Just got back from our trip to Amsterdam and had such an amazing time at Kelli’s place! The photographs are very accurate but it was still bigger than we had expected and spacious! The apartment is beautiful and full of natural light, it’s also filled to the brim with trinkets and collectibles that make the place a home and there’s something new you notice each day - it was like living in a miniature art gallery for 5 days. Along with the interior, the exterior of the apartment is also breathtaking and such a good use of limited space! There’s a small balcony downstairs and a larger terrace upstairs connected to the bedroom. The larger terrace has access to a ladder which leads onto the roof of the apartments and a bench. Unfortunately we weren’t able to sit up there during our stay because of the weather. When we arrived Kelli & Henk had left us a guidebook and messages all over the apartment which helped massively, especially when it came to using the lights (we never managed to figure out where the kitchen light switch was though). They also left us a sweet message welcoming us! In the guidebook they included pages upon pages of places to visit, and even had a picture of their remote and how to use it, although they don’t have any TV channels just a DVD Player and computer.
Despite how nice the apartment was we did run into a few small issues on our trip, the first being a late check-in. We were scheduled to check in between 10am-11am and I received a message prior to advise the downstairs neighbour would be letting us in, however the neighbour was not home when we arrived. I called Henk who resolved the issue quickly by calling her and after waiting 10 minutes she arrived. Monique, the neighbour, was very accommodating and even helped us unlock the front door as it was a bit tricky and confusing.
The second issue was cleanliness. This apartment was rated very highly for it’s cleanliness so it was a bit disappointing when we got there and realised the shower plug had a clump of dark hair in it,
which was quite unavoidable to touch as the shower itself is very small; and our bed sheets were actually stained yellow in one section. Unsure what the stain was and the sheets smelled fresh but if the sheets are stained it’s not a good look! Couldn’t take the sheets off either as the base duvet was also yellow. Apart from those two cleanliness issues the rest of the apartment was very tidy and for the most part dusted everywhere, there was a small orange stain on the beige fluffy floor-sofa but this was barely noticeable.
Aside from cleanliness the only other issue was noise/the layout of the apartment in general. What I mean by layout is that, like most other homes in The Netherlands, the stairs & ladders in the property are extremely narrow and there’s plenty of them. Kelli’s apartment is on the top floor so having to carry a heavy suitcase up very narrow stairs, 3 times, is exhausting and the ladder to the bedroom is potentially lethal (make sure you take your time, or go down on your bum like I did lol). There’s also no curtains or blinds in the apartment (apart from the bedroom) and plenty of windows, so when we’d have a shower we’d have to keep the bathroom door open while we quickly leapt to the ladder and climbed it, before getting dressed upstairs with the blinds closed.
You get used to the noise after the 1st/2nd night, but on the first night we woke up so many times because any noise sounds like it’s coming from inside the apartment, mainly due to the fact the bedroom door leads out into the hallway for the rest of the building, which isn’t the host’s fault of course, just the way it’s been built!
Overall it was a great experience and the location was also very convenient, with a tram stop & coffeeshop 2 minutes away :)
Would 1000% recommend this apartment for your trip, I’ve already sent the link to a few friends and it’s definitely worthwhile.