Fletcher Hotel 's Hertogenbosch

I couldn’t sleep because my room was by the motorway and I heard traffic all night. The mattress was awful, I sank into it. The chairs were so heavy that whenever someone dragged one across the floor above, I could hear it in my room, and the noise was painful. This was the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in.

The huge car park and convenient location for the autobahn were the only real pluses. Den Bosch was lovely, and I’d like to return, but I’d avoid this hotel. It felt worn out and stuck in the 1990s, and the price made it very poor value. The room situation was frustrating. I’d booked weeks ahead and requested twin beds, but was told that depended on availability. At check-in I asked again and was sent to a double room. The replacement was basically identical, with the two beds pushed together; we had to pull them away from the wall to separate them. The only difference was that they had single sheets instead of one double sheet. There was also pressure to book meals. From the time I made the reservation, messages kept urging me to reserve breakfast and dinner because a table wasn’t guaranteed. Staff repeated this at reception too.

I was there for four weeks on a business trip, and even three stars would feel generous. The rooms were dirty and often needed repairs, with cracked bathroom tiles and grime in the corners by the shower and sink. The toilet paper was like what you’d find 30 years ago. There was no mini-fridge either. The heating was unreliable. The wall thermostat wouldn’t heat the room, and the radiator was usually ice cold, only getting barely warm sometimes. During one workday, the cleaning crew left my ground-floor window and curtains wide open while my laptops and personal documents were on the table. Anyone walking past in the car park could have come in. I was pretty shocked to find it that way when I got back. Breakfast was cheap, with little variety. The restaurant also seemed old, and on many occasions I found dishes that were plainly dirty, not just smudged. Service was poor, and the employees didn’t seem like they wanted to be there. The whole place gave me the impression they were trying to save every penny, even at the expense of quality.

The rooms were clean, convenient and good, and the hotel itself was fine. We were only staying two nights, though arriving at 2:20 pm, just 40 minutes before the 3 pm check-in, we were told to pay €15 for both rooms to get in early. We paid, and it didn’t spoil the stay too much, but it felt unnecessary and left us with a bit of a bad feeling. The young women at reception could have been friendlier and smiled more. They may be nice people, but that wasn’t how it came across when we dealt with them.