Amsterdam House Hotel Eureka - Amsterdam, Netherlands     

I stayed here for 5 nights in August & while it wasn't truly horrible, it was far less than ideal. If you are used to nice places (4-5 star) you'll want to avoid this one... and I mean, RUN. If you are however OK with lower class establishments & are only looking for a place to lay your head at night, you might have an excellent experience. From the outside, it delivers as it has a lovely facade (the pics do it justice) & is located on a lovely semi-quiet, low-traffic street. Inside however, I was not thrilled with the bare asthetics & shaggy magenta carpet, which also covered the typically winding and narrow Dutch staircase. The do have a lift however, which was a plus. I was put into room 25 which is in the back of the hotel & faces into the center of the building, so all you see is a small patch of sky up above, a sky light & tarred roof below, & windows of your neighbours all around. Many of whom talked loudly & smoked a lot well into the wee hours of the morning... This chatter plus the CONSTANT hallway traffic & ghastly-loud door-slamming made my sleep light. Forget about trying to have a lie in unless you brought earplugs & maybe a sleeping pill or 3. The room itself was dark, even despite a seemingly endless array of light fixtures to choose from. The wardrobe was spindly, the decor random & frankly kind of spooky, & the TV didn't work (only for DVD). The bed was low to the ground, lumpy, & took up a lot of the room space. I must say that it was pretty comfortable for the most part though. The bathroom was functional & I thanked God that there was plenty of hot water. The shower is annoying however because you end up getting a wet floor despite the grade in the tile, as there is no shower curtain, only the half sheath of glass to deflect the water. There was also quite a bit of grunge going on in the tile :0 Another thing I didn't like is that the reception desk only opens at eight, so when I went to check out at seven I had to walk a block to get a car to Schipol instead of having one called for me. I know, that's kind of whiny, but it was early & it just would have been nice to have some assistance. On the plus side, the staff are nice, and they have an ADORABLE little house dog. The cleaning staff were also really efficient & I always had fresh linens & towels (& Nescafe ;) ). Again, the location is unreal-good, and is right next to a lot of good Cafes & the Waterloo Plein market, etc., & just about everything is within walking distance.

We've stayed at The Eureka Hotel once which was fine however they also rent Houseboats and Apartments which are amazing! Walking around Amsterdam really takes it out of you and putting your feet up in a houseboat on a canal right in the middle of town is the best possible antidote to tired legs. While the less informed rest, bored in their small windowless hotel you can be watching (and in most cases waving to) other boats that pass up and down the canals, smoking some of Amsterdam's finest and relaxing. We love this place and over the years have stayed in two different apartments and five different houseboats (all only a five minute walk to everything you need) as well as the hotel which have all been good. I would suggest the brown colored boat (with the red door) opposite the hotel is the best, but all the boats are amazing and are centrally heated which is important in Amsterdam in the winter. People expecting 5 star luxury should be warned there's a few dusty corners and all the cutlery wont match but if you can get over that you'll have the time of your life.