Hotel De Zalm - Brielle, Netherlands     

We travel with our bicycles and have done many trips. It is sad to see that there is still the old mentality that this is the poor people's way of travelling. Hotel de Zalm has been a real deception in that sense. From the minute we entered, we have been judged and not treated in a friendly manner. We have not been allowed to put our bicycle in a secure and locked area which is always a real concern when you have expensive bicycles. The staff at both reception and dining room were not friendly. We were assigned a fairly large room located on the last floor. It was a really hot day and there was no air at all coming from the window. Not even a fan available. We stayed on a Saturday night. It is located in the center of the town and there is lots of parties and drinking going on. It gets really noisy. The bathroom was really tiny, so was the shower and it was on a fairly high step, quite dangerous. The breakfast was dissapointing. Juice was not good, coffee either. Please note that this hotel is now under a hotel chain. We looked at the comments on this site before booking and we wondered if the quality may have changed since ? Positive comments: It was clean and the room was large.

A friendly hotel in the middle of the pleasant old town of Brielle. Ample parking at the back, and pedestrianised streets to the front, so no major problems with noise. Food of good quality, although you may eventually tire of the limited menu after a week or so! (there are a number of good restauarants -Italian, Greek, Indonesian, Chinese- within staggering distance) Staff have mostly been there for many years, and are very friendly and helpful. Change of ownership recently has not reduced standards, indeed the breakfasts have improved in variety. It's not a cheap hotel, but does give value for money.