Hotel Ibis Amsterdam Centre Stopera is a hotel I had not stayed at before, however, its location in the city center, about 20 minutes walk from Centraal Station is a location I was familiar with due to a stay at Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam City Hall in January 2019. This location is one I like for its proximity to the oldest parts of Amsterdam.
This was my first ever stay with Accor Hotels, motivated by a September 2019 promotion for 6,000 bonus points with a fixed rate value of 120 EUR after 3 stays of 2 or more nights booked in September and completed by Jan 19, 2020. The deal offered 500 bonus points for first 2-night stay, another 2,500 bonus points after second 2-night stay and 3,000 bonus points after third 2-night stay. An abundance of Accor Hotels across Europe, often with rates lower than comparable market segment chain hotels in other major hotel loyalty programs, made this a comfortable leap for me in my expansion of hotel loyalty program participation.
Loyalty Traveler – Forget IHG Accelerate, Le Club Accorhotels 6,000 points for 3 stays is current deal for me (Sep 23, 2019).
The option of two highly affordable Accor Hotels in Amsterdam city center locations was the deciding factor in selecting to spend 6 of 11 hotel nights at Accor Hotels for my Christmas-New Year’s holiday season trip to Amsterdm and Krakow, Poland.
While I could have found far lower room rates over the Christmas holidays at Accor Hotels in west Amsterdam, my desire was to place us in the city center canal area for most of this trip to avoid the necessity of riding trams into the city center. After 20 years visiting Amsterdam regularly, I have a good feel for navigating myself around the city center walking to a variety of places without a map.
Ibis Amsterdam Centre Stopera is on a street lined with hotels including the little over one year old Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam City Hall.
Hotel Check-In
Breakfast buffet at the hotel was 17.50 EUR per person. At check-in the receptionist indicated my rate included breakfast. I found out I did not have breakfast included in my rate only after eating breakfast the first day and getting a 35 EUR charge.
We received a chocolate bar and a small bottle of Chardonnay as a welcome gift. Turned out the chocolate bar was sugary white chocolate rather than cocoa, and with no refrigerator in the room, the Chardonnay was not useful. Then, I noticed it was alcohol-free wine. I left the bottle in the room at check-out.
Room 726
The bed was comfortable for sleep, but more like a futon than a bed. I tend to roll around in bed and the thin foamy mattress kept sliding away from the lower bed platform.
Space was an issue in the small room. Apparently we had an upgrade from what I was told at check-in, but that may have only been a better view and not a larger room.
Room 726 Bathroom
The modular pod bathroom was Kelley’s biggest complaint about the room.
Ibis Amsterdam Centre Stopera lobbyÂ
Ibis Amsterdam Stopera most reminded me of the Aloft and Moxy by Marriott brands, where the focus is on the lobby public space with minimal room amenities.
Breakfast offered plenty of food items. Given the 17.50 EUR per person price tag, for breakfast at Ibis Amsterdam Stopera, this extra cost can mean the better value difference in room rate with Holiday Inn Express just steps away on the same side of the street.
Best of all was the bartender allowed me to redeem my free beers coupon at 11:30am Christmas morning prior to the 12 noon opening of the bar. Nothing like a breakfast beer to start the day.
This happened to be the only hotel bar free beer coupons we redeemed from four of our six hotel stays this trip when I received free beer coupons from the hotels. Any long time reader knows I enjoy a cheap good beer, but I also want a pleasant ambiance and most of the hotel bars offered sterile character not conducive to the kind of place I want to drink beer. I think my motivation at Ibis Amsterdam was an attempt to recapture some of the added cost for the 35 EUR breakfast.
Conclusion
All in all, I would likely return to Ibis Amsterdam Centre Stopera given a room rate under $100 per night. My preference would definitely be Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam City Hall just meters away on the same street where breakfast is part of the rate.
We checked out of Ibis Amsterdam Centre Stopera and walked over to Mercure Amsterdam Canal District for our second Accor stay to earn 6,000 bonus points. This Mercure was a hotel we enjoyed greatly for its character and location and I would not hesitate to return again given a competitive room rate.
