Heart of Amsterdam Hostel

A1 -- just plain fantastic!
I was here for eight days and i must say to everyone at the hostel that they do a fantastic job here and made me and my friend feel very welcome and safe! If you are thinking about going to amsterdam then you should consider this place as its right in the heart of it all and well its damn comfy as well. I will return to the same place but when its a little warmer next time! Once again well done to all the staff -- made my stay in amsterdam even better!

Very good!
stayed here at the start of this summer (2008), the hostel was wicked. the staff are very friendly, and are very cooperative with any requests you have. the rooms are very clean and your belongings are very safe in the hospital, rooms are locked after the last person leaves and every bed has a secure locker next to it. planning on going back to dam early next year, and im gonna stay in the same hostel and would definitely recommend it to anyone. not to mention how wicked the rooms look with a different movie theme in every room, stayed in a clockwork orange this time, next time hoping for sin city. anyway if you wanna stay somewhere clean, central, comfortable, safe, and with free breakfast then definitely check this place out, and any horny lads, its right in the middle of the red light district, you cant go wrong here.

Nice, friendly, and fun -- but shady
I read bad reviews of this place but was actually pretty impressed with the rooms, cleanliness, and atmosphere of the place. The rooms were clean and the themes were cool. All the rooms had only one bathroom which was a problem when there are seven other people in the room and if someone takes a shower for an hour you can't even use the toilet. The breakfast was nice. One thing that seemed off for the first two days was that staff came into the room multiple times while I was still sleeping -- to clean or whatever (they always changed the sheets daily), but it seemed excessive. They were walking in the room all the time and looking at the beds. This seemed shady enough but then on my third day, I noticed I'd had about $100US in perfume stolen, and when I inquired at reception about where I could file a police report, they behaved suspiciously and assured me that the perfume was stolen by another guest (i.e. not staff) in the room even though I never even said for sure the incident even occurred at the hostel. I was then given some bogus directions that took me nowhere near a police station. I cannot say for sure that they were involved, but I have my suspicions and they behaved strangely the entire time. On my last night, I had to switch rooms (I was able to get a bed on this sold out night because I was "a very pretty girl") and the shadiness only amplified. When I went to my new room, the key I'd been given for the locker didn't work. They are digital so the man at the desk came to the room with me, reprogrammed the locker door and left the room without looking in the locker at all. I opened the locker and there was a purse inside. I called the man back to reprogram and lock the door. He had no idea who was using it but clearly someone had a key to it and was still staying in the room. Basically, if I hadn't been honest, the locker was worthless and I easily could have stolen this girls purse. The man then tried to convince me to leave my deposit for the locker with him even though I had to locker key and to "come back later" when the girl had checked out. But they didn't even know who she was. I demanded my money back because at shift change I imagine I could never convince the person at the desk I'd paid a deposit but had no key. It just seemed like one more attempt to be shady. I would say that nothing is safe in this hostel, the staff is moderately creepy, but that if you don't have anything valuable with you and carry your passport and wallet, you might enjoy the place. Location is also great!

Location
Best location. had a blast here. The rooms were cool and comfortable. Nice for trippin' on shrooms. I stayed here four nights. I'm gonna come back here next year.

It is the worse place I ever stayed in
Dirty towels, dirty bedding, funny smell all over the place. Even after we got high the place seemed to be disgusting.

Avoid this "hotel." EUR 140(!) per night for a dirty room without a shower in the room is much too much. We had the luck to arrive early, so we were able to find a new hotel. I believe every single story here.

a dirty, smelly, unfriendly, nasty, unhygienic rat's nest! The only people to recommend this place would be the staff themself. don't be fooled -- they are crooks!

Please please don't stay here. there are all kind of trashy hotels all over amsterdam to stay at. these people are bitchy and uncooperative. We had train issues and ended up getting into Amsterdam at one-thirty in the morning and finally found the hotel and were told that they had given our hotel away because we weren't there before midnight. That was understandable, however the man running the desk repeatedly told us that it was our fault we were late and basically talked to us like five year old children. Considering we were four young girls wandering around the red light district in the middle of the night, you would think the man would try to be a little more helpful, ever just recommending another place. Instead he informs us that we have to stay in the hotel or get charged on our credit cards, however there was only one double room. So we ended up staying the the smallest room of my life and having to push the beds together and lay on them crosswise to fit all four of us. he also charged us the same rate we were originally going to get for a four person room. oh and there was a lovely hooker right outside our window -- not too amusing at three a.m. after a twenty-hour day.

they are still charging my credit card once a month. daylight robbers.

my friend and i -- two forty somthing ladies -- have just returned from two days break at this hotel. we have had a fantatic time. the room was basic but the view from our window far made up for that. the pillows were the best i have experienced in any hotel i have stayed in. in fact i thought about putting one in my suitcase. the staff were friendly, the breakfast was perfect -- just what you need to start the day. exploring the area we did not feel threatened in any way. even the drug pushers left you alone if you requested them to. go to this place with an open mind and enjoy. i assure you the hotel is perfectly situated for you to enjoy everything the city has to offer. the pub next door has good music, there is every kind of eating place you could want -- the woki woki round the corner from the hotel superb. i shall be visiting again very soon with my husband. dont expect luxury.

My friend booked this place over the internet for our friends birthday - when we arrived they did not have the room we booked available and gave us an 8 bed dorm room which we were sharing with 3 strangers even though we booked and paid for a 5 bed dorm. When we complained we got no satisfaction just snide remarks and basically told we could go somewhere else which on a friday nite at 8pm with heavy backpacks was not fessible. we decided to stay and all of us were bitten with bed bugs - one friend in particular was so bad she had raised red lumps on all her limps and face. it totally ruined our weekend away. Dont stay here for your own health and safty.

This place is a kip, people! Avoid at all costs. Myself and two mates stayed here a couple of years ago and we ended up sleeping in the basement out back. Maybe the rooms in the main building are ok but I wouldn't take a chance if I were you. Amsterdam on the other hand was, how you say, The Sh*t! Check out Nomads, the coolest bar ever.

I stayed in the "off-season," right at the beginning, around early March. I was in the hostel one night then found some free accommodation elsewhere. I asked the owner about the comments on the site. It's changed ownership again, in late 2004. I stayed in an 8-person room in the basement. The sheets were clean, not rotated from one bed to the next (ew!) as someone else commented. It was quiet. It doesn't help if you appear to be a "rich looking American" (i.e. ignorant). Management may try to charge you more for the room. I quoted the price from the lady at the official tourist office at central station. They can look up hostel rooms by price.

Myself and three other guys stayed here for four days in November 2004. We had one medium-sized room they had managed to squeeze four beds into. The room looked cheap but was not dirty. One of my friends did say he saw bugs on the wall but that was after taking a lot of mushrooms. The rest of us saw no bugs and none of us had any bites. No shower in the room but there were two down the hall. Both worked ok and water was clean. It is in the middle of the red light district but that was what we wanted. We enjoyed smoking a joint out of the widow and watching the girls in the windows. It's approximately a 10-minute walk from central station. No one cleaned our room while we were there but to be honest that was ok by us as we had our stuff everywhere (not much room). Overall I'd say it's cheap and you get exactly what you pay for but it's good enough if you're not too fussy.

This hostel has a great location. I'm a girl and I didn't find any problem with the place, although I was there with a group of blokes. The room we had was basic but the en suite shower room was good and clean. They changed our sheets every day (if we were up when they knocked on the door!) and came to empty the trash bins in our room. The breakfast was basic but nice and we found all the staff to be really friendly. The hotel is in a really great location, just don't expect it to be quiet! It's so easy find and so close to the station. If you want to be right in the middle of all of the action but not spend a fortune, go here!