Review: the refurbished Sheraton Amsterdam Airport hotel

This is my review of the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport hotel.

I was over in Amsterdam recently for World Aviation Festival, which has a surprisingly strong loyalty focus. I took the opportunity to try two hotels which had been on my radar for a while – the relatively new Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (review here) and the fully refurbished Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol hotel.

These are both ‘real life’ reviews. Because I was not there primarily to review the hotel, my stay was like your average work stay – I didn’t get to see all of the facilities, I didn’t get any tours, I didn’t eat in the restaurants and I wasn’t in the hotel for long. However, I still think the review has value.

Marriott Bonvoy had invited us to see the refurbishment when it was unveiled but it didn’t fit in with our plans at the time. I called in the favour for this trip, on the understanding that it would be a relatively brief review.

The hotel website is here.

Where is the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport hotel?

There are three hotels directly at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Two of them – the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport and the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol hotel, reviewed here, are accessed via an enclosed elevated walkway from the plaza where the railway station sits.

There is also a citizenM within a short walk although this seems to require walking outdoors.

The Sheraton is the closest to the terminal, with the Hilton requiring a longer walk down the elevated walkway.

Inside the hotel

As our review shows, the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol landed like a breath of fresh air when it opened a few years ago. The Sheraton, now 25 years old, was showing its age.

It has recently unveiled a top to toe refurbishment as part of Marriott’s grander plan for bringing the Sheraton brand into the 21st century. The owners have done an exceptional job. There is literally nothing inside the hotel which would make you think that it hadn’t opened last week – there were no half measures here.

I had been upgraded via my Titanium status (or possibly just the whims of management!) to a one bedroom suite. This is a big hotel with over 400 rooms, but never felt too crowded – guests in airport hotels tend not to work to ‘normal’ times for eating and drinking.

Wherever you go inside you get this view down onto the first floor bar and restaurant. This isn’t the lobby you see, which sits one floor lower.

One intriguing thing about the hotel is that each floor has a free coffee machine by the lifts. My suite had its own coffee machine so I don’t know if this is to replace individual machines for standard rooms or if it was just so people could grab a drink on their way out. Whatever the reason, it was a nice touch.

My suite was well designed, with a proper living area. The entrance corridor to the room splits it into two, so it is genuinely two rooms separated by a corridor as you would have upstairs at home.

It was well appointed although this clearly isn’t a Four Seasons or Park Hyatt specification. The dining table (which became my desk), sofa and arm chair covered pretty much every seating requirement. I got a free pot of stroopwaffels (€9.50 from the shop in the lobby!) and was invited to help myself from the Dutch beer in the minibar.

The bedroom was, again, not over-stylish but a good size:

The bathroom only contained a shower, with no tub, but the shower was impressive as you can see. Often with a hotel refurbishment the old bathroom is kept in place because it is the most expensive thing to change, but literally everything seems to be new at Sheraton Amsterdam Airport.

Toiletries were by Gilchrist & Soames. Apart from body lotion, everything came in large dispensers fixed to the shower wall.

I even had a decent view of sorts:

The club lounge at Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

For the second time in two days, I found myself in a hotel with a surprisingly large and impressive club lounge. As with the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam, the staff were excellent – and this time I was around in the 5pm to 7pm window to enjoy the buffet properly.

The lounge is on the ground floor, behind the bar. This makes it convenient if you want to grab a drink or snack on your way in or out, but it does mean that it is a bit of a trot from your room, along with a walk across the lobby. You’d feel a bit incongruous loading up a plate of food and carrying it back to your room as the check-in crowds swarm around you.

Here’s a view from towards the back, looking towards the food:

Here are a selection of the nibbles available:

and

and

It is a pleasant space with different zones depending on whether you want to eat, work, sit on your own or sit with friends. If you have Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or Titanium status, or are happy to pay a premium for lounge access, it is a good reason to choose this hotel.

Other features

I didn’t eat in the first floor restaurant or visit either of the bars. The bar by reception doubles up as cake stand so is a decent place to sit in the afternoon with a coffee.

I do want to mention the hotel mini-mart! It was not only smartly designed but stocks a decent range of food and drink (there is also a fridge of wine and beer, not pictured) as well as toothpaste etc.

I had breakfast in the first floor restaurant the next morning. For a 400+ room hotel this is a surprisingly small space but, with people coming and going at all hours, it was quiet at 9am. After 25 years I trust the hotel to know how many need to eat at what time.

The spread was relatively modest, as befits the modest number of tables, but it had all I needed. The hotel has made an effort to source Dutch produce where possible. Because it feeds into the huge atrium pictured in the 2nd image from the top, it isn’t exactly an intimate space and was a big change to the Indonesian themed restaurant I’d had breakfast in at the Hyatt the day before!

As the nearest hotel to the airport terminal, it is also a very short walk if you decide that you are happy with a snack from one of the airport food outlets or need to buy anything else. In my case, this meant a battery for my wireless mouse ….

Conclusion

As I said at the start, this is only a quick overview of the hotel. My conference schedule meant that I didn’t try the bar or restaurant in the evening, eating exclusively in the lounge.

What I hope you take away from this review is that the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport is back in the game. The refurbishment has been huge and thorough. I would especially recommend it if you have access to, or are happy to pay for, the impressive club lounge – but remember that evening food only runs from 5pm to 7pm.

If the hotels in central Amsterdam are pricey, this is also a convenient place to stay for 2+ nights. You are literally under 5 minutes from the train platforms and, this being the Netherlands, a cheap train to the centre is along every few minutes.

The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.

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