Bastion Hotel Apeldoorn - Het Loo

Highly disappointing. We had booked a 2-nights stay during the Christmas break as a family (2 adults + 2 young kids + 1 baby), looking forward to some nice relaxing time (in the restaurant, at the indoor pool) in these difficult Corona times. I paid extra attention, at the time of the booking (November), to the fact that facilities (restaurant, pool) were still open for the hotel guests. Then came the current national lockdown. While fully aware that the current measures (closed restaurant and closed pool) is by far no choice of Bastion group themselves, and that they are complying to governmental guidelines, I am highly disappointed and annoyed that no discussion, negotiation or even slight compromise was possible. I emailed and called to discuss whether we could postpone our stay (I even offered to trade our 2 nights for only one later in the year), as we could not make use of the full facilities available at the time of booking, but the only reply I would get was « you chose for a non-negotiable rate » (and I NEVER asked for a refund). Very disappointed that guests are still required to pay full price when not possible to make use of full facilities. While I fully understand - and support - the governmental guidelines in this public health crisis, it is very unfair from Bastion not to be willing to compromise/make a gesture towards their guests. Not fair to be paying for facilities we can not use. Restaurant was open for take away so we ordered and ate in our bedroom, where 3 chairs only were available (in a room booked for 5 persons) and no other table than a 1 person-small one (when guests are requested from the hotel to eat in their bedrooms). What a service. Also the quality and amount of the food ordered at the restaurant were ridiculous - not to mention the presentation (simple red plastic tray): forget the « room service » experience. And all this still for definitely not a cheap price (16€ for a dish)!! Stay away!

We enjoyed our stay here. Our hotel room was very clean and spacious and our view was that of the Veluwe forest. The bus stop is just across the road from the hotel. The staff was friendly and gave us a kettle and extra blankets when we asked for them. The only down side was the bad air (smelled like hospital air) that came out from the air conditioner. The smell went away when we turned off the air conditioner. The windows are not sound proof so we could hear cars driving by outside. And the receptionist was not well informed about the touristic attractions in the area (but Google came through for us 🙂).

Nice and great spacious rooms. Delicious breakfast. But rooms and floors were cold and took hours to get a bit warm. Maybe just a Dutch thing. The beds are with plastic covers underneath the sheets. Annoying to sleep on.

Good points - Bastion hotel was very nice, the reception staff were friendly and helpful, the room was clean and modern. The pool was lovely and also very clean, we booked a half hour time slot and had it all to ourselves which was a really nice treat. Bad points - The air con in the room (room 228) is very loud and annoying, it sounds like someone drilling a few rooms up and ever night it took me a good few hours to sleep because it was so noisy. We mentioned it to reception on check out and were told “yeah it’s the air con” and that was it, if all the rooms have this noise constantly too then that reason alone is why I wouldn’t recommend it and have only given 2 stars. The other issue is, the fire alarm went off around 6am for at least half an hour and only around 20 guests evacuated, there were no members of staff around, none of us who’d actually evacuated had any idea what was going on and we were all scattered around the outside of the hotel as there was no visible evacuation gathering point. We all started to go back in once the alarm stopped but no staff came outside to tell us it was safe to do so we had to just assume as the alarm had stopped that it was now ok. I’ve worked in the hotel/restaurant industry and this is the worst evacuation process I have ever seen! The whole staff needs Re training in evacuation processes!

Really comfortable and spacious room