The room was very nice, vibrant colors, bed was awesome, all very clean. But the big mistake they made with the renovation were the doors. They slam with a very big bang, so when anyone else on the floor enters the room, it all shakes. And then they are not isolated, you can understand discussions happening outside the room. And then, for the breakfast, dinner, lunch: only christmas music. But of the worst kind. There is no place in the region to escape this in the morning, so you have to deal with the christmas music. And for 17 euro's, it's not even worth actually what you get after your ears are in pain with ”jolly happy christmas” three times during breakfast.
After stay at the Copenhagen CityHub I thought why not give this Rotterdam one a go as my experience before was great. Well firstly my god it was noisy, I had requested a quiet pod in the hotel as I'm a very light sleeper (even with earplugs in and pillow overhead lol) . So I was placed near the toilets/showers.... Ding ding ding alarms should have been going off then as the amount of banging those toilets/showers doors and the thumping of the people who sounded like they was thumping past all the pods (request a top pod in future). With ear plugs I was woken up early by other pod users who didn't have a care about anybody else who would have even been asleep as long as the could have a chat in the hall ways as loud as possible. So if you are going out and getting drunk this hotel is perfect for you but if you are on a sightseeing trip and wanting a early night we'll best of luck with that. None of my USB chargers were working in my pod but luckily I had brought a plug with more than 1 socket on it for charging. You get what you pay here and for a single person it's the cheapest option in the city. Lockers are huge and fitted my large suitcase in very easily. Staff very helpful as usual especially the American guy. Would I stay again, I'm afraid I wouldn't at this one as far too noisy for me. Maybe big groups shouldn't be all put on same floor and then they can meet in area downstairs and chat as loud as possible as they want at any time that suits them.
Looks great and rooms and public areas are nicely decorated. However the walls of the rooms are very thin, when your neighbor closes the door you sit straight in your bed. Staff is nice but some essential services are missing: no gym of fitness room (‘will be coming??”), no room service from the restaurant. Restaurant very overpriced for meals that vary in quality. Definitely more variety and better price quality balance is needed. The hotel is on a highway so ask for rooms on the other side otherwise it can be noisy. All in all mixed experience. Van der Valk could improve on several aspects.
Stayed here for one evening and enjoyed the comfort of the bed and the excellent front-desk service. The location seemed isolated from town. While it had AC, I couldn’t get the room to feel cool as the thermostat only allows for changes of +/- 3 degrees from whatever central temp they have programmed. While I wasn’t a fan of the service in the restaurant, I was happy in the hotel and bar.