Peak dates in the Amsterdam year
Busy stretches of the year, such as King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, Christmas to New Year and big conference weeks, all carry half ahead.
Ordinary dates in Amsterdam behave alike. A few do not: the city fills with visitors, hotels fill with them, and diaries fill earlier than usual. The house calls these peak dates and treats them in one particular way.
Which dates count
King's Day at the end of April. Pride in high summer, with the canal parade. The Amsterdam Dance Event, which takes over the city for several October days. The days from Christmas through to New Year. And large conference weeks, which change from year to year and which the house names when asked. A traveller unsure whether a date counts can ask in the first message.
What a peak date changes
It always carries half ahead, even on a booking that would otherwise be paid entirely on arrival. For a booking made from home this changes nothing, since a booking made more than twenty-four hours ahead carries half ahead anyway. The real effect is on the diary: peak evenings are taken sooner, and a month or six weeks ahead is a sensible lead time.
What it does not change
The figure. There is no peak supplement, and every row on the profiles stays as printed. The arrival window stays at forty to sixty minutes from her setting out, though streets in the centre can be crowded on King's Day and during Pride. The cancellation scale and the one-move rule apply as on any other date, and on a busy date a released evening is often taken by someone else, which returns the deposit in full.
Planning around them
A traveller whose dates are flexible can avoid a peak altogether. One whose trip is built around it should book early and name two women rather than one. The journal note on peak dates goes into both approaches, and the booking terms page lists the seven bookings that carry a deposit.