Some buildings feel grounded. Others seem designed for take-off. In the Hague’s Scheveningen district, a neighbourhood with salty sea air and easy access to long, stretching beaches, a striking art deco landmark belongs unmistakably to the latter. Once the headquarters of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, this is De Plesman: a boutique hotel where the romance of flight meets crisp, contemporary design.
The Hague might not top your list for a weekend escape – but don’t count it out. Just 30 minutes from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, this business-savvy city is fringed by green parks and intersected by quiet canals, and with plenty of museums and access to some of the Netherlands’ most beautiful beaches, it’s got plenty to put it in competition with the Dutch capital. Not without good reason did KLM choose it for its HQ back in the day. Stay at De Plesman and you’re not just close to the coast – you’re immersed in a lesser-known chapter of Dutch history. Did you know KLM is the world’s oldest operating airline? Or the first to run a scheduled service to New York? Us neither.
Named for Albert Plesman, KLM’s pioneering first director, the hotel pays tribute to Dutch aviation history without getting lost in nostalgia. Original details – from staircases shaped like wing tips to turbine-inspired ceiling mouldings – channel the elegance of early air travel, reimagined for a modern stay.
By the 1970s, KLM had moved on, and the building entered a quieter chapter as a government office, before sitting empty from the 2010s. When Hague-born entrepreneur Bart Dura stepped in, he found whitewashed walls and grey carpet – but the bones were still there, and so was the story.
The Hague might not top your list for a weekend escape – but don’t count it out. Just 30 minutes from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, this business-savvy city is fringed by green parks and intersected by quiet canals, and with plenty of museums and access to some of the Netherlands’ most beautiful beaches, it’s got plenty to put it in competition with the Dutch capital. Not without good reason did KLM choose it for its HQ back in the day. Stay at De Plesman and you’re not just close to the coast – you’re immersed in a lesser-known chapter of Dutch history. Did you know KLM is the world’s oldest operating airline? Or the first to run a scheduled service to New York? Us neither.
Named for Albert Plesman, KLM’s pioneering first director, the hotel pays tribute to Dutch aviation history without getting lost in nostalgia. Original details – from staircases shaped like wing tips to turbine-inspired ceiling mouldings – channel the elegance of early air travel, reimagined for a modern stay.
By the 1970s, KLM had moved on, and the building entered a quieter chapter as a government office, before sitting empty from the 2010s. When Hague-born entrepreneur Bart Dura stepped in, he found whitewashed walls and grey carpet – but the bones were still there, and so was the story.
Credit: Chantal Arnts
To bring it back to life, Dura called on Amsterdam-based design studio Nicemakers – known for projects including The Hoxton and Hotel de L’Europe – to lead the revival. “We love to work on buildings with character,” founder Dax Roll tells SUITCASE. Nicemakers’ approach was a delicate balancing act: preserving original character while ensuring the property felt fresh for the 21st century. New interiors draw on mid-century references and the building’s aeronautic inspirations, without tipping into pastiche. Chequerboard wooden floors anchor the reception and bar, geometric patterns drawn from vintage aircraft interiors animate suites, and velvety textures soften the building’s formal bones. Curated nods to KLM’s legacy – like blown-up black-and-white photographs of beaming crew members – add warmth and charm. Designer Lotti Lorenzetti even credits The Queen’s Gambit for the moodboard: specifically, the scene where Anya Taylor-Joy’s character boards a Pan Am flight.
To bring it back to life, Dura called on Amsterdam-based design studio Nicemakers – known for projects including The Hoxton and Hotel de L’Europe – to lead the revival. “We love to work on buildings with character,” founder Dax Roll tells SUITCASE. Nicemakers’ approach was a delicate balancing act: preserving original character while ensuring the property felt fresh for the 21st century. New interiors draw on mid-century references and the building’s aeronautic inspirations, without tipping into pastiche. Chequerboard wooden floors anchor the reception and bar, geometric patterns drawn from vintage aircraft interiors animate suites, and velvety textures soften the building’s formal bones. Curated nods to KLM’s legacy – like blown-up black-and-white photographs of beaming crew members – add warmth and charm. Designer Lotti Lorenzetti even credits The Queen’s Gambit for the moodboard: specifically, the scene where Anya Taylor-Joy’s character boards a Pan Am flight.
Credit: Chantal Arnts
Heritage restrictions meant certain original features had to stay, including the building’s signature orange awnings, which bathe rooms in a warm, amber glow, and large crittal windows that flood its dramatic spiral staircase with light. Rather than work around them, the team leaned in. The hotel is designed to feel open and social, and will share its space with rental apartments and residences – a gym, cinema room and soon-to-open deli are accessible to both hotel guests and full-time residents – echoing the building’s past, when KLM employees could visit an on-site sweet shop or hairdresser around work calls.
The De Plesman has entered a new chapter once again and this time, a building once made to launch journeys has become a destination in its own right.
Heritage restrictions meant certain original features had to stay, including the building’s signature orange awnings, which bathe rooms in a warm, amber glow, and large crittal windows that flood its dramatic spiral staircase with light. Rather than work around them, the team leaned in. The hotel is designed to feel open and social, and will share its space with rental apartments and residences – a gym, cinema room and soon-to-open deli are accessible to both hotel guests and full-time residents – echoing the building’s past, when KLM employees could visit an on-site sweet shop or hairdresser around work calls.
The De Plesman has entered a new chapter once again and this time, a building once made to launch journeys has become a destination in its own right.
Credit: Chantal Arnts
Colours stay soft but confident: dusky pinks, ochres and taupes are anchored by the moody contrast of ceiling cornices painted in, what else, Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue. Floors are parquet throughout, and walls are dressed with photographic prints specially commissioned for the hotel from artists including Soo Burnell and Casper Faassen, adding a gallery-like polish. Every room comes with a Roberts radio, flatscreen TV, Nespresso machine and tea-making kit. It’s all very considered – less minibar and more in-flight service. Bathrooms, tiled and tonal, are equipped with generous rainfall showers and stocked with toiletries by Amsterdam-based brand Wijck.
Rooms come in five categories, but the undisputed showpiece is the Plesman Suite. Set within the building’s original executive offices, it’s an elegant, wood-panelled hideaway complete with a green marble bar, velvet headboard and silk bedding. On the walls: Warhol prints. On the floor: more polished wood.
Rooms
The hotel’s 102 rooms, including 15 suites, nod to the golden age of travel while keeping things resolutely practical – much like a well-designed aircraft cabin. The 30 studios and suites are fitted with compact kitchens inspired by Dutch Bruynzeel kitchens, a 1930s invention designed to maximise efficiency in small spaces. Rooms have smaller kitchenettes.Colours stay soft but confident: dusky pinks, ochres and taupes are anchored by the moody contrast of ceiling cornices painted in, what else, Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue. Floors are parquet throughout, and walls are dressed with photographic prints specially commissioned for the hotel from artists including Soo Burnell and Casper Faassen, adding a gallery-like polish. Every room comes with a Roberts radio, flatscreen TV, Nespresso machine and tea-making kit. It’s all very considered – less minibar and more in-flight service. Bathrooms, tiled and tonal, are equipped with generous rainfall showers and stocked with toiletries by Amsterdam-based brand Wijck.
Rooms come in five categories, but the undisputed showpiece is the Plesman Suite. Set within the building’s original executive offices, it’s an elegant, wood-panelled hideaway complete with a green marble bar, velvet headboard and silk bedding. On the walls: Warhol prints. On the floor: more polished wood.
Kitchenette in a suite | Credit: Chantal Arnts
What’s for breakfast?
Suus, the hotel restaurant, is named after Plesman’s wife, a no-nonsense Dutch woman who, legend has it, once averted a KLM crisis by inviting unions and KLM bosses to hers for diplomacy over dinner. The space alone would have us agreeing to any terms – a double-height room with floor-to-ceiling windows and curving mezzanine, reached by ascending a wrap-around staircase. On weekday mornings, you’ll find a generous breakfast buffet from 7am till 10am and, at weekends, brunch dishes from fresh-as-you-like gazpacho and smoked salmon with sourdough and crème fraîche to Gouda-loaded burgers.How about lunch and dinner?
The restaurant’s lunch and dinner menus favour pan-European flavours with a seaside theme, from beach crab bisques and Dutch prawn cocktails to lightly sautéed cod, garlic-grilled prawns and creamy cacio e pepe pasta.
Air travel-inspired interiors in the reception and lounge area | Credit: Mae Daniels Photography
Is there a bar?
Yes, in the elegant reception space you’ll find the dazzlingly polished Albert Bar & Lounge. Head here for a morning coffee, a pre-dinner aperitif or a nightcap.Amenities
A state-of-the-art – and very large – gym. Bikes are available to rent to explore the city.What’s the crowd like?
Open to residents and the local community, this place has a distinctive buzz about it at all hours. The restaurant, despite having just opened, was packed on our visit.
Suus | Credit: Mae Daniels Photography
On the beach, Hart Beach surf school and beach club offers a low-key evening hangout, serving local beers and bitterballen (deep-fried meatballs).
In town, make tracks to the Kunstmuseum Den Haag to spy masterpieces by Mondrian (you’ll recognise the colourful museum lobby from commissioned photography hanging on the walls of the hotel). In town, caffeine cravings can be staved off at the 102-year old The Bookstor Café or Bartine.
Things I should know
Check out the shop – housed on shelves in reception – for crockery inspired by the KLM mural that was gifted to the company for its 40th anniversary by another Dutch household name, Heineken, upstairs.Within a short walk I can find…
Jump on a bike and you’re a short ride away from the sandy expanse of the Hague’s beaches, as well as the city’s elegant, historic centre.On the beach, Hart Beach surf school and beach club offers a low-key evening hangout, serving local beers and bitterballen (deep-fried meatballs).
In town, make tracks to the Kunstmuseum Den Haag to spy masterpieces by Mondrian (you’ll recognise the colourful museum lobby from commissioned photography hanging on the walls of the hotel). In town, caffeine cravings can be staved off at the 102-year old The Bookstor Café or Bartine.
The Lowdown
Doubles cost from £125 a night; deplesman.com
