What a grand hotel this is! The staff were very nice and accommodating. There was a mixup with our reservation, which they remedied by giving us a better room with a view.
In the 1800s, this was the place where people came to buy tickets for sea travel and merchants dealt with shipping cargo, etc. Many of the guest rooms were once ticket or business offices, retaining much of its old world charm. It is worth the time to walk around the inside and outside of the hotel. Outside there are many stone carvings, which probably represented the different shipping companies inside.
Some of the tour guides say that the hotel is haunted, but we did not run into any ghosts.
It is within a few blocks of Central Station, the Nieuw Markt and several restaurants. Directly across the canal is a nice-sized grocery store.
It should be noted that there are several steps from the street to the lobby and that although there is no handrail, you can grasp onto the stone wall and carvings. Once inside, there is a lift and rooms come with both a bathtub and walk-in shower.