Hotel Benelux - Rotterdam, Netherlands     

I stayed here with a companion for two nights, on the advice of a friendly agent at the tourist bureau. Let's just say I won't be returning. It's not that I had any high-falutin' expectations of a hotel at 40 euros a night, but it lacked all the charm that made us fall in love with similarly priced and sized hotels we stayed at in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Antwerp. First off, the location is not great - it's a across the Angel Bridge from the rest of the city in a rather depressing neighborhood. It is convenient to a tram stop, but make sure you catch the last tram if you're out on the "mainland" - we had to do some serious walking when the final tram forced us out two stops early. When you're buzzed into the building (the security is pretty tight), you're greeted with a hike up a number of flights of dizzyingly steep and nauseatingly ugly blue stairs. The room was decently furnished, but the TV was broken, the comforter was about 3/4 the size of the bed, and we were given one towel, about the size of a dish rag. We requested additional towels and bedding, and were given another of the mini-comforters. The shower was a real joy - in fact, the entire bathroom converts into a hot tub as soon as you turn it on. As a result, I had to turn the water on, get wet, turn the water off, kick the water that was flooding the bathroom towards the drain, soap up, turn the water on for another 5 seconds, rinse, kick water toward the drain, and etc. Staying here was a negative experience, especially considering the quaint, sweet, friendly hotels we stayed in elsewhere, for as much if not less than the Hotel Benelux. Do yourself a favor and look somewhere else if you're staying in Rotterdam - which, incidentally, I wouldn't recommend as a tourist destination. Really a disappointment through and through.