staying in a hostel was a new experience my previous experiences suggested hostels were full of druggies, but thats only england, europe is really clean and great. while i was there, it was cheaper then camping zeeburg, 19 euro's a night, although i stayed in a dorm that could house 6 people, just 1 other person was there during my stay. which was good, and he also spoke english. I was visiting my grandparents so i didn't go out in haarlem, but the city is really nice, very old and not far on the train to amsterdam so is good.

Stayed four days/nights in this hostel (3 adults, 1 toddler). We were pleasantly surprised to see how clean the facility is, what a complete breakfast, what a delightful location, and best of all, what a friendly, hard-working STAFF! All of them spoke English well, always pleasant, always patient, and very competent. We always felt safe and well-cared-
for. We would really like to return next year; the employees really made us Americans feel at home in the Netherlands!

We stayed at the hostel for 2 nights in a 6 bed shared room. The room was clean and the beds were comfortable. The best part is that this is a very cheap place if you want to stay a short distance from Amsterdam. There is a bus stop right outside the hostel which takes you to Haarlem station in 20 mins and then a 15 min ride to Amsterdam central. After having heard all the horrible stories of Amsterdam hostels we didnt want to pay a high price and stay in a shabby place, therefore we chose stayokay and we dont regret it at all. The only negetive was that there are no restaurants close by so either you walk 15 mins or take the 20 min ride by bus to center.
Overall a good experience and one of the better hostels I have stayed in. Will go back if am on a budget.

My wife, daughter, and I just spent three nights at the StayOkay. It was...OK. We chose the StayOkay because it promised bike rentals and is located very close to a magnificent area for biking in the dunes. We weren't expecting anything fancy...and that's almost what we got. Some positives:
1) very friendly staff. They addressed (or tried to address) most of the problems we encountered. They sell bus tickets and maps. They put us in our own "family room" and plied us with complimentary drinks and lunch sacks when things didn't go as planned.
2) serviceable Dutch breakfast included (breads, cheeses, etc) No fruit or hot food but tasty and filling.
3) Clean.

Some negatives:
1) even though we made the reservations in advance, our bikes were NOT ready. There was something wrong with 2 of the 3 they had selected for us. In fact, our daughter's was not rideable. This was a BIG disapointment and we had to waste a couple hours sorting that out and going downtown to rent from a real shop.
2) Location. The hostel is about 20 minutes out of town in a surburan part of town and easy to reach by bus BUT given that we were there to use the bikes, that 20 minutes seemed like a drag.
3) Value: for three of us it cost about 100 Euros a night. For about the same cost we could have stayed in a hotel and not needed to bring our own soap and towels OR slept in bunk beds.
4) Noise: our room was right near the entrance door for the sleeping hall. So...we got to hear that door open and close a lot...which was more annoying than the sporadic conversations in the hall (a problem in ALL hotels, yes?)