Although the landmark red lip sofa 's missing from the front, we managed to find it after getting off the street cars.
It was stacked in the back, as it turned out.
As promised it was very recently renovated; it was refreshing to step inside the property.
Staff were very friendly and showed us to our room in no time. Although there was a bit of struggle carrying the heavy bags up flights of stairs.
We booked the large room with canal view. It was not the one on top floor, but still had a good view of the canal and streets.
The room was clean and tidy. We didn't bother turning on the sensational colorful lights; just sat down and watched Tv. Though small, the room was well equiped.
For our package, breakfast was included. There was bread, cereal, ham, cheese, boiled eggs, fruit. All were fresh and excellent.
Online access was limited during our stay, because the main computers broke down, we had to use one at the cafe with a cable connecting to the front reception. There was only one computer available for all the customers of the hotel; I had to resort to uploading the photos to facebook at night as it took a few minutes. Other than that, I had no complaints. Hopefully it will be fixed by the time you read this.
I would like to thank the staff for their kind help during my stay.

As I used to stay in hotels in Asian countries, I would consider that this hotel has a very small room. But, I think this is quite common in europe.

Chic-n-Basic
Good:
- Clean
- FREE and fast Wireless internet access
- Nice and very cute soaps and shampoos with all the writings on them. I would think that this hotel is properly managed and thought of. We had a welcome package with 3 bottles of mineral water, 1 soap and 1 shampoo. It also comes with a welcome letter stating about the 'house rule' with the internet access code.
- FREE WATER!! yes, it might be redicilous, but, hey...get all you want before you go away with the bike
- FREE COFFEE all day long...nice cofee machine (not the cheap one). Check out my pictures
- Location...Location..Location. It's true that it's very close from the train station. Euro 10 only to get from station to the hotel and vice versa. It's walkable distance from the hotel. However, beware that your luggage's wheel might go bad since the pathway is very uneven. I would rather take a Euro10 taxy to avoid my wheels being spoiled.It only takes 3 minutes by bike to the Daam and Royal palace (also where the madam tussaude is).
- Warm and Family feeling in the hotel. Nice people serving you will answer all your questions and needs (thanks for scotch tape Cynthia.....thanks for the trip advise Ginny)
- Whole day bike rental is only Euro 10.

Bad:
- Very small room
- We actually needed to 'support' the big window with a couple of wooden brick in order to make it open.
- NO AC (who needs one when it's winter anyway)
- Seperate toilet and bathroom.
- Steep stairs
- We need to ask the reception to open our door manually (this happens to many people staying there..not only us) since they claim that they are fixing the lock system. hmm..it's OK..but it's a bit troublesome to keep asking the reception everytime we wanted to go into the room.

We had a false fire alarm when we stayed there (it was around 2am) and everybody ran out of the building. However, the management claims that it was somebody taking a shower and trigger the alarm.

We had quite a nice experience there overall. Thank you for the hospitality.

We stayed one night at the Chic and Basic. Easy walk from the train station with our rolling bags. Lovely residential neighborhood right on a canal. We had a great room - large and airy, big windows, very nice bathroom with a door, comfortable bed, flat screen TV. Yes, there were steep stairs, but the staff offered to help with the bags. Breakfast was included in the price and was very good - cheeses and meats, breads, yogurt. We did a lot of walking and found the location to be very convenient. I would stay there again.

This hotel is easily accessible to the train station and in a great location to see Amsterdam! The room for a single is very small--but it is fine. The stairs were brutal but that was the case everywhere in Holland. The room did not have a window that could be opened -only one in the ceiling. (although they put in a portable air conditioning unit) I found that rather claustrophobic. Also the magnetic key did not work and the staff had to let me in whenever I wanted to go in and out. (although they did so happily at any hour) My room number was 122. (although it was up two very steep sets of stairs)

The free wireless internet and the free 24 hour coffee/capuccino machine and bottled water was appreciated. The staff was more than helpful in every way. My rate was good---95 Euros.