On my first visit to Amsterdam in 2007, a privehuis was the first place I went to visit a girl, and I enjoyed a mixture of RLD and privehuis visits for quite a few years.
I think you are right that the privehuis experience in general can be mixed. There is a certain amount of luck involved in the selection of girls available on any particular visit, and the overall quality of these places can change over time. I used to really enjoy Asmara for several years, but it went a bit downhill and my favourite girls left. The quality of the experience depends a lot on the girl you are seeing, and reviews can sometimes reflect the mindset and expectations of the reviewer as much as the place they are reviewing, but the management of these places also have a big influence on how well overall standards of service are maintained.
I've only visited Park 118 once, but it was quite an impressive building inside and gave that feeling of being in a proper brothel. It's also in a pleasant area of the city next to a park (as the name suggests), ideal for a nice ride out and back on the tram. It might be a good choice for a first-time visit, you can plan out which tram you need before you get there and check out where the entrance is on google streetview.
Apart from Park 118, I think Asmara is still open at Willem de Zwijgerlaan 70, which is also an easy tram ride from the centre (Park 118 is in the south, Asmara in the west, both in pleasant areas of the city a little outside the centre but not too far). I also visited "Vienna Massage" one time at Rijnstraat 224 (also in the south of Amsterdam and easily accessible by tram) and I think this place is now operating as "Vienna Salon Erotique." It was fine when I tried it, but more expensive than Park 118 or Asmara.
I haven't visited any of these places for several years, so I've no idea what they are like these days, but it can be fun to turn up and see what happens, what the selection of girls is like - treat it as a bit of an adventure. It's always possible to leave if you don't like the selection of girls (I think there might be a small entrance fee to Park 118, but at Asmara you could leave without paying anything if you didn't like the girls on offer).
In general, the pace in a privehuis was a bit slower than the RLD, you could enjoy an "erotic massage" before the sex, and it might be less intimidating for a first visit than trying to choose a girl in the crowded streets of the RLD in the evening. The standard of service for a particular price was more predictable, and it was just a nice change from a quick suck&fuck in the Wallen.
A bit more about the general privehuis experience (what to expect) here -
https://www.ignatzmice.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24698 although the prices e.t.c. are completely out of date.
The RLD itself can also be a very mixed experience, but there are still girls worth visiting. I personally prefer the ability to have a good look around the RLD and pick a girl that really appeals to me, compared to a privehuis where the choice might be between anything from a couple of girls to half a dozen, depending on when you visit and how busy it is. I used to like going to Asmara in the early afternoon, nice relaxed vibe - the evening shift might be a completely different selection of girls. There's something very enticing about being presented with girls one after another and picking one like a king in his harem...
The RLD is also very different if you compare dayshifts and nightshifts (official changeover is sometime around 7-8pm but some dayshift girls will finish earlier than that and some nightshift girls start a bit later). The place is a lot less crowded in the afternoon, and although the selection of girls is more limited, there are still some good choices.
The most recent "new" girl I visited was a good-looking blonde on Stoofsteeg (dayshift) called Mariana, who charged €50 for a blowjob or €100 for blowjob + sex. She was good-looking, friendly, reminded me of the kind of slim babes that I jerked off to in top-shelf magazines as a teen. Kind of a no-frills experience compared to a laid-back hour-long session in a privehuis (you pay for a suck & fuck and that is pretty much what you get) but it's great to pick a hot girl in a window and have sex with her right there and then.
She's in this July 2022 trip report -
https://www.ignatzmice.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=26637 which also features my two favourite petite cuties, Adriana (days) and Rosie (nights).
Some RLD girls are very adept at trying to get more money out of you for doing very little, which can be frustrating. Night shifts tend to be worse for this, you have to be careful not to "throw good money after bad" if a girl starts changing her mind about what she offered at the door and wants to charge more once you are inside and have already handed over the cash. Personally I treat new girls as a bit of an experiment, almost like an audition, with low expectations - but you can be very pleasantly surprised sometimes.
You can tell a lot by your own instincts and the girl's attitude. Some girls are very laid back (like Adriana) and others (like Rosie) are a little more pushy but still worth visiting. For example Rosie offers sex for €100 but will try to persuade you to increase that to €150 for a longer session (upselling). But she does at least do what you pay for, and I really enjoy visiting her, she fits my ideal fantasy very nicely. Some other girls are more of an actual "rip-off" in the sense that you agree something at the door and they change their mind about it later.
With all the changes caused by COVID and so on, I've no idea what the current privehuis scene has to offer, but it would be fun to try it alongside the RLD. One privehuis tip is that if you are presented with girls one after another who then go back to another room, don't try and remember all their names, just keep the name of the hottest one so far in your head so that you can actually tell the receptionist who you want to see!
One thing that makes a difference to the experience is the type of sex you are looking for. Are you more interested in quick, basic sex with hot girls, or does better quality sex with girls who might be a little less hot and a little older appeal more? I found in a privehuis I sometimes ended up with girls I perhaps wouldn't have chosen in the RLD, but this can sometimes be fun. For example I tend to like petite girls, but a body-to-body massage from a girl with very large boobs is undeniably good. Also the variety of nationalities was a bit more varied in my privehuis visits. And sometimes you get lucky and end up with good, relaxed sex with a very hot girl...
(long post due to pleasant memories flooding back)
Enjoy your trip!
