The hotel situation in Amsterdam is dire. The city is tiny and overflows with tourists all year round.

Accommodation falls into two camps: cheap hostels for backpackers (often permanently booked) and expensive hotels for well-heeled tourists/business travellers. Anything in between is scarce and liable to have been booked last year.

general rules
Book a room one, two or three months in advance - especially in summer. If you don't book, your only option will be to pay for somewhere expensive at the last minute. Or you can turn up and queue for hours at the VVV (the big tourist office outside Amsterdam Central Station). And then be offered an overpriced room in a prefab hut on a distant ring road.

If you can book in advance, the best hotels are small family run ones overlooking the canals. Pick Jordan if you want quiet and the red light district if you don't. Whatever you do, try to stay within the main canal area as this means you can walk everywhere.

We don't cover hotels in our guide but these sites do:

on-line hotel booking
» www.simplyamsterdam.nl
Extensive online booking and availability guide for the independent traveller

» www.hotelres.nl
covers hotels all over Holland. Select Noord-Holland to get places in Amsterdam.

other hotel sites
These sites describe a range of places from cheap dorms to deluxe hotels. You can't book on-line but phone and/or fax numbers are listed.

»timeout amsterdam accomodation
» rough guides to amsterdam hotels