You will be in Amsterdam for a week or six weeks. For work, for a project, for a fresh start. You google accommodation and get two types of results: hotels and short-stay flats. They look alike. They are not.
Here's the difference and why it matters.
A hotel room is made to come through
A hotel is designed for people staying one, two, maybe five nights. The room is small, functional and anonymous. You have a bed, a bathroom, and a desk at which nobody ever really works. There is no kitchen. There is no fridge, or one just big enough for a bottle of water and the minibar that you don't touch anyway.
After a week in a hotel room, you start to wonder where your stuff should be. After two weeks, you miss a meal you cooked yourself. After a month, you pay a bill you can't justify.
Hotels are good at what they do. But they are not made for longer stays.
A short stay apartment is made for living
A short-stay apartment, also called a serviced apartment, is a fully furnished flat that you rent temporarily. Own front door, own kitchen, own bathroom. No reception and no room service.
You buy your own groceries. You cook when you feel like it. You leave your things lying around without anyone clearing them. You have a place that feels like home, even if you're only there for six weeks.
It's the little things that make the difference: a real bed instead of a hotel march, space to unpack, a table to work or eat at. A window you can open.
The price difference: hotels get expensive with longer stays
When staying for one night or a weekend, a hotel wins out on convenience and price. But the longer you stay, the faster the bill goes up.
An average hotel in Amsterdam costs between €120 and €250 a night. Over a month, that's €3,600 to €7,500, not including breakfast, not including laundry, not including any meal you eat out because there is no kitchen.
A serviced apartment for the same period costs significantly less, is all-inclusive. Wifi, cleaning, use of shared facilities, everything in it.
The math is quick. Click here for the current offer
Makerstoren: short stay in Amsterdam with character
At Makerstoren in Amsterdam Sloterdijk, the serviced apartments are part of a larger whole. The building houses makers, designers and creative professionals, people who live and work here. The apartments are part of that, not a separate hotel block.
This means that as a temporary resident, you end up in a community that is already running. There is a restaurant, a 24/7 gym, a lounge overlooking the city. Electric share bikes for exploring the city. A park around the corner.
Studios range from 23 to 34 m², all with their own kitchen, queen-size bed and bathroom. Rental period: minimum four weeks, maximum six months.
Amsterdam Centraal is seven minutes by train. Schiphol airport at ten.
When to choose what?
Choose a hotel if you are staying one to five nights, want everything arranged without thinking, and price per night matters less than convenience.
Choose a short-stay apartment if you're staying for a week or more, you want a full-fledged home rather than a go-to place, and you don't want to eat out every meal.
For anything longer than a long weekend, a serviced apartment is in almost all cases the better choice, in terms of comfort, in terms of price, in terms of feel.
View the offer at makerstoren.nl/en/serviced-apartments.
