hotel

Hotels in Amsterdam had a strong start this year. In the first four months of 2019 there were 12.5 percent more overnight hotel stays in the Dutch capital than in the same period last year, De Telegraaf reports based on figures from ABN Amro's economic bureau.

Tourism in the Netherlands is less and less dependent on the season, largely thanks to hotel accommodation, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday. Seasonal fluctuation at Dutch hotels is disappearing, with the number of overnights being nearly the same all year round.

Couple 62-year-old Jan V. and 53-year-old Jolanda H. scammed a total of 62 owners of hotels and B&B's out of 20 thousand euros by staying in the establishments and leaving without paying the bill, was revealed in the court of Assen. The Public Prosecutor demanded 4 and 3 years in prison against them respectively. The couple confessed to everything, AD reports. 

The Amsterdam police found a hand grenade in front of an hotel on Korte van Eeghenstraat, near one of the entrances to Vondelpark, during the early hours of Wednesday morning. The Ministry of Defense's explosive disposal department dismantled and removed the device, the police said in a statement.

A hotel employee heard a noise at the hotel's front door around 2:30 a.m., according to the police. When he went outside to check what was going on, he found the grenade.

A 4-year-old boy from the Netherlands drowned in a hotel's swimming pool on Ibiza on Monday. Attempts to resuscitate the child were unsuccessful. The boy's family is receiving psychological aid, AD reports.

The incident happened at the Marble Stella Maris hotel in San Antonio. A lifeguard saw the child at the bottom of one of the pools at around 2:30 p.m. He dove the boy out of the water and started resuscitation. Emergency services took over from him. Emergency workers tried to revive the child for 45 minutes, but it was to no avail.  

A reported kidnapping at the Hotel van der Valk in Eindhoven ended when a responding specialized police team arrested the suspects involved. There were no injuries, and police did not evacuate the hotel, authorities said.

Airbnb and other home-sharing sites like Wimdu and HomeAway cause stress for the owners of traditional hotels, bed and breakfasts and campsites in the Netherlands, according to a survey by Statistics Netherlands. The survey showed that a quarter of Dutch accommodation owners experience competition from home sharing. 

The Soestdijk Palace was sold to Made by Holland and will partly be converted into a hotel, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced. The consortium paid the Dutch state 1.7 million euros for the palace, NOS reports.

At the request of Dutch authorities, the judicial authorities in Costa Rica has seized about one million euros in property and bank accounts of a 57 year old Dutchman and his former Spanish life partner. The Dutchman is the prime suspect in an ongoing FIOD investigation into millions worth of fraud involving investments in Spanish solar energy plantations.

The Public Prosecutor's office is pressing cases against at least 29 men for having sex with a 16-year-old prostitute in a Valkenburg, Limburg hotel. The men will appear in front of Maastricht Court between July 8 and 18, the public prosecutor reported.

Hilton Hotel at Schiphol may open earlier than originally expected, says the hotel management. Previously, the hotel announced its opening as "early fourth quarter", but now Hilton says it will open the doors of the hotel in the first week of September, according to Misset Horeca.