Hostel Bargain Toko

We spent eight nights here. The room was clean and the facilities were generally up to a good standard. We didn't run into the heating, bathroom, or cleanliness problems other reviewers mentioned. What affected our stay was the way some reception staff treated us. We were accused of smoking in the room, even though we hadn't broken any rules, and warned about a €250-300 fine and possible police involvement. They also said they'd check our room every 20 minutes, which felt excessive and inappropriate. There were communication problems too. For example, we were told our food delivery had called the room, but that never happened. The handling of it all felt aggressive and unprofessional. We respect hotel rules and travel to relax, not face accusations we don't deserve. The hotel itself is satisfactory, but the behavior of some reception staff hurt its overall image. Management should review this. Based on our experience, we wouldn't stay here again.

I travel to Amsterdam regularly and have stayed in 10-15 hotels here. This is the worst one for me, and the worst three-star hotel I've ever experienced anywhere. Even its 3.6 rating seems too high. I took photos of several problems. My first room felt like being on a highway, with the road only 10 meters away and windows that weren't good enough to keep the noise out. I was moved to the other side of the hotel, but could hear loud noise all night. In the morning I found it was coming from multiple heat pumps on another building. At breakfast, my colleague said he hadn't slept either. They moved me again, but the bathroom in that room had a lot of mold. The beds have very old springs and you sink into them. The bathroom has no heating and was very cold. When I plugged in my phone, the socket started coming out with the cable. The breakfast was very bad for 17.5 euros, and the scrambled egg was inedible. The area also felt unsafe to me: there's a highway bridge next to the hotel, and homeless people live under it. My colleagues also had complaints at breakfast, including leaking showers and room cards that didn't work. There's no restaurant in the hotel, and no iron in the rooms. You can borrow one from reception with a 20 euro deposit, but the ironing board they gave me was destroyed. I regret not taking a picture of it, though I took photos of other things. There were dirty walls, stairs up to the bathroom, British taps I found inconvenient, and an extremely small washbasin. The AC smelled bad, so in late November, with 3 degrees outside, I had to choose between the smell and the cold. There was no bottled water in the room, and I didn't find the tap water good even for tea. I'd buy a 0.5 euro bottle from lidl rather than pay 4 euros for a small one from the machine downstairs.

The rooms and cleaning were fine, though the bathrooms are quite old and a bit moldy. Breakfast was okay. We chose the hotel because parking costs 25€/24hrs, which is good for Amsterdam. The tram is a five-minute walk and takes about 30 minutes into the city. The 24-hour bus ticket for only 10€ is well worth it.

It's in a nice spot, with a good tram connection to the city center. The rooms are average and not especially comfortable or memorable, and service is poor, with little attention to detail. It can work as a base if location is your main concern, but isn't the best fit if you want better service and comfort.