Nova Apartments Amsterdam

We stayed in the penthouse apartment at the top of the house. Communication wasn’t great in the run-up to our arrival. I emailed them with a question and never got a reply. I phoned and got through to someone who had clearly never been to the apartment and who knew no more than I did from looking at the website. Once we arrived getting in was easy and we were impressed with the plastic free room cards. The apartment was clean and tidy and someone came in each day to do a quick clean and refill the coffee pods. If you have any mobility problems this is NOT the place to stay. There are steps up to the front door, another couple of steps into the hallway and then a big flight of narrow and precipitous stairs to get to the apartment. The bedroom door opens right into the stairwell, and there’s no barrier, so take care in the dark! The apartment is very minimalist, which may look good, but it’s not at all practical. Form over function all the way. In the bedroom there’s a wardrobe but the second bed is basically in the sitting room with just one partition between it and the living space. The sides are open to the rest of the apartment so there’s no privacy. There is no wardrobe and no chest of drawers for the people in the second sleeping area. A real pain! Similarly, the bathroom looks sleek and minimalist, but there’s nowhere to put/hang your clothes when you’re having a shower and nowhere to put any of your toiletries. The drain in the bathroom shower smelled absolutely revolting. Enough to make you retch. The bed linen and towels are good quality and the pillows and mattress comfortable. The kitchen has a fridge and a cooker but no microwave or toaster. It has a small dishwasher and tablets are provided. We would like to have washed up our crockery and cutlery instead of using the dishwasher but although there was washing up liquid provided, there’s no draining board, no sponge and no cloth to clean the surfaces. There was no way of recycling - everything went into the one bin. The great thing about the apartment is its location - close to the museum area and the concert hall. There are also lots of restaurants within walking distance and other shops around. The neighbourhood is quiet and apart from aeroplanes we weren’t disturbed by noise.