Side by side Rosewood Amsterdam vs Rosewood Schloss Fuschl

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. Skip it if you want flawless, seasoned service from day one; the restaurant clearly needs another year. Book it for the space, the pool — and the walk to everything.

A night here runs well over a thousand euros, and what you're paying for is one of the best lake views in Austria from a castle that started life as a 1461 hunting lodge. The lakeside new wing keeps things quiet and minimal; rooms inside the original castle keep the timber framework and unearthed stucco, and the property holds onto a genuinely serious art collection of Old Masters rather than hotel-lobby filler. The Asaya Spa and the lake itself, which turns an improbable blue-green in summer, do a lot of the work, and for a lot of guests that's more than enough.

The service is the real trade-off, and it's been uneven since the 2024 opening. Housekeeping regularly misses turndown or forgets to restock basics. Breakfast service can be slow when the terrace restaurant is busy but not understaffed by headcount, just badly organized. One guest's confirmed dinner booking got lost entirely and they were seated in the bar instead. Several 2026 stays report the kinks are being worked out and the earlier chaos (duct-taped signage, teething problems right after opening) has mostly settled, but it isn't fully consistent yet, and the See Club lakeside bar keeps closing early or in light rain, which stings given it's a big part of why people book a lake property.

This is a place for a couple or a family wanting a quiet, architecturally serious lakeside base near Salzburg, not a full-service resort where every request lands instantly. Book it for the room, the lake and the art, go in with a car rather than relying on hotel transfers, and treat the service lapses as real but recoverable rather than deal-breaking.