De Lola Podshotel

Midden in het centrum van Den Haag. Ideaal voor een feestjes als je niet in de buurt woont. Je kunt er pizza kopen voor niet veel geld. Wel echt een hostel kwaliteit niks hoogstandjes. Het ontbijt was nog wel redelijk. Een koffie en croissant voor 5 euro. Ideaal voor als je geen zin hebt om nog een cafeetje daarvoor te zoeken. De bedden zijn ook best verspreid iets van 12/16 bedden per kamer. Maar niet alle 100 of hoeveel het er ook zijn in een ruimte. Het bed was best ruim voor een podhostel.

Meer mensen hadden dat idee. Sommige waren ook een beetje luidruchtig. Dat was denk ik 1 a 2 uur in de nacht. Daarna werden ze gewaarschuwd. Het stilte systeem na 10 uur werkt maar niet perfect. Zeker niet op een zaterdagavond. De wc en douches alle op een plek. Kan dat niet meer verdeeld worden. Dan is er ook minder lawaai. Met een code de deur open. Gelukkig zat er iemand die de deur kon open. Een bel buiten is er niet. De lamp bij het bed had niet meerdere kleuren zoals bij andere podhostels.

Precies wat je verwacht met mensen die zich houden aan de huisregels

De lockers staan in de slaapruimte, moet niet handig zijn om daar naast te slapen.

Sleeping in a pod was actually a nice experience. The sheets were clean, there were places to change our phones and put small things. The location was great.

The ladder was super uncomfortable to climb and it was a bit cold in the room.

The location was amazing. You were within easy walking distance to just about everything and if you weren't, you were within very easy walking distance to trams to get you around. The staff were friendly. The main floor of the hotel was also excellent - lots of common area space to do work or chill out without having to be in your pod and they offered limited breakfast and fast food options (pizzas and the like), which was great if you weren't in the mood to go out. As well, the pods themselves were quite comfortable

Complaining about De Lola Podshotel seems strange - it has a lot going for it - but it really didn't live up to my expectations, given my previous experience with a pod hotel. They're a bit like a hotel version of RyanAir with all their add-ons. The storage lockers for bigger luggage, which you had to pay for, were on the main floor, which was pretty inconvenient if you needed that luggage daily. They also didn't have any pegs in the pods where you could hang your towel to dry. I think they assumed most people would pay to use a fresh towel everyday, which adds up quite a bit (2.50 Euros per towel) if you're staying more than one night. As well, their bathroom set-up is the worst I've come across, and I'm not shy about sharing bathrooms. Out of everywhere I've visited in the Netherlands, this is the only place I've come across where they didn't have fully enclosed bathrooms or showers (they used North American style public bathroom cubicles), which felt incredibly unsafe when you were showering and super awkward when people were using the toilets. The showers would only run for maybe 2 to 3 minutes at a time and the temperature never got above lukewarm. There was also no door on the bathroom itself, so if you had a pod in the bathroom side, you got to hear every little thing at twice the volume. Lastly, I had requested a lower pod and received confirmation that I had been assigned one, but the evening that I arrived, I was notified I'd have to spend the night in an upper. They figured I'd survive even though there were reasons, which I had laid out for them in my original request, that I would not. I ended up having to pull an all-nighter in one of the common spaces and couldn't get into a lower pod till the afternoon the following day, which meant I lost a day to explore the city. No compensation was offered apart from a free tea.