Rosewood Amsterdam vs Rosewood London

A ten-year restoration of Amsterdam's old Palace of Justice, and it shows in the right places: soaring ceilings, a Piet Oudolf-designed courtyard garden, more than a thousand art pieces scattered through the halls. Rooms run from around €1,000 a night to the €18,000 Herengracht House suite, and what you get for the base rate is a genuinely quiet, well-located canal-side property, a skylit pool and spa people single out as the best part of the stay, and a breakfast several guests call among the best they've had at a hotel. One guest's room service waiter brought perfectly warmed milk for a toddler every morning and talked them through a crying fit; another's front desk manager tracked down a quieter room mid-stay and followed up with a tin of fresh cookies.

The service is uneven in a way that tracks with a hotel still finding its footing post-opening. Several people had check-in moments that felt cold or dismissive, and The Court restaurant has produced real complaints: 20 to 30 minute waits just to order, lukewarm food, a host who couldn't manage a busy brunch service gracefully. The design splits opinion too — the restored architecture is not in question, but the rooms themselves get called beige, minimalist, and short on the color and personality Amsterdam itself has, especially compared to what people expected from the hype. Noise is a real, recurring complaint on lower canal-facing floors; ask for a higher one.

Worth it for the building, the garden, the spa, and a location that beats the Conservatorium for walkability without the Pulitzer's reported upkeep issues. Skip it if you want flawless, seasoned service from day one — book it for the space and the pool, and go in knowing the restaurant needs another year to catch up.

People come back from this hotel talking about the same handful of things: a table quietly repositioned at afternoon tea so an immunocompromised guest wasn't jostled, a birthday cake produced without being asked, early check-in sorted before 11am after a long-haul flight. The staff are the reason to book this hotel, and it holds across departments: doormen, concierge, reception, the team running the Mirror Room. Scarfes Bar backs it up as a genuine destination rather than a hotel bar people tolerate on the way upstairs, and the Monet-themed afternoon tea gets the same treatment, worth the price on its own terms.

The rooms are a different argument. The same complaint turns up across suite categories and years: a toilet crammed against the shower entrance, a hairdryer stashed in a bedside drawer for lack of a bathroom outlet, bathrooms that feel squeezed for what you're paying. The common spaces and the porte-cochère arrival outclass what you actually sleep in, and a few recent stays report front-desk warmth that didn't match the doormen's, including one guest who felt ignored at check-in entirely. Holborn Dining Room has also cooled since Callum Franklin's departure, though breakfast and room service still land well for most people. Even upgraded guests run into the bathroom issue, so don't assume a suite category fixes it.

Holborn itself splits people, fairly: some love being a step from the British Museum and Covent Garden's theaters, others find it too far from Mayfair and Soho to justify the rate, especially with Rosewood's own Chancery now open in Grosvenor Square as the more design-led, all-suite alternative. Accept the bathroom for what it is, and book this for the people and the bar: they're what you'll remember.