As a child, I had a fascination with the Hilton Hotel. I used to walk past it with my mother on my way to the GP on Beethoven Street.
And we went to the GP often, because as an only child I grew up extremely overprotective. With every cough, strange spot or slight elevation, we were regulars at the surgery. Always relieved that there was nothing serious, I hopped back home at my mother's hand. At the Hilton, I looked up and counted the nine floors. As a toddler, I already knew that when I grew up, I wanted to work there. As a teenager, burning with curiosity, giggling with excitement, I once went inside with three girlfriends. In the lobby, we even dared to order a drink. I still have pictures of it: me cocky in one of those luxurious swivel chairs in a seventies décor. A glass of orange juice on a vintage round table with a mega (!) ashtray. Quite normal back then. Floral curtains, no doubt very chic at the time, adorn the room.
My application for reception was rejected. I had not done hotel school and that was a hard requirement in those days. In the hotel next door: the 5* Bilderberg Garden Hotel, I was welcome. Salient detail: this hotel was built as an annex of the Hilton to scale up capacity. There was supposed to be an underground corridor to connect the hotels, but it never came. Why not? No idea. The room numbering continued (still) from 1001 to 1239. Countless times guests stepped into the lift to go to the tenth floor only to come out at the same speed....
Sometime in the late 1980s, I responded to a vacancy. This time it was a hit, but Joop Braakhekke wouldn't let me go. ‘You don't fit in there.’ He was right. The love was extinguished. As a meeting planner, I then became a regular guest at the annual traditional herring party. While herring hopping among the celebrities, photographers and press muses, my thoughts then wandered to my daydreams of the past.
Now the allure has disappeared and the iconic building on the still stately Apollolaan looks ghostly and abandoned. After the Amstel Hotel (1867) and Hotel De L'Europe (1896), the Hilton opened in 1962 as the first international hotel of an American chain. The hotel had been in the decay phase for some time and has been closed for the next two years since November 2025. The renovation is so massive that only this rigorous decision was apparently possible.
The Hilton became world-famous for notable and tragic events: in 1969 for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's in Bed-for-Peace action. In 1991 Klaas Bruinsma was liquidated on the street and in 2001 Herman Brood jumped off the roof. Also notable is that for decades this hotel was run by Roberto Payer who started at the bottom of the ladder and rose to general manager. In my Garden years, he regularly came to ‘visit’ and introduced himself to me again and again. I always wondered if this was out of pure politeness or if I was simply totally uninteresting to him.
A lot of refurbishment and renovation will take place over the next few years. The reopening is scheduled for June 2027. I will walk past it again, count the floors - and enter again.
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Marianne Kuiper
Founder Efficient Hotel Partner & Music Meeting Lounge
Intermediary in finding and booking the perfect location
