I was looking for smoke- and pet-free accommodation in Leiden and was grateful that the Marienpoel was able to work on my request (whole hotel is pet- and smoke-free), esp sincer Golden Tulip allows pets in guest rooms and do not keep track of which rooms have had pets, nor allocate a certain number of rooms as pet-free. A private apartment, Het Vogelhuis, listed itself as smoke- and pet-free but turned out that owners have a pet in the house, so a no-go for me. Because I booked a couple of weeks ahead of time, the Marienpoel was able to tell me that they have no staff at reception after 1:00 pm, and sent me info on lockbox and code. Luckily, I was able to talk to staff from Amsterdam by phone the week prior, and got to the hotel before reception closed on the appointed day. The manager told me that it was a lot of work to get fragrance-free towels and bedlinens -- it looked like they did not have their own laundry facilities so they must send out their laundry to a laundrymat, which would use the least expensive detergent/soap, usually scented. Staff was friendly, all female the 2 days I was there, so the much-maligned male manager mentioned in other reviews has either been let go or was off work during my stay. The hotel has not had its decor updated, but it was what I expected for the price, definitely not a 4-star establishment. It has an elevator (great when you have heavy luggage), and was close to LUMC (for my meetings) and the Central Station. Wireless internet connection was 12.50 euro/day (Golden Tulip charges 17.00 euro/day), but not an issue for me since I had internet access at LUMC. My daughter used hotel computer for internet access and was charged 6.50 euro. The only negative for me was the carpet, which appeared that it had not been vacuumed-cleaned (dust bunnies near pocket door to bathroom), nor steam-cleaned recently so that the smell of cigarette-smoke from past smoking incidents would sometimes surface. I am sure my frequent communication with hotel staff helped make my stay at the Marienpoel as pleasant as it was. I would suggest that people intending to stay at Marienpoel communicate with staff as early as possible, if at all possible, I would not suggest it for same-day booking---Marienpoel has too many limitations.

since making this reservation i have learned to read peoples reviews before making that resrvation.We arrived at 17.00 to locked doors and a mobile Tel. no attached to the door.Upon ringing this No i was informed ,presumably by the Landlord to ring another No which was unanswered.I rang the first No. again and was told by a disgruntled manager theat someone would come and let us in in 2 minutes.I waited 15 minutes before ringing again and this time the receiver was put down.
Eventually a woman did arrive and i was told that if i was not happy with the service then to find another Hotel We took her advice and left staying at the Hol;iday Inn which was good.
I always thought Faulty Towers was in Torquay.




we arrived at 1700

Arrived at 6 pm and no one was there and couldn't get in. Apparently, the staff had forgotten to tell me that there was a code that allowed me to get a key.

The person at reception was generally unpleasant and unhelpful. Two days in a row we were awakened for a breakfast we had not ordered.

A sign on the mini-bar said that we shouldn't put our own food in the refrigerator, even though our suite was advertised as having full kitchen.

Like the other reviewers, we were locked out of the hotel until after noon. Front door was locked and a sign in the window just gave a mobile phone number to call. Not having a European cell phone, we were reduced to climbing the fire escape trying to get someone's attention. We booked a suite which turned out to be a regular room with a separate room with a kitchenette and four chairs around a small table. We were told that it was against the law to cook anything on the stove. There is no AC so we had to leave the windows open and listened to cars all night long. The manager could not have been more surly if he had tried. Definitely not a four star experience - look elsewhere.