The Good Hotel Amsterdam is a new hotel concept initiated by the Good Group. The hotel acts as a popup hotel in Amsterdam for one year, after which the floating hotel will be moored off to a permanent destination in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016.
The new Good Hotel does literally good as it offers long-term unemployed locals a chance to make a fresh start in the hospitality industry.
A new beginning is also found for an abandoned floating platform, which has been given a new destination with the Good Hotel. The hotel features 144 rooms, a bar, restaurant and a spacious lobby area. The interior design can be described as pure and industrial, boasting well balanced contrasts throughout.
Other than most hotels, Good Hotel is a not-for-profit hotel that measures its success on the number of people’s lives they are able to positively impact. All profits are re-invested into their business, people and partner NGO’s.
During the course of one year, the Good Hotel offers the chance to 100 long-term unemployed locals to complete an extensive hospitality training. To realize this, the hotel works closely together with diverse partners including the Municipality of Amsterdam, Hotel School The Hague and staffing agency Randstad.
After concluding a custom-made training, participants are offered a three-months contract at Good Hotel, followed by professional mediation in the local hospitality labor market.
The entire process provides the participants a real opportunity to find a permanent job in the city’s booming hotel market.
Thanks to this unique business model, the Good Hotel offers guests a unique and inspiring travel experience, enhanced by the central location on the IJ waterway and personal service.
Rooms
The Good Hotel Amsterdam is a three star hotel with 144 rooms in three different categories: standard, standard waterfront (with stunning IJ waterway views) and deluxe waterfront. All rooms are about 13 sqm large, boast a smart lay-out and contemporary aesthetic.
Bar & Restaurant
You’ll visit the (coffee) bar and restaurant for cocktail classics, a local menu and delicious freshly made cappuccino’s.
The spacious lobby area is a place to mingle, work and unwind – offering large communal tables, cozy seating area’s, waterfront views and free WiFi everywhere.
The Initiative
Good Hotel Amsterdam is the first hotel of two locations opening this year. Both are initiated by the Good Group, founded by Dutch entrepreneur Marten Dresen. What started a few years ago with a Guatemalan girl without shoes has ignited the launch of a new social business model – driven by one desire: to combine doing good with quality and entrepreneurship.
The Good Group believes in a social business model which gets the best out of people and wants to create and build a beneficial and scalable business with a measurable, social and environmental impact.
The Good Group launched its first hotel in Amsterdam on June 19th, 2015. The floating platform will be moored off to its permanent destination in Rio de Janeiro’s Bay in June 2016, just in time for the Olympics. In July 2016, a 35-rooms boutique hotel will open its doors in Antigua, Guatemala. Here, the Good Group partners with NGO Niños de Guatemala that runs it own schools. The goal is to provide quality training to Niños graduates, train a new generation of hospitality-professionals and lead as an example for the local hotel industry.
Photography by Chris Baker