Last February on a visit to Amsterdam, I was intrigued by the W Amsterdam sign atop the building I always knew as Dam Square Albert Heijn supermarket. I had frequented the Albert Heijn portion of the building for 15 years when staying in Amsterdam.
W Amsterdam opened its Phase 1 hotel development in October 2015, with 172 guest rooms located in the former Telephone Exchange building. The Exchange building has a rooftop lounge-bar, Mr. Porter steak restaurant and an outdoor swimming pool. The Phase 2 development of the hotel is located across the street in a former Bank building. where the fine dining restaurant The Duchess has opened and 66 more guest rooms will open, probably in April or May 2016.
The W Amsterdam is Starwood Hotels primary Amsterdam location since Hotel Pulitzer Amsterdam, a couple of canal blocks away, left Starwood Hotels and now is affiliated with Preferred Hotels & Resorts.
W Amsterdam rooftop lobby
W Amsterdam reception
The entrance to W Amsterdam is on Spuistraat, between Dam Square and Singel canal. The hotel location is the heart of Amsterdam and a central location of the city for tourists. Many of the city trams run along the Neiuwezijds Voorburgwal street located between the hotel and Dam Square. The stop at Dam Square is about a five minute ride from Amsterdam Centraal Station.
(Note for Americans: Spui rhymes with ‘how’. The vowel combination of ‘ui’ in Dutch is easy to remember if you think of the English word ‘out’, which in Dutch is ‘uit’. Both words are pronounced similarly. People will wonder what you mean if you ask directions for ‘Spewey’.)
Bellmen monitor the front door. The area around Dam Square can be one of the wild spots in the city attracting party people.
W Amsterdam check-in reception desk is on the top floor (sixth floor?).
W Amsterdam pins on a panel beside the reception desk.
Past reception is the W Amsterdam hotel lounge and bar.
The lobby and bar area have plenty of reading materials, in addition to the views.
  
The view from W Amsterdam bar counter looks out to the Royal Palace, originally built in 1648 as Amsterdam’s Town Hall.
W Amsterdam Rooftop Pool
One of the more interesting features of W Amsterdam is a long and narrow outdoor pool behind the bar area. The outdoor area was closed in February and I could not get a good photo angle of the pool. The W Amsterdam photo gallery has hotel photos and videos.
W Amsterdam Guest Room 126 – the best room ever
Typical W Hotel trait carries into W Amsterdam with dimly lit guest room floors.
The whimsical nature of the hotel is revealed in its guest room doors.
  
The W Amsterdam rooms have high ceilings in the former Telephone Exchange office building. Starwood’s website has guest reviews and one recent complaint was about tram noise outside. Apparently, the room windows are double glazed to reduce noise volume. Being someone who lives in a pretty quiet place in the woods by the sea, most city hotels I visit are noisy to me when I am sleeping.
I did not notice tram noise from inside room 126 facing the tram tracks, but I also was not trying to sleep.
The room view seen in this photo looks kind of barren, but I did not get that feeling inside.
One of the outstanding features of the guest rooms are copper tube ceiling lights. To my dismay, I did not snap a photo of the W guest room ceiling light fixture. Here are links I found for two W Amsterdam guest room photos showing the light fixture in W Amsterdam room light 1 and room light 2 as visual examples of the light fixtures.
W Amsterdam bedside room control panel.
There are different room designs in the hotel. Room 126 has a counter with a pull out sliding desktop. The curved portion protruding through the far end of the counter is the shower stall wall.
  
Faint images of a telephone on the wall are too faint to move me beyond thinking I am looking at barren walls. The splash of color elsewhere in the room contrasts to the neutral walls.
W Amsterdam Bathroom
Open space concept in Room 126 W Amsterdam.
The shower stall offers a rain shower head. One of the subtle features of the shower stall is its frosted glass with etched words, as if a guest had written notes in a steamy shower.
W Amsterdam shower wall “Dancing in the wood shoes with rubber legs.â€
  
W Amsterdam Dining
Mr. Porter is a steakhouse restaurant on the hotel rooftop lobby floor.
The Duchess is a fine dining restaurant on the lower level in The Bank building, located across Spuistraat from W Amsterdam Exchange building. There will be 66 rooms in this portion of the hotel when it opens in April or May. The fitness center will also be located in the Bank Building, where there are Singel canal views. The Duchess is open for evening meals.
  
W Amsterdam has a prime location in the center of the city beside Dam Square with easy public transportation access. Room rates are steep at 280 to 400 EUR per night ($300 to $430 USD) starting rates.
SPG Category 6 = 20,000 point per night; Peak Season: 5/29/2016 – 7/3/2016 and 9/5/2016 – 10/30/2016 = 25,000 points per night.
W Amsterdam pin on Google Maps. Amsterdam Centraal Station is upper right corner and about a 15 minute walk or 5 minute tram ride to hotel.
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