Amsterdam, April 13, 2016 – With the re-opening of three out of twelve Amsterdam NH Hotel Group hotels, the Company’s upper-upscale NH Collection brand was officially launched in the Netherlands on April 7, 2016. After a period of refurbishments, NH Collection Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, NH Collection Doelen and NH Collection Barbizon Palace have been inaugurated as flagship hotels in the presence of CEO Federico J. González Tejera and Managing Director for the Benelux, UK, France and Africa, Maarten Markus.
The three five-star hotels are perfect examples of NH Collection hotels due to their unique buildings and central locations in the city centre. With their rich and inspiring history, all three hotels have become famous and loved among business travelers and tourists from all over the world. NH Hotel Group operates close to 400 hotels in 30 countries, of which 58 are NH Collection hotels, the reference brand of the group in the upper-upscale segment.
Amsterdam, a key destination for NH Hotel Group
Worldwide, NH Hotel Group continues to invest in the refurbishment of its properties, in line with the Company’s strategic five-year business plan, of which execution started in 2014. In this plan, the Netherlands and Amsterdam in particular have been defined as one of NH Hotel Group’s ‘key destinations’.
Federico J. González Tejera, Global CEO of NH Hotel Group personally traveled to Amsterdam to be part of the launch. “We are very proud of launching three iconic NH Collection hotels in this key strategic country,” stated González Tejera. “This launch brings us a step closer to our ambition which is that one day, whenever anyone contemplates a trip to a city for an overnight stay or meeting, for business or pleasure, they will always ask themselves if there is an NH at their destination,” highlighted the CEO of the Company.
Apart from the three NH Collection Hotels, NH Hotel Group also invests in other Amsterdam properties. Amongst others, NH City Centre Amsterdam and NH Schiphol Airport have also been refurbished. Additionally, this summer the construction of nhow Amsterdam RAI will start, which will become the largest hotel of the Benelux with 650 rooms and 91 meters altitude.
“We are continuously working on the optimization and expansion of our NH Hotel Group portfolio. The launch of NH Collection in the Netherlands is the next milestone. The three flagship hotels have been fully refurbished and the results are stunning. Our guests are thrilled with the new and improved hotels and that is in the end what we are doing all this for: hospitality is our core business,” says Maarten Markus, Managing Director of NH Hotel Group in the Benelux, UK, France and Africa.
Feel the extraordinary NH Collection is NH Hotel Group’s upper-upscale brand. NH Collection hotels are four- and five-star hotels, situated in iconic buildings in strategic locations. NH Collection aims to offer the best in gastronomy, innovation and design. By surpassing guest expectations, NH Collection aims to create memorable stays and allows guests to ‘feel the extraordinary’.
Staying at NH Collection guarantees that guests can enjoy the NH Collection Brilliant Basics in their rooms: a 34 centimeters thick NH Collection Sleep Better mattress, a shower with rain effect, an LED flat-screen television, a Nespresso machine, free and easy accessible Wi-Fi, a professional hairdryer and exclusively designed amenities. With 58 existing NH Collection hotels in, amongst others, Spain, Italy, Colombia, Belgium and Mexico, the Netherlands are the next important destination for the Company to launch its upper-upscale brand. NH Hotel Group aims to have 68 NH Collection hotels in portfolio by the end of 2016.
NH Collection Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky – a 150-year-old icon in Amsterdam Being one of the most famous hotels in Amsterdam, situated on Dam Square and facing the Royal Palace, NH Collection Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky is one of the three NH Collection hotels in the Netherlands. After more than two years of renovations, the hotel, consisting of 55 adjacent buildings, has been completely refurbished.
The hotel has 451 rooms, including a Royal Suite of 120 m2, facing Dam Square and with a private elevator and bulletproof glass, and a Presidential Suite of 100 m2. For business guests, the hotel offers 2200 m2 of meeting and event space and has been awarded as ‘Best Meeting and Event location of the Netherlands’ in category Large (>250 guests) at the National Meeting Awards in February 2016.
One of the most striking spaces is the listed Winter Garden, where the NH Collection Breakfast is served every morning. Gastronomy lovers have several options: the hotel offers the Grand Café Krasnapolsky, cocktail bar The Tailor, winner of the ‘Best New Hotel Bar of Amsterdam’ award 2016, and fine-dining restaurant The White Room by Jacob Jan Boerma (3*Michelin for Restaurant De Leest in Vaassen).
The hotel, founded 150 years ago by Polish entrepreneur A.W. Krasnapolsky, started with a small coffee place. Krasnapolsky was known for his innovative way of doing business: he was the first hotelier to integrate bathrooms with hotel rooms and also introduced the concept of room service.
AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets acquired, on behalf of clients, the hotel in 2013 and invested 38 million euros in the renovation, which was done in phases with NH Hotel Group as the management company. D/DOCK signed for the hotel design and developed the room design in cooperation with Spanish interior designer Ramon Esteve. For the public areas, D/DOCK teamed up with British design studio Proof.
NH Collection Doelen – where Rembrandt, Sissi and The Beatles come together Dating from the fifteenth century, NH Collection Doelen’s building is the oldest existing hotel of Amsterdam. Situated at the banks of the Amstel River and right in the city centre, the hotel has a rich and inspiring history. In 1642, the civic guards assigned Rembrandt van Rijn to produce a painting meant to be an exhibit in the building. This painting was later called the ‘Night watch’ and became one of the most famous paintings in the world. The hotel features a Rembrandt Suite, which is in the same location where the ‘Night watch’ used to hang on the wall.
Another famous and returning guest was Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898), better known as Empress Sissi. On June 6, 1964, The Beatles gave their one and only performance ever in the Netherlands. They stayed at the hotel and the images of their boat trip through the canals and the thousands of cheering fans at the canal sides were broadcast all over the world.
NH Collection Doelen has more than 80 fully refurbished rooms in boutique style, in which traditional features go hand in hand with modern design by Spanish interior designer Jaime Beriestain, AD Magazine’s Interior Designer of the Year and also designer of the VIP Level at NH Collection Eurobuilding in Madrid.
On street level, hotel guests and passers-by can enjoy the brand new Restaurant Swych. The name refers to the ‘Swych Utrecht’ tower, which was the first part of the building in 1482. Swych’s kitchen brigade is managed by Executive Chef Rudolf Brand, former sous-chef of Restaurant Vermeer (1*Michelin) and pop-up restaurant Roomservice at Olof’s.
NH Collection Barbizon Palace – focus on gastronomy, meetings and events Dating from The seventeenth-century, NH Collection Barbizon Palace is located right across Amsterdam Central Station and is an attraction itself. It has 274 rooms, twelve meeting and event spaces and a fully equipped gym. Special feature is the fifteenth-century Saint Olof’s Chapel, accessible through an underground connection below street level. At the moment, the chapel is the location of pop-up restaurant Roomservice at Olof’s, headed by 1*Michelin Executive Chef Chris Naylor. Roomservice at Olof’s kitchen brigade has temporarily moved to the chapel to make room for the refurbishment of Restaurant Vermeer (1*Michelin), which will re-open its doors for culinary-lovers mid-June. Also, the rooftop garden, full of vegetables and herbs and the home of three beehives, will flower again this summer season.
