Guide · Amsterdam · 2026-10-15
A cold holiday let in Amsterdam: getting the heating right before a body to body hour
A holiday apartment in Amsterdam can turn out snug or turn out a draughty disappointment. Much depends on a thermostat the host may have locked, a heating timer you never set and a boiler in a cupboard you have not yet opened. Before a body to body booking in the cold months, the half hour spent getting to know the heating pays for itself.
Why rented apartments run cold
Owners often heat a flat for when it stands empty rather than for when it is full. A thermostat may be capped at a modest setting, put on a timer that drops the heat late in the evening, or run through an app only the host can open. Older flats along the canals add problems of their own: single glazing, floors above unheated stairwells, and radiators fitted under windows that leak warmth as fast as they make it.
None of this shows when you arrive in the afternoon with sun on the glass. It shows at nine in the evening.
Getting the apartment ready for body to body
Find the thermostat on your first day and see what it lets you do. If it runs a programme, look for a temporary override or an away setting you can switch off. If it is locked, message the host early and ask for it to be raised for the evening; hosts are usually glad to help when asked in good time.
Turn on every radiator in the room you will use and close the doors to the rooms you will not. Draw the curtains. In a flat with a wooden floor over a cold stairwell, a rug or a spare duvet laid by the bed makes a noticeable difference.
Check the hot water as well. A small boiler may give out after one long shower, which matters if the format involves water. Body to body needs only warmth and a bed, so it is the easy choice in an apartment you do not yet trust.
Stairs, doorbells and the street door
Amsterdam apartments often sit at the top of a steep staircase, behind a street door with a row of bells. Write in the thread which bell is yours, which floor you are on, and whether the stairs are the narrow, ladder-like kind. If the street door has a code or locks at a set hour, add that too. She arrives forty to sixty minutes after the confirmed hour, and a clear description of the door saves her standing in the rain.
Neighbours are closer in a shared building than in a hotel. A quiet arrival and a quiet departure suit everyone, and nothing about the visit needs explaining to anybody on the stairs.
When the apartment simply will not warm up
If the heating fails or the host cannot be reached, say so in the thread before an hour is held, and the reply will be honest about whether the room is workable. The warm room note sets out what she hopes to find, and the guide to keeping an old room warm says more about old buildings.