The Hotel De Mallemoolen is a friendly, hospitable hotel inbetween the Centraal Station and the Red Light District (in fact, it is at the top of Warmooestraat, one of the first streets in the RLD).

As others have mentioned the staff are polite (although it's an odd kind of aloof politeness which we noticed from many other Dutch staff everywhere), there is a luggage room in the main building which you can use before or after checking in/out, there is a PC in the reception which is slow as hell but at least it works, there is a daily breakfast with some nice food and drink, and for getting to the train station or the tram terminus it's in a perfect accessible location.

We stayed in Room 10, for which one must climb three increasingly steep and narrow flights of stairs (it's almost as though you're climbing into your loft/attic). A bit annoying but as long as you spend most of the day out you don't take too much notice, although in an inebriated state I'd advise caution. Our room was clean, had a small TV and sink with mirror, and a couple of bedside tables and a single chair. The room can smell of cannabis when you arrive but it's easy to latch the window open whilst you're out to keep it fresh (of course, then you have a problem of fresh cannabis smoke coming in from the many coffeeshops and residences neighbouring your room!).

My girlfriend and I both suffered back pain for the first two days since the mattresses are incredibly soft, and difficult to get on/off of. The room is also quite cramped, as it is at the top of the building (although I think rooms on floors below ours might have been just as cramped for having more beds in them). Yay for being able to watch the BBC and on the Dutch channel Veronica, American sitcoms like Two and a Half Men or The Simpsons. You get a sink but you have to share the Hotel's shower rooms and toilets, which are almost never occupied when you need them but feel kinda small. Whilst we were there the shower drain begin to clog up more and more until our last night when we just gave up on having a shower at all. Our failure not to mention this to the staff, who probably could have unclogged it during housekeeping hours.

The location of the hotel is a huge advantage for sightseeing and entertainment, but it can be annoying as you're in the centre of the nightlife, which can be noisy even when the window is shut. We arrived in the second week-long heatwave so far this summer, so sleeping with the window shut was impossible, but even with the window open the room was too hot to move! We weren't exactly getting to bed early, but even at 7 a.m. I'd wake up to shouting matches between god-knows-who down in the street on two days, I'm actually looking forward to my first decent night of kip now that I'm back home!

Overall, some people may be fine with all the hotel's setbacks, but for the price (€72 per room per night ((€36 per person))) I feel we should have at least had more space, or a quieter location, or an ensuite toilet and bathroom, or airconditioning, or any combination thereof. I would recommend group travellers to stick to a well-rated hostel (if there's enough of you, book a dormitory room just for yourselves) and couples like us would be better advised to find someplace outside the Red Light District. I wish I'd known about TripAdvisor before I booked the place, not to imply that Mallemoolen is bad, only that I would have wanted more amenities for the price.

p.s. you get bath towels (only one other review mentioned this).