If you love video games and comic books, as I know many students here at Laguna do, then I’ve found the perfect travel destination for you! Welcome to the Arcade Hotel, the ultimate locale for gamers and geeks of all types. The hotel is located in Amsterdam, and caters to the needs and desires of the 21st century geek.
Let’s face it, even the nicest, five-star hotels can lack that certain something, the personality, that makes it really feel like home. The Arcade’s main goal is not to make their rooms feel like home: they want to make you wish that you didn’t ever have to go home! I visited the website, and, in the words of the hotel itself, “Thelonious Monk meets the Eames couple meets Marty McFly and they all have a drink with Captain Sparrow. Gaming, mid-century design and a lot of heart & soul under one roof.” Well, they certainly do not lack for confidence, and, if the hotel is as good as it looks and sounds, that confidence is justified.
Let me start with the rooms. Each room is equipped with a free retro console (and, of course, included games) and a vintage TV for the use by the guests. The nightly rates aren’t wildly high, starting at €85.50 for a single room, which includes all of the amenities. Seeing as the hotel opened literally days ago, the guest reviews haven’t started flowing in yet full throttle, but the few reviews that I’ve read so far have shown good signs for the future and quality of the hotel.
Gaming isn’t the only thing that sets the Arcade apart. They take great pride in their breakfast buffet, saying that “At the risk of sounding cocky: This is the real deal! We have spared no effort in the selection of our breakfast.” For an additional nine dollars per night, a guest can have full access to the buffet every morning.
Yet another crazy thing that this hotel has to offer is its cuisine. They proudly have “a Canadian grizzly who has taken upon himself to serve the Amsterdam community by sharing these holy grails of Canadian cuisine.” Canadian cuisine, you ask? I’d be guessing a lot of moose! Actually, their Canadian menu has a specific focus on drinks, most of which sound absolutely bizarre.
What do you think of when you imagine a gaming hotel? A bunch of lowly nerds, cluttered around some battered old desktop computers? The Arcade Hotel has a lot of things, and lowly nerds ain’t one of them. This joint is hoppin’, and—I looked into booking a room—completely jam-packed for the next several months. It’s fresh, it’s new, and it’s the first hotel in history o cater to the every need of the 21st century gamer. Now…
Where do I sign up?
