Grade A Hotels

It takes more than the school of life to make a top hotelier.

Champagne in one hand, plate of mocha tart in the other, I’m soaking off the grime of a day’s sightseeing in a deep, fragrant bath. The dimmed lights are making the bronze tiles sparkle, and the LCD screen in the bedroom – tuned to a BBC reality show – is pivoted my way so I don’t miss a single cringeworthy moment.

I could be at the Gramercy Park in New York, or the Daniel in Paris. But there are differences. The kitchen ran out of the apple pie I ordered, replacing it with the mocha. The TV picture is too dark, and nobody can seem to bring it back to life. The girl who served my dinner didn’t speak English. And when I asked the receptionist to break a 50-euro note for tram fare, she returned only €16.50, thinking I was settling up someone else’s bar bill. Which is okay with management, because the College, despite being one of Amsterdam’s finest boutique hotels, is all about learning from experience.

Conceived three years ago by Amsterdam Regional Community College as a proving ground for hospitality students, the College is a training hotel in – what else? – an ex-schoolhouse. It’s the only one of its kind in the Netherlands, but there are others in Europe: The Lakeside Hotel in England’s Lake District throws trainees into the deep end at its four-star restaurant and 75-room inn. And at Montreal’s Hôtel de l’Institut, operated by the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec, students run the show.

But the Hôtel de l’Institut and its peers are far from institutional. The Lakeside offers a luxury experience, with white-tablecloth dining, formal gardens and a spa. The College could have been yet another monument to rayon bedspreads and single-glazed windows, but Amsterdam’s demand for polished, service-oriented professionals warranted a high-end, high-stress rehearsal space.

The 40-room College is bedecked with black lacquer and mirrors – they set off fingerprints, keeping staff on the alert. The bar attracts the beau monde, not to mention celebs like Beyoncé and Tyra Banks who expect service without amateurish fawning. The acclaimed pastry chef is, unsurprisingly, a stickler, and the bartender is a national champ thanks to his Collegito, a mojito customized with peach liqueur. The College is considered the Sorbonne of hotel management, which is why school administrators from Curaçao to Vietnam (now home to the Villa Hue boutique training hotel) come to soak up the atmosphere. Graduates could take on the Ritz – and some may do just that, despite the occasional strudel mishap.

That the College is largely intern-run (the pro-to-student ratio is 1:3) is no secret. For one thing, the unmistakably young staff can enroll as early as 16, and they consult with mentors in whispers when faced with a challenge. But patrons seem to enjoy being part of the process, contributing to what sales manager Robert Noya calls the “loose atmosphere.” “We have a stylish, exclusive interior, but the dynamic makes it far more relaxed and comfortable than at other boutique hotels,” he says. “More accessible.” That accessibility may compensate for the fact that experiments like this don’t often pass on discounts to management or patrons: While students earn less than non-student employees, the College still has to support twice the number of staff as other hotels, and cover bungling costs to boot.

The same goes for Montreal’s Hôtel de l’Institut, operating since 1968 with backing from the Quebec government. “We get good feedback,” says the school’s Clifford Boyd. “Students offer more service than an ordinary staff would. The 60-place dining room might be staffed by 15 students. Things may take longer because the students are learning, but generally the food and service are excellent because there are more people to do the work.”

Newly reno’d, the Hôtel de l’Institut has its share of mod cons – a cool glass-fronted lobby looking onto the city’s trendy Plateau; an over-the-top stainless-steel teaching kitchen; and a wenge reception desk vast enough for all the personnel on call. The 42 rooms are more HoJo than W, but who can complain about rates as low as $99 and views of Carré Saint-Louis? And, it must be said, even better views of life “below stairs”: the earnest efforts of bright  young things still eager to please, along with hawk-eyed supervisors ready to reprimand in urgent whispers. It’s worth a broken glass or two for that. 

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