Room Mate Hostel — Hotel in Zaanstad

Our stay at the hostel was the worst experience I can remember. We were a group of seven and had reserved a whole 8-bed room (an extra bed) to have some privacy, all arranged in advance via email with the hostel staff. However, when we arrived, they had split us into two separate rooms, with half of our group placed in a 14-bed dorm. It was a complete mess and utterly disorganized.

When we tried to resolve the situation, they simply said, "If you like, we can offer you a refund, so you may try to find another place to stay." No professionalism at all and a complete lack of willingness to help. Given that it was a weekend after a bank holiday, the city was packed with tourists so finding another place at that moment was impossible. Even worse, the hostel tried to fix the situation by forcibly removing the guests from the room we had reserved. An error in the system, that was one of the excuses. I wonder what system.

Two members of our group were so uncomfortable and scared with the hostel that we had to find another place for them to spend the night. You can imagine the cost of that. As an "act of kindness" from them, we managed to get a refund for 3 beds for one of the nights (two for two people plus the extra bed we had paid to have the whole room). But the tiny refund was only possible after nearly an hour trying to explain to them the basics of what we had previously agreed. The issue was horribly dealt by the manager.

As some other reviewers described well, the photos are quite misleading. Everything looks beautiful and in place in the pictures. Nevertheless, the reality is quite different. The rooms are extremely cramped and lack light and ventilation. There is no proper space to store your luggage, aside from a small safe for documents (and it’s worth mentioning that two of those small safes were broken). So you will never feel safe there. Also, the front door is always unlocked so anyone can come in. In short, a nightmare.

When I see some of the positive reviews, I can't help but wonder if these are just "ghost guests" posting false reviews in a desperate attempt to boost the hostel's rating. Please, don’t believe in most of the positive reviews you see and do yourself a favor, find a nice place to stay. We do not recommend this hostel to anyone. Worst...

Please DO NOT believe any of the replies from the owner. The owner has the audacity to lie and deceive in the comments. The good reviews seems to be fake. The hostel has 2 floors. On the first floor, there is 1 bathroom and 2 rooms with 8 beds in each. And the second floor, there is a room for 16 persons and 1 bathroom. We had booked the room for 8 persons but instead, we were asked to sleep in the room for 16. All of the 8 other beds were occupied and they said that they had also been deceived to be in the same situation as us. In addition, one bed was less so one of us had to sleep on the floor on a mattress. The room was pathetic. The biggest mess was that there was just 1 bathroom per 16 people. Terrible! Worst hostel I've ever stayed in.

EDIT: In continuation to my comment where the Owner (as per the google commenter name) has shameless tried to deceive again, they are only trying to justify the unhygienic condition in the hostel. And it still doesn't justify the fact that we were asked to stay in the room for 16 (maybe 14) persons when we had booked one room for 8. And sadly one of us had to sleep on a mattress on the floor (see pic in the comment). Just because it's a hostel doesn't mean that 14-15 persons have to use the same 1 bathroom. To the owner, DON'T YOU DARE try to failingly justify yourself again and instead spend the time mending your ways and living conditions in your most pathetic hostel. As a traveller, i would save as many fellow travellers as I can from falling...

I was staying there already some days?but cause of some changes I had to stay longer..I did the reservation online so I got there around 11 at night,and the show begins,the almost anorexic lady that's the receptionist probably was mad with something else and started to scream almost at me with no reason..she said I don't respect the rules and all that cause I fell a sleep and I left 13:40 from there the same day on the midday,but she insisted and still scream and talk with no respect at all that I left 15:30..and when she show the cameras that I left before 14:00 as I was tell her she didn't even say one sorry but kept talking with no respect amd she was behaving like she know me from before...I would like to ask the owner if his happy with her work cause this lizard 🦎 have some really serious issues with behaving...stay away from there the stuff and especially this anorexic female are unstable..she doesn't know to talk behave or treat the costumers with respect..plus after some days that I slept my body is full of...