Good: Very nice staff, location, and ok breakfast
Bad - really bad: Extremely loud - could e.g. hear the snoring of my neighbor and also the alarm clocks from lots of rooms and the pillows which were very high and hard and one could feel the pieces of foam rubber inside.

Hotel New Damshire is located near Leuven's Old Market (Oude Markt), but is far enough away that you won't have to worry about loud, late-night revelers. The location is really great as a base-camp for seeing Leuven, though you'd be better served staying somewhere nearer the train station (on the east end of town) if you're using Leuven as a base-camp for seeing the rest of Belgium.

The staff, though, really set New Damshire apart from other, comparably priced hotels in Leuven. They go out of their way to help you find your way in the city, and their recommendations are the perfect mix of affordable, traveler friendly, and unique.

In addition, you're treated to a traditional Belgian breakfast of tea, coffee, rolls, croissants, jams, etc. each morning. There's also a bar on the ground level.

I don't have anything against basic, comfortable, clean hotels but this one wasn't really comfortable. The room was rather small with an extremely basic closet (not a single drawer in the whole room). The mattresses sagged and were very uncomfortable and the pillows seemed to be made out of god knows what, very lumpy and weird shaped. The room gave a general impression of cheapness.

The bathroom had only two lights and one of them had burnt, so there was only one tiny light to illuminate the bathroom. There was no hot water in the shower in the morning (maybe because my room was at the end of the hallway) I had to wait until night to get hot water in the shower. There was black mold on the ceiling of the bathroom.

The room was very cold in the morning and the lighting was awful.

The elevator did not reach all the floors.

Breakfast buffet was good but coffee was absolutely horrible and there wasn't enough staff for breakfast (or the one person working at the breakfast buffet was very inefficient) so dirty dishes and cups piled up on many empty tables.

Staff were OK, not very friendly but not rude either.

Overall I thought that it was too expensive for what was provided.

My wife and I stayed at this hotel for four nights instead of camping for the Rock Werchter music festival. We also had a friend stay with us so had a triple room with two beds pushed together for us.

The hotel is about a 15-20 minute walk from the train station which is where the festival buses left from. The walk was straight through the centre of Leuven and the hotel would be ideally placed if you wanted to spend a couple of extra days exploring - we only managed to wander around for one of the mornings.

The staff at the hotel were extremely polite and friendly. They were happy to make conversation and ask how we were enjoying the festival. They also helped out with directions for things like shops that would be open on Sunday.

The room was clean, tidy and spacious enough that the three of us easily fit in without a problem. We had the corner room on the top floor which was in the loft space with a slanted roof and the dimensions meant that there wasn't quite enough room for a shower which meant a bit of extra coordination to wash with the bath+hose but no major difficulty. It also included air-conditioning which was perfect for a couple of the days with temperatures above 35 celsius.

The continental breakfast included with the room was up to standard and the hotel included a bar (not that we used it during our stay).

Overall, I'd happily recommend this hotel to anyone looking to stay at Leuven or attending Rock Werchter.