Eco-friendly Conscious Hotels to open third Amsterdam location

Conscious Hotels will soon be opening a third Eco-friendly location in Amsterdam - the former mental hospital Mentrum on Amstelveenseweg is to be converted into a 110 room hotel and coffee bar. Founders Sam Cohen and Marco Lemmers hopes to have the hotel open by the second half of 2016, Het Parool reports. "For us, sustainability means that we have thought about everything in our hotel. Everything you get in our hotels has a story behind it. We have tables of recycled yogurt cups, organic snacks and drinks, but also upcycled stuff from Marktplaats." Lemmers said to the newspaper. This new hotel has received some objections from local residents. They are particularly concerned about the construction - an extra floor on the side of Amsterveenseweg and three extra floors on the Zocherstraat. They are concerned about the privacy of hotel guests and that the building will impede the sun. The district has taken note of the objections and the architect made some changes in the design. Cohen and Lemmers opened their first hotel on De Lairessestraat in Zuid in 2009. Later the opened another hotel in a former Maurice de Hond call center on Overtoom. They hope to eventually have even more hotels in the captial. "In Amsterdam, I would not find it amiss to open two more branches." Lemmers said to the newspaper. "For the rest of the Netherlands, I am more cautious. We fit best in an urban environment." They are also looking at opportunities outside the Netherlands, especially in norther European cities like Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hamburg. "There they are a bit further when it comes to sustainable living."