American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts works best when luxury is scarce.
Amsterdam is the opposite.
I don’t think of FHR as a luxury access program. It is a rebate layered onto paid hotel stays. When prices are restrained, that rebate can meaningfully change the economics. When prices are already extreme, it barely registers.
Amsterdam is a useful case study because it shows both sides of that boundary.
The premise behind FHR
FHR behaves like a fixed rebate:
You pay a high nightly rate
You receive a predictable bundle of benefits
You hope the net cost becomes reasonable
That logic only works when the starting price leaves room for the rebate to have leverage.
When it does not, FHR stops being a pricing tool and becomes a cosmetic discount applied to an already-expensive decision.
What Amsterdam looks like under FHR
Street level in Amsterdam. High utilization, little slack.
On an April weekend tied to Easter travel, the same weekend we ultimately booked using Free Night Certificates, FHR pricing across Amsterdam looked like this:
€710 to €1,600+ per night across the portfolio
No THC properties available
Every option clustered at the very top of the market
Examples after taxes and mandatory fees:
Pillows Maurits at the Park: ~ $830
Tivoli Doelen: ~$625 at the low end
Rosewood Amsterdam: ~ $1,500
Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam: ~ $1,900
These were not anomalies. They reflect how Amsterdam prices during peak demand.
Two structural features amplify the problem:
High-end supply is dense but rarely discounted
Local taxes and fees (21% VAT plus 12.5% tourist tax in 2026) add roughly a third to headline room rates
A $600 room quietly becomes an $800 room. Fixed rebates erode faster than most people expect.
Why the rebate struggles here
Amsterdam’s canal belt from above. Dense housing. Limited inventory. Fixed supply.
A $300 credit behaves very differently depending on the base.
On a $350 stay, it meaningfully changes the decision
On an $850 to $1,900 stay, it barely alters the outcome
The credit does not scale. The prices do.
That turns FHR from a rebate tool into a luxury surcharge with a coupon attached.
The role of timing
This does not mean FHR is irrational in Amsterdam year-round.
Looking at non-peak dates tells a more nuanced story. On quieter winter and shoulder-season nights, pricing does occasionally fall into a range where a fixed rebate still has leverage. In February and March, Pillows can clear in the mid-$400s after tax. In those windows, FHR is not absurd.
But those windows are narrow.
Once demand rises, the math breaks quickly. Easter weekend is simply the stress test that makes the failure obvious.
Why this is not a failure of FHR
It does not mean FHR no longer works at all. The tool just does not fit this market consistently.
Amsterdam has:
Persistent international demand
A concentration of top-tier properties
Little incentive to price into a rebate-friendly range
Amex can only partner with what exists. In cities like this, that means most FHR inventory lives at the ceiling.
There is no mid-market entry point for the rebate logic to do its job.
Why Free Night Certificates behaved differently
On the same dates:
Points prices inflated sharply
FHR prices remained high
Free Night Certificate eligibility still resolved cleanly
This was not because certificates are universally superior. It happened because they operate on a different axis.
Points pricing responds to demand by inflating until demand disappears. Certificate eligibility remains binary. Occasionally, those systems drift far enough apart that access remains even when pricing has effectively closed.
That difference only becomes visible under extreme conditions. Amsterdam in April was one of them.
The correct conclusion
The wrong takeaway is that FHR is broken.
The right one is that FHR assumes a market structure that Amsterdam does not reliably provide.
There are nights where it works. There are many where it does not. Treating it as a default is the mistake.
Amsterdam is a city where FHR only works when the market briefly allows it, and fails decisively when it does not.
The takeaway
FHR is a tool, not a guarantee.
When base rates are restrained, fixed rebates can meaningfully help.
When every option is expensive, they lose leverage quickly.
The lesson is not to abandon FHR.
It is to match the tool to the market, just as you would with points or free night certificates.