A five-star hotel offers the full apparatus of service, from doormen and turndown to night managers and butlers, and each part of it bears quietly on an in-room visit.
The grand hotels of Amsterdam stand along the Amstel, around Dam Square, beside the Vondelpark and on the canal ring, with a newer generation in the towers of the south. What distinguishes them is less the size of the room than the number of people attending to it. For an in-room reservation, the service that makes such a stay pleasant is also the thing a guest should consider for a moment beforehand.
A doorman greets everyone who reaches the entrance, and a guest relations manager may know the guest by name. Turndown comes at an appointed time in the evening, often between seven and nine. In-room dining can reach the door within half an hour at any hour. On butler floors a member of staff may call to ask whether anything is needed. Each of these is a knock that can arrive unplanned.
Three small steps suffice. Ask housekeeping to complete turndown early, or to omit it for the night. Set the privacy indicator, whether a card on the handle or a button beside the door, before she arrives. Order from in-room dining well ahead or afterwards. None of these draws remark; staff at this level receive such requests constantly.
A therapist visiting a hotel of this class is dressed for its lobby, carries one understated bag and walks directly to the lifts. At a grand hotel's door, a woman who looks as though she has a room upstairs is precisely what a doorman expects to see.
The ladder is identical at a five-star address and at any other; the house charges for time, never for the building. The five-star hotel page describes these properties in more depth, in-room covers the room itself, and discretion sets out the principle behind every step above.