely had an unexpected work-out this morning allready.
Climbing 'dangerously' steep stairs!



25% Of all hotelrooms in Amsterdam are in 1, 2 or 3 star hotels and these are almost all located in those typical converted Amsterdam-style (ware)houses, usually 3 or 4 stories high.
In the old days ,when these buildings were build, one was not rich, and each floor housed an entire family with more then the nowadays average 2.3 kids, and often even the grandparents.
In those days, city taxes were determined by the width of the house and the number of windows. So in order to save on those taxes, one built the houses small and high, leaving only room for steep and narrow stairs.



Nowadays ,it is still hardly possible to make alterations for more comfort, or build in elevators.
On one side there simply isn't any space to do so. On the other side there is the goverment refusing all neccesary permits, since these kind off buildings are protected heritage.



So one might end up being asigned to a room on the topfloor, having to drag all the lugage upstairs, having to go up and down carefully the entire stay.
Luckily most hotels mention on their website if an elevator is available or not, and mostly there is a willing hotel employee to help you get upstairs with the lugage.



For eldery people or people having trouble walking, it is highly advisable to ask in advance, when reserving, for a room on the lowest floor possible. That can save a lot of trouble and disapointment for all parties involved.



This also explains those hauling-hooks on top of every building in Amsterdam.
You think it is difficult to get your lugage up those steep, narrow stairs...
did you ever try a piano or a kingsize bed??
Harry.

Expectations.

Well, back at work for some time now, and almost over the disapointment of the apartment in Nice I rented (see previous posts), I just had an example of how things can go wrong without it being the hotels fault.
Someone checked in today, who booked a single room with shower, through an internet-travel website. He had everything printed out. Very good, I thought, I like it when people travel well prepared.
He was back down at the reception within 3 minutes, with a big stack of papers,obviously a little distraught.
"This is not the room I ordered", he claimed, and showed me a picture of the room he thought he had reserved, taken from the website. It was a picture of a large quad room with ensuite facilities. The caption underneath the picture stated that clearly.
This I explained to him, and showed him on the internet, on the website he booked on, which picture was the right one (including caption).

He refused to stay another minute in this xxxx-hotel. My offering helping him find a hotel that is more to his liking, got greeted with a middlefinger up, and he left.

I hope he is able to find anything at this late time of day on a friday night in high-season, but I am afraid he will end up in one of the last available rooms of a 4 or 5 star hotel, paying at least 5x more then he intended.

The lesson to be learned?
Only print out the relevant information to take on your travels, and read it!

Harry

Welcome to the blogpage of

Hotel Kap

Amsterdam.

.As representative I would like to introduce our hotel to you and tell you about everything it has to offer.

Also, having worked in the hospitality bussines in Amsterdam for over 20 years, I still enjoy telling guests about the city. Where to go and what to avoid, places of interest, things to see and do.

So, if you have any questions about the city of Amsterdam, or wish my humble opinion and advice, please feel free to drop a line, I will logg on reguarly to check the posts.

For starters, let me introduce the hotel with a short movie/slideshow I made.

Enjoy!

Hotel Kap

den Texstraat 5b

1017 XW Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Phone : +31 (0)20 6245908

Fax : +31 (0)20 6271289

Mail : kap00072@planet.nl

Website : http://www.kaphotel.nl/

September, 2009.

Well, being just back from a two week stay in Nice, Cote d'Azur,France,I once again realise how important it is to keep your finger on all (!) things that might matter in a bussiness as a hotel.

The accomodation we booked was in a really poor state, downright dirty and offered no comfort at all. The owner, who lives in the UK himself, stated later he hadn't been there for over a year and just phoned the cleaner when to stop by.

It was all totally different from the pictures and descriptions shown on the Net.Luckily, we at the Kap, took great care in providing the right info and pictures on our website and brochures, and having daily maidservice done by a proffesional cleaning company,hardly get any complaints., though you can never please them all.

People mostly wish a basic, comfortable and affordable place to sleep, and that is just what we offer.To make their stay that bit extra you can offer various small things.

We noticed guest having late breakfast more frequently, or none at all.So we changed the hours we serve our breakfastbuffet into from 08.00 till 12.00 (Noon). And yes,this gets some pleasent responses, especially if they could eat out in the backpatio.

Then, another general complaint about Amsterdam we tackled this week, is about the long queus at the major museums when wanting to buy entrance tickets. As of this week the hotel sells tickets for the Rijks museum and the Van Gogh museum.

Quiet an investment without any profit, but we think it a good service and are happy to oblige.

So far for today

Regards

Harry

Hotel Kap