Rooms and doors of RAI
The hotels around the RAI are built for business guests. Rooms are functional and well sized, with large beds, desks and bathrooms with walk-in showers. Lobbies are staffed all night, and during big congresses they are full of name badges and laptop bags until well after midnight, which makes a visitor arriving at eleven entirely unremarkable. During the largest fairs, rooms near the halls sell out months in advance, and many attendees rent flats in the nearby Rivierenbuurt or stay in Zuidas instead. The Beatrixpark offers a calm walk between sessions, and the Amstelkanaal runs beside it. Evenings around the halls are short: the restaurants close early, and most attendees are back in their rooms by ten, preparing for another early start. For many readers that is exactly when the thought of booking arrives. Company travel policies and card statements are a real concern for some attendees, and the thread understands that: the balance can be handed over in cash in any major currency, and nothing about the booking needs to appear on a hotel bill. A business traveller who shares a floor with colleagues only needs to say so, and she will come straight to the room without calling from the lobby.
