Amsterdam's hotels are mainly clustered around the centre, canals, museum area and Vondelpark.The Dutch Hotel Classification system (www.hotelsterren.nl) awards stars on a points-based system according to services and facilities available. There are no extra points for staff charm or architectural loveliness and the hotel's star rating doesn’t provide an exact indicator. In a one-star hotel (and a hotel can only be a hotel if it has one star), there'll be a basin, soap and a communal bathroom for every 10 rooms. In a two-star 'functionally equipped and middle range hotel', drinks are available and half the rooms will be en-suite and have a colour television. With three stars ('a comfortably equipped middle-range hotel'), you can expect your room to be 17 square metres or bigger, there's a maximum of two flights of stairs to get to it and there'll be information on recreational possibilities. You'll be able to get a cot, an internet connection and write postcards at your own in-room writing table. With four stars (a 'very comfortably equipped first class hotel'), room service is available. You get a minibar and more space (a 22 square metre room) including a lounge chair for you and a friend. You can lock up your valuables. There will be only one floor to walk up and some extra bodycare products or a sauna. In a five-star hotel ('luxurious... equipped to a high quality'), room service will be 24 hours. You’ll have a restaurant, 26 square metres of room and the hotel will have at least two suites. Slippers and bathrobes are included. The Intercontinental Amstel tops the deluxe price league in Amsterdam at €595-4000 a night, but there are four-star venues which deliberately don't want to be five-star, because it deters business and conference bookers. There are also some utterly charming venues with fewer stars. In the centre, canal-side hotels are situated in (one or several) 17th and 18th century residences. Elegant, cosy, full of art and antiques, these can be wonderful places to stay. Rooms vary in size, but veer towards the snug rather than spacious. The Dylan Hotel has long been a benchmark for boutique hotels, but the last few years have seen more entrants into Amsterdam's hip list. New hotels for 2007 include the five-star Amrâth which is housed in the 19th century Scheeepvarthuis (Shipping Office) and at the other end of the scale, Amsterdam's first budget designer hotel, the Qbic, which is located in the financial district (and development zone) of Amsterdam South.