Lovely small hotel, sweet, polyglot people who run it and give it a family atmosphere

Hip and modern without being austere, friendly but elegant, the White Lily is the Perfect small hotel for a lazy few days in lovely Antwerp, the civilized and charming perfectly formed Belgian city. We sat in the lovely hydrangea strewn garden with fountain and sipped champagne as part of our package. Had it been raining, there are 2 sitting rooms from which to choose, in addition to the lobby and 2nd floor sitting area. The complementary computer has the most amazing Gaudi like gold chair, and all the furnishings are cutting edge contempory without compromising comfort. Antwerp itself is such a draw, but we secretly wished that we had more time just to sit around in the lovely rooms. Our room was so comfortable that we hated to leave it, and in fact stayed in much longer than we meant to and unfortuneately missing the breakfast on our 2nd day. The breakfast room is adjacent to the kind of kitchen that I would kill for, and it would lend itself to an elegant luncheon or small cocktail party. Everywhere there were design touches that we plan to copy should we a. win the lottery, or b. get a bigger house. The staff, unobtrusive to the point of invisibility, yet there when you need them, were absolutely lovely and friendly, even when we came home late and tried to gain entry to the wrong room. We would go back in a heartbeat, and recommend this small luxury hotel to everyone we know.

I had heard .. OH SO MUCH .. of this hotel over the recent decade and, again, from people whose tasted I trusted implicitly. A year or so ago I even joined friends for a sumer evening drink in the hotel's courtyard.

The Witte Lelie's (White Lily) reputation was that of the most discreet, rarefied, refined, most tastefully decorated hotel in Antwerp. White, yet worn and not clinical, contemporary whilst remaining "other worldly". Its appeal was to an inner sanctum of taste makers who appreciated its discretion with discretion.
That was then ! ............. Its been recently sold !

"All must change" and ...often... "utterly" is best! Gradual and "nothing has changed" shifts in ownership can be the making or breaking of a place. Now I know that there is little more subjective than taste in decor yet, here we have a case of a new owner buying and tweaking the decor .. for the worst ! I'll spare you a boring list of design offences whilst simply adding that the first huge and lunging crime against the original decor hits you the minute you cross the theshold !

In some ways i found the hotel to suffer from its own "exclusivity" .... the team were friendly yet aloof and distant and it almost seemed that they were playing at being turn of the centurary butlers in a frosty manor where a more relaxed, amble, warm and contemporay approach to their role might make guests more welcome, at home, at ease even....

A few requests to locate a pretty well known and recommended restaurant were met with recitations of how it was complicated to find as it was not on their 'List'. I was met with a wall ....."Do you not know the exact address .. Sir ??" (They did however offer to reserve a restaurant from 'Their recommended' list). A Google search using an aproximated phoenetic rendition of the name had it turn up first on the list later.

Ringing the door bell and waiting to enter after a stroll back to the hotel at 22h30 after an excellent dinner could have had us warmly welcomed at our home away from home with even a .... "would you care for a night cap ... ?? " "What time will you come down for breakfast in the morning?" .... was neither as engaging or encouraging to those who might like to explore the town somewaht more as it might have been.

The room was basically apointed - we had a standard room i believe - and chilly. Two single low beds. Toileteries were very basic and could / should have been much more qualatative and individualist for this type of destination. A lovely wooden spiral staircase did however lead up to a mezzanine in the room yet on arrival to the room we were told that it was likely to be shaky / unsafe and not to use it.

My biggest annoyance was what I might only conclude to be the deliberate loud banging on the door and walls with the tube of a vacum cleaner each morning by the sreaming housekeeping staff .. despite our 'do not disturb' sign flying full mast. It seemed we were not fitting into their plans for the day.

They speak of the hotel undergoing a total refurbishment soon .. maybe that will help. I wont be back, I was glad I finally got to stay but there are other, less expensive and more comfortable places to stay in town as far as i am concerned ....

The hotel had arranged for us to be collected from Brussels Eurostar - the driver was very good. On checking in we were shown to a terrible room which did not even have a bath. We had booked via American Express/Small Luxury Hotels of the World where a free upgrade is supposed to be automatically made if available - on asking we were told there was a suite available which we were moved to. It was a much better room - absolutely huge and had a fabulous bathroom with deep bath and a separate shower. Like previously reviewers, we found that there was a real lack of service that the staff did not really care that you were there - almost as if you were incidental to the running of the place. We came down to breakfast to find no-one was around and not sure what to do - so we started helping ourselves. When someone eventually appeared we were then presented with a lovely breakfast and had some fresh eggs cooked. We did not know the mini bar in the room was included in the price. It could be a lovely place, but they just don't offer you anything or tell you - a bit typical of all Belgian service to be honest! It is a nice place to stay for privacy and we didnt see one other person during our whole stay!