Hans Brinker Hostel Amsterdam

Room was way too hot. Was at least 10 degrees hotter than actual temp. Also got bed bugs while staying here for 1 night.

Definitely the worst hostel I’ve ever stayed into. The hostel on itself has serious problems to solve and I personally had an awful experience involving bed bugs/mites. Let’s begin with the space itself. They call themselves a hotel yet it lacks the commodities a hotel should offer and operate as a (eg they charge for towels), but it doesn’t have the amenities of hostel life either, no social events, no social life, no common spaces to hang out, they do have a bar but you cannot eat food there unless u order and pay at the bar, they also don't have a fridge for you to use. Another point that I did not like is that they have a space to leave your bags like most hostels do but this one is not secure at all, they made you wear a wristband to prove that you are from the hostel but they only check it late at night, never for the luggage storage and you can come in and out as you please or take the bags of anyone if you so please. Also as they don't allow early check in or late check out there were people “showering” on the sink on the common bathroom and changing there. Regarding the bedrooms they seem okay at first glance but they are not sturdy at all and move a lot having slept on the top and lower bunks both are uncomfortable as they move tremendously causing a lot of noise and honestly being on the lower bunk was a bit scary. The beds also do not have curtains so 0 privacy at all. The bedroom is also poorly ventilated as they have this poles as a security measure leaving only 5cm open so definitely awful during this heat wave, they do have a fan but it does little to nothing. The shower also has poor water pressure and the faucet despite using medium water turns incredibly hot I touched it by accident and burned the hell out of myself. Now with my nightmare experience, after check in took a shower and took a nap. I woke up and had a stroll through the city. I felt itchy at night thought maybe mosquito bites but found it weird as I was wearing trousers.

This was by far the worst hostel experience I have ever had. Do not book here unless you want to take away bed bugs, sleep in a dirty bed, or have a horrible experience with the staff. The bed sheets had not been changed prior to arrival. Just gross.

Bed Bugs, cannot recommend !

Wish I could use the hot water during my stays to make my own hot drinks.

I got bed bugs from these guys. Stay alert brothers

Utrolig dårlig oplevelse under studietur Vi boede på Hans Brinker Hostel under en studietur, i april 2025 og oplevelsen var desværre meget dårlig. Der var en rotte på vores værelse, og personalet nægtede først at give os et nyt værelse – vi stod i receptionen i næsten en time uden hjælp. Da vi stod der, så vi, at der stod rottefælder bag drikkevaremaskinerne, hvilket var meget ulækkert. Personalet nægtede at ringe til deres chef for at høre, om vi kunne få et andet værelse, og servicen var generelt uvenlig og uprofessionel. En af os fik desuden bedbugs under opholdet. Vi endte med at skulle skifte værelse hver dag, og vi fik ingen kompensation eller penge tilbage trods den dårlige oplevelse. Meget skuffende ophold, som vi absolut ikke kan anbefale.

The location is good, basically u can visit all the main hit spot in Amsterdam city centre by walk, no need to pay for extra transportation fee for Amsterdam. Girl room are clean, but other rooms are so noisy which is a bit bothering. The staff is good who will repeat patiently if u don’t understand The hygiene is ok, no bed bug luckily A bit cold in autumn but acceptable

we have bed bug bite all over bodys

There was no lift, the bed is uneven and has indentations and bed bugs. The shower tap is broken.

The beds had bed bugs.

The room was exactly like in the pictures. There is one towel (no towel for the feet). The noise from the hallway and from people from other rooms is HORRIBLE and didn't stop the whole night. You can't sleep like that. I felt some bites while I was in bed, and woke up with estrange marks in my neck. Not mosquitos, maybe bed bugs according to doctors. I won't be coming back.

Hello I'm making a complaints on my stay I had no sleep I have Nat bites all up my arms the beds were rock hard and you had a couple have sex most of the time it was disgusting. or bed bugs I will not be rating my stay. Infact I would.like to be refunded the £122 be4 I take this any further

Bedbugs in the bed! No kitchen or common area

The room was dirty and too small for 4 people (the 2 windows, 1 in the toilet and the other in the bedroom couldn't be opened), sheets and blankets were soiled and we got biten by bed bugs! Horrible stay, I would not recommend it

"It’s a fairly bold move to call yourself the worst hotel in the world. After all, there’s no shortage of dodgy places out there vying for the title. Hotels with bedbugs and blocked plumbing, dirty linen and broken furniture. Hotels where there is mould in the bathroom and cigarette burns on the sheets, bad electrical wiring and broken locks on the doors. Hotels where the surly, sleazy staff believe the customer is always wrong. And yet along comes Amsterdam’s Hans Brinker Hotel, proudly proclaiming to be the worst hotel in the world. Featuring marketing gems such as ‘Hans Brinker Budget Hotel: it can’t get any worse… but we’ll do our best’ and ’Now a door with every room!’ the decades-long campaign has been a huge viral success. Most importantly it has ensured a consistently high occupancy rate: after all, which 20-something doesn’t want to brag on social media about surviving the world’s worst hotel? But amongst all the well-crafted hype, one question remained: is the Hans Brinker Hotel really all that bad? One Friday night I booked a twin room for 79 euros and decided to find out. On paper, I’ll admit the hotel had the potential to be horrid: with 550 beds, it was bound to pack people in like sardines. With such an obnoxious marketing campaign, it had to have indifferent staff. And with its basement nightclub open until 4 am, it promised little sleep. Curiously though, Hans Brinker Hotel is located in a more renovated part of Amsterdam known for its fine art and antique stores. The hotel is on a mainly residential street with an Italian deli, a few galleries, tattoo parlours and bike shops. Entering the hotel, I discover first impressions last at Hans Brinker, mainly because the lobby’s special stench of stale beer and old cigarette smoke will seep into your clothes and hair, lingering for days. The lobby is cluttered with peeling posters, beer vending machines and people: one group with luggage waiting to be checked in by the sole receptionist, another made up of guests waiting to be buzzed out of the secure building. Eventually, I’m checked in en masse with five others. The receptionist tells us to all pay attention at once so she doesn’t have to repeat herself (not exactly customer-focused, but time-efficient). After paying 10 euros for a key deposit, I head to my room on the 4th floor. Inside, there are two single beds, two lockers, a chair, and a rubbish bin in the room. Surprisingly, there’s a small hand towel on the end of the bed and a full roll of toilet paper in the toilet. There’s even some very bad, framed art on the walls and the walls look freshly painted. There are working lights, smoke detectors and the window even opens to allow fresh air in. There’s even a view of a church and a courtyard filled with blooming tulips. When I see the tulips, I start to get suspicious. Last time I checked, the world’s worst hotel didn’t offer a garden view. Could this hotel really be that bad? I decide the answer to this lies in the bar. Over a hundred hotel guests sit in groups around picnic tables eating from a menu featuring a selection of backpacker fare: burgers and spaghetti bolognese. I feel like I’m in a school cafeteria, mainly because everyone is very young. People file in and out, quite a few of them carrying, predictably, souvenir bags from tourist attractions. A few take selfies with the hotel’s worst hotel posters, giving the thumbs-up sign. For a Friday night, it’s fairly tame stuff, even if it is early. But I have to admit it’s the sort of environment I would have relished if I were backpacking for the first time. When we check out the next morning, there’s a free breakfast happening downstairs and the room is packed with hungry, hung-over but mostly happy guests. Collecting our key deposit back with a minimum of fuss, we leave the hotel disappointed and underwhelmed. We really had expected a lot worse from the worst hotel in the world." IGCSE English language B, text 2

The bed was full of bed bugs. I woke up full of red spots on my body.

Hôtel bien situé presque au centre d'Amsterdam. Chambre correcte. Problème de taille, la présence d'une punaise de lit... il aura fallu 1h15 pour avoir une nouvelle chambre !!

- Si bien a la vista se ve todo limpio, había hallazgos de presencia de Chinches

Es gab Mäuse, Bettwanzen und es ist nicht möglich Fenster richtig zu öffnen. Zimmer werden gelegentlich doppelt vergeben.

STAY AWAY BEDBUGS ALERT!!!! We knew it was a budget hostel but the place is sooooo infested with BEDBUGS it’s disgusting and top of that the breakfast is terrible and the windows can open more then 2cm and being 6 people in a room that’s not very fun. Terrible truly a terrible hostel

Reudig!! Verschmutztes kleines Bad voll mit Schimmel, so schlimm dass die wand zwischen den fliesen nur grün bis hin zu schwarz war! Allgemein wird die Sauberkeit nicht ernst genommen, es kamen auch Bettwanzen in andern Zimmern vor, sowie Blutflecken auf den Bettlaken! Das Personal ist im Gegensatz zu andern Bewertungen meiner Meinung nach wirklich nicht professionell, sondern eher abgehoben und man wird mit aggressiven Ton angesprochen. Es ist also egal wie billig die Unterkunft sein soll, sie ist nicht zu empfehlen und ich rate allen eine etwas teurere oder auch gleichteure Alternative zu suchen und nicht dieses Hotel zu buchen, ich kann ihnen versichern dass sie in diesem Hotel nicht befriedigt sein werden!

Waren hier auf Studienfahrt. Wir hatten Bettwanzen in den Zimmern, muss ich mehr sagen? Die restliche Qualität ist nämlich komplett egal, in anbetracht der Tatsache, dass es in den Zimmern Bettwanzen gab. Ich kann das Hans Brinker Hosten definitiv niemandem empfehlen.

Ni una estrella, las habitaciones están inundadas de bichos que pican (chinches) ,sin televisión, ventilador, jabón de baño... etc etc. Pésimo.

You get what you pay for. If its just a base you need whilst you go out exploring its perfect. Plenty of cheap places to eat close by, plenty to see close by, 2 or 3 places to rent bikes opposite the hostel and free breakfast. If you don't mind the staff not being interested in good service or bed bugs then go for it. I don't think they pretend to have top service but the bed bugs would put me off staying again...although I have to say that ironically I did find the beds very comfortable.

One word explains all - bedbug. I understand this is a hostel, so I can accept all noises and a little bit not as clean, but beds without bedbug is my bottom line. I got bitten and my leg swell to a point that I can hardly walk, as I am really allergic to their bites... Though the staff is good, breakfast is good, I can only give it 1 star. If I had read the reviews on bedbugs before, I would definitely not book this one.

THEIR BEDS ARE INFESTED OF BED BUGS. I stayed there this weekend and i am full of bites it is absolutely gross. DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!

Très mauvaises expériences.... Il y'a énormément de bruits... et notre chambre est infectée de punaises de lit !!!!!! Je recommande pas! À fuir !

Worst hostel I’ve ever stayed at. Been travelling for two months and haven’t gotten bed bugs until now. Staff handled it very poorly and unprofessionally. Not happy and never coming back.

Bettwanzen in der gesamten Etage - nicht empfehlenswert!!!

Oh boy where to start. Had an absolutely miserable stay. Firstly no where was it mentioned that you have to wait until 1pm to check in. This resulted in our group wasting a morning waiting to check in. When we got to our room (a six person room on the top floor) we found that they were very basic, there weren't even ladders to get to the top bunks. Nothing really wrong here, you get what you pay for. Then sat on the beds and found that there was a bed bug infestation going on in the room. Bed bugs where coming out of every nook and cranny of the room. One of our group slept in the room and woke up 2hrs later covered in bed bugs. We killed about 200 of the creatures before we went to get our room exchanged. The staff at the reception desk split the group up and we changed rooms splitting the group up and telling us that they would again change our room the day after (to do this we had to check out and re check in again resulting in us wasting another morning) The staff also told us that they knew that the room was infected, according to them it was treated. I find this hard to believe, the amount of bugs would suggest that the staff simple ignored the problem and rented the room out again. The worse part of it all is the fact that our luggage spent some four hours in the room with the very real possibility that we brought bugs with us home from vacation.

Bedbugs

Our room was infested with bed bugs as were at least 2 other rooms on floor 4 Hostel moved us into a new room but were not particularly helpful

You pay for what you get... But 4 out or our 10 guests did have some bed bugs bites here.... Even when they've only slept here for like 3 hours! Besides this, the location is perfect!

Gut waren -die sehr zentrale Lage -das gute Frühstück -das kostenlose und sehr schnelle WLAN Sehr schlecht waren -die vielen Bettwanzen -die unerträgliche Temperatur in den Zimmern -dass man das Fenster höchstens 5cm kippen kann

I've tried posting this on Tripadvisor 3 times, but I feel like they won't let it get published because it's negative. First of all - I had bed bugs staying here. At first I thought it was just me since I stayed by the window but it wasn't. I had suspected bed bugs but it didn't seem like anyone else was getting bitten. After I checked out, I messaged the people in my room again (we stayed in touch) and they said, yep... they were bit too. Bed bugs. I did some digging on TripAdvisor, messaged a few people who had posted a review about bed bugs, and one guy was on the same floor as me (his review was recent at the time) but in a different room. I left Hans Brinker and emailed about the bed bugs but at that point, what could they really have done? Asides from the bed bugs, it wasn't a bad stay. The location wasn't bad, free breakfast, the wifi reached my room (it's only available downstairs, I believe). The reception people are nice, me and my friend spent a while chatting with the guy at the desk one night and he told us stories and we went through the Hans Brinker book. We also got to get the temporary tattoo with a map that shows you where the Hans Brinker is located. All in all, it really wasn't the worst - except for the damn bed bugs. I can't make any conclusions but I'd say for the most part, yeah it was a little dingy, and yeah it was slightly reminiscent of a prison at times, plus there wasn't a ladder to get up to the top bunk... Anyways, my point is, if they got rid of their bed bug problem (I stayed there June 2016) they actually might be a decent stay. But they might not have and I'd suggest staying somewhere else. Because I'm pretty sure Trip Advisor is trying to block the negative reviews.

Terrible!!! Do not stay here! Bed Bugs and horrible admin staff. Should be shut down as soon as possible, rather sleep on a bench

EKELHAFT!!! Ungeziefer im Bett!! Insects in the bed! Very disgusting. Wir waren im Juli für eine Nacht in dem Hotel. Zum Glück war es nur eine Nacht, da in den Betten (Matrazen, Kopfkissen, etc.) einiges an Ungeziefer war. Bettwanzen, Flöhe etc. Ständig wurde man wach, weil es am ganzen Körper juckte und am anderen morgen haben wir dann festgestellt, dass wir komplett mit roten kleinen Bissen/Stichen übersäht waren. Auch auf dem weißen Lacken, konnte man kleine Insekten erkennen. Absolut EKELHAFT. Ein Besuch beim Hautarzt hat es ebenfalls bestätigt.

Worst hostel experience ever. Bed bugs throughout several rooms and got bites all over my body and the sink unit wasn't draining - something that would have been very obvious to the cleaner and was clearly just ignored. It took them 24hours to fix. Accommodations were also very cramped, and food wasn't great.