The Hague Short-Stay

We had a good night here. Breakfast was nice, and the staff were friendly.

The place is close to the city centre, 500 m away, with the train station 250 m away and "Lovers' Alley" 150 m away. But women shouldn’t go out alone after dark. The free, run-down car park about 300 m away didn’t feel suitable for nicer cars, since shady characters hang around there. Parking in front of the apartment costs €1.75 an hour all week, and costs more the closer you get to the city centre. Roads nearby are under construction, so Waze is the best option for navigation because it knows the current closures. We stayed eight nights. You’ll need to buy toilet paper yourself, as two rolls aren’t enough for three people. Card payments are accepted. The start of the stay was a disaster. Ms. Carla was friendly when she handed over the keys, but she didn’t arrange the cleaning the next day as agreed and then stopped replying to calls and texts. The Booking.com photos are misleading. The apartment was smaller than shown, which wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it hadn’t been cleaned after the previous guest. The sheets hadn’t been changed, damp towels were still on chairs, muddy tracks covered the floor, the trash cans smelled and hadn’t been emptied, and the bathroom only had empty toilet paper rolls. The double bed’s headboard was falling apart, and we were afraid it might collapse if we turned over. Screws stuck out of the rollaway bed. We reported everything straight away. Two days later I saw new guests arrive and waited for the man who brought their keys. He was very helpful and made sure the problems were fixed.

For the price and the location near the centre, this place is probably fine, and the staff on site were helpful. After we asked on WhatsApp, they brought dish soap and extra towels, fixed the issues right away, and told us where we could park for free. Coffee and tea were in the kitchenette, too. We had a nice walk into town, supermarkets and restaurants nearby, and free parking. All in all, I’d recommend it. You do have to be fairly relaxed about cleanliness. There were a few hairs under the bed and two little creatures crawling around, though everything else was fine. Getting in was frustrating. Emails sometimes took days to get a response, or got no reply. The call we were asked to make 30 minutes before arrival went unanswered for 15 minutes. Once we got there, we waited another 30 minutes for someone to let us in. We had to call several times after being told “the colleague is on the corner,” but nobody showed up for 15 minutes.

Basic, but fine for a night. There’s no breakfast.