After a rainy cycle ride of 5 hours we arrived at the Old Dutch looking extremely wet and bedreaggled. Despite our appearance, we received a warm welcome. The man who checked us in also went out of his way to ensure that our bikes were safe and dry in the hotel's basement. When we reached our room we found it to be beeautifully appointed and very clean. The only things missing were tea and coffee making facilities and a hair drier.

We only stayed one night and had a lovely meal in the restaurant where the service was excellent. In the morning the breakfast was continental but with a good choice of meats, breads etc. I would definitley stay heres again. Oh and it has obviously had a revamp since the last posts as the decor (especially in our huge triple room) was clean and modern.

Old Dutch lived up to its name..really old! I stayed on the 1st floor, and when the elevator door opened, I see renovation work ongoing (looks like renovation). The walkway is a bit dark, and looks seedy. The room is big, and you can do a tango in there, but that is about the saving grace. The carpet looks worn and stained (I hope it was only coffee stains). The wood furniture looks a 100 years old, yellowed and cracked. The bed was lumpy and uncomfortable, and I didnt get a good night sleep. So much for trying to get a good rest at a vacation. The most annoying bit is the heater runs on centrally controlled thermostat. If the temperature outside doesnt get cold enough, you will be stuck without heating. If you want accomodation, there are other hotels/B&B which along the same stretch without having to put up with Old Dutch's inadequacies.

This is supposed to be a hotel, but a nearby B&B (which I stayed earlier) had a lot more to offer, and at a lower rate too.

P.S. You need to pay for Wifi at Old Dutch.

We were looking forward to this village in northern Holland as well as the "character" hotel that it was supposed to be. Well it certainly had character, just not what we expected or wanted.

First of all there is no private car-parking, there is a lucky draw on the dockside in front of the hotel, provided you arrive before 8pm when the gates are locked and you can't get in, in which case you park quite a walk away from the hotel.

Then the ground floor area is more like a big pub than a restaurant, with lots of loud people drinking, smoking etc, and the wait staff doubling as check-in staff for the hotel trying to deal with us in between taking meals and drinks out to tables.

The room was large enough but very old, and carpets were filthy with stains. Bathroom was usable but also old and the sink which had split was patched up with duct tape underneath and shower curtain was mouldy.

There was no free wi-fi (had to pay 5euros for an hour) which we expect given the cost of the rooms.

At 96 euros per night it was very expensive by European standards for what you got. We had booked for 3 nights but were so disappointed we left the next day.

We have tried to process our payment - the Expedia site got stuck on thr ''Processing Payment Page'' FOR THIRTY MINUTES!!! After which time my husband lost it and checked his online bank..only to find - THE PAYMENT HAD BEEN TAKEN!!!!!

What if my husband hadn't had the capability to check his account online - would Expedia take two payments when we started the process gain?!?!

Please be aware if this - this is abismal service - we come from financial industries and find this is absolutley terrible servce to the customer...!!!

Shocking and absolutley outragous!!! We will activly seek alternatives in future!

Thanks for ruining what would have ordinarily been an exciting and at the very least an easy experience!!!

Also when we went back online to book my mother in law her trip the pricing had changed from when we intially found the holiday we wanted 40 minitues previously!! What a stupid way to operate a site!

Becci and Andi