I'd already booked my stay at Hotel Manofa & just 2 days before i'd planned to leave (with not enough time to cancel), i thought i'd check out the reviews for it & i found travel advisor...

After reading what everyone had put, i was completely dreading coming to stay, what with me & another friend seeing reports of bed bugs, doors not working, shady people coming in & out,rats, passports stolen etc

I'd booked a long weekend (13th-16th Jan) for my birthday weekend with me & 6 friends, we stayed in rooms 211 & 217 (2 x quad rooms)which were fine apart from a strange locked room in the bathroom, that i'm sure i heard someone in, which could have access to the bedroom....?

We made sure as soon as we arrived that we checked out our rooms from top to bottom, as there was NO WAY i was going to get lumbered with a room after i'd paid, but they/we were quite happy to agree after seeing that we'd got rooms looking quite-like the ones in the photos, although i've read they keep those empty!

I'd of prefered to of kept are keycards on us, but maybe they've had problems with people loosing them in the past?

My friends must have thought i was completely mad/nutty the amount of searching i did in my room, but there was no way i was going to end up with bites like in those photos from earlier in the reviews

I searched high & low (using my camera phone light)
but couldnt find any alive bed bugs (although u could clearly see where they had been, & a dead one as on our celling, which was worrying as it was!

People were walking in & out of the hotel, like it was a public toliet, no one ever asked if we were staying there, but i told my friends not to take any chances, we took out passports out everywhere we went, also made sure all our bags had locks/padlocks on.

We didn't feel safe in the hotel, which was are main concern of the weekend, we shouldn't have to worry!

The hotel is in such a great location & lucky for us, we had an amazing weekend, we paid £17 a night each so overall we couldn't complain.

The stairs really weren't as bad as people make out, even with me having the biggest case, guess being on the 2nd floor had it's advantages.

The allyway however, was very nosey, it sounded like people fighting & things being dragged along (huge bins?) one after another, at about 5AM in morning!

None of my friends made it up on time for breakfast, so i can't comment on that, from sound of other reviews, it's worth missing anyhow, & u can get a full english from one of the restaurants just outside.

For a group of friends, i'd say the Manofa is fine, its cheap, it's in great location (for RLD, Dam square etc) & we didn't have problems!

Just dont't bring expensive items with you to the hotel, ur only worry about their safety, check out the rooms BEFORE you pay, so u know what your getting first, take ur passports along with you out & pull ur bed off the wall, or sleep with clothes on, like me
(just incase those little buggers were in our room!)

I've included some photos, give people a better idea of what to expect :)

The hotel Manofa was unfortunately the only available room in Amsterdam for New Year 2006 (after leaving it a bit late). 4 of us shared a room, should perhaps call it a dormitory on the top floor. On arrival we were asked to check the room, we had 15 minutes to decide if it was ok then make a full payment. OK? It was dirty, 3 of the 4 lights didn't work, both shared showers in the corridor were broken, but hey, it was the only available room in Amsterdam so I had to lie through my teeth snd pay 545 euros for three nights. 20 euros a night would have been too much!

Got through 2 nights and had intended on going home on the 3rd as we had to book 3 nights minimum. We went to collect out bags from the room at 5.30pm as we had a ferry to catch. The key card wouldn't open the door, we had to go down 3 flights to reception to have the card remagnatised and each time it didn't work. Half an hour later reception decided to actually come up and try themselves, to no avail, after some fancy computer box that the manager came up with an hour later we were told that we couldn't get in until the following morning!! They gave us another dormitory (6 beds in this one) and we didn't have any clean clothes/wash stuff etc.

Shame having to stay another night in Amsterdam I know but in the morning when we explained we had to pay for another ferry and an extra days parking and that we weren't happy they told us it wasn't their fault as it wasn't their doors!!! Hmmmmm, it was their hotel though surely.

Anyway, its supposed to be a 2 star hotel. I've been in better hostels. The staff were unfriendly, the cleaner was noisy+++ and seemed determined that we would be vacating our rooms each day and letting himself into the room to ask us! The beds were awful, the curtain was hanging off, the decor looked like it had last seen a lick of paint in the 70's and as I said, both showers were broken. The toilets were clean though.

Need I say more!!!!

Me and my mother stayed at Manofa Hotel from 7th till 9th August in the room number 114.
The first night I already felt that billions of something I couldn’t define at that time was jumping all over my entire body which didn’t let me sleep almost the whole night.
I reported it to a staff member next day in the evening of which he took a notice. We supposed that I could have an allergic reaction on the strong chemical cleaned bed sheets and duvet cover.
During the whole stay I had the same feeling that there must be something on my body which had let me scratch all the time. We also found bed bugs in our beds of which I took some pictures to make sure these were really bed bugs and not other insects.
We left the hotel and the same day my mother found her arms entirely bitten and became inflamed. The next day the same thing happened to me.
The doctor stated bites of fleas on Monday 15th and emphasized that he has never seen such a thing before.
He referred us to a vet where we had to buy some chemicals to kill all the fleas which had spread in both of our flats. We paid more then 160 euro only for the chemicals (I had to disinfect my flat twice)!!! In addition to that we were not allowed to go to work because of the infection danger which reduces our salaries.
These were the most expensive short-holidays we ever had.
After that we emailed to Hotel Manofa several times and they promised us to transfer the money back. They are still promising until today.

i stayed at hotel for 5 nights, i changed rooms after the first 2 nights on 3rd fllor in room with 3 tiny single beds, and i was only needing one. rooms tiny, i put my cell phone which does not work in europe zipped into my suitcase with the charger, then put onto top shelf of room wardobe closet, closed the doors, and opushed one of the single beds up to the closet........i then left as usual and according to there policy turned in my room card key at front desk, ( seems i was the only one that did that, many optheres walked right past the desk and went to there rooms with not turning in there keys,when asked at the reception,they told me they know those people.
the 3rd night they moved me to a much nicer room with double bed and large windoews on front, the heat did not work, but it was fixed the folwing day, that is when i opened my suitcase to take a picture of room with my cell phone, it was gone! along with the charger,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i contacted the front desk, they summoned the staff, of course no one saw it!
no one else was in my room excpet whom ever the hotel let in or the crew that cleans it........it did not disaper, the room had a safe, but it was smashed from a previous date.i have traveled from thailand to egypt and europe 20 times, i never have lost or had anything stolen from my room, much less from the inside of my suitcase. it was planed, and done very profesianly, i was told to get a police report, which i did.....after that i slept with my wallet under the pillow with one eye open.
breakfast is from 8 -10, who is up at that time in amsterdam? if you miss it oh well.....
i aksed for a wake up call the last day and of course they marked it down and then forgot to call my room,,,,,,,,mabey some time they gave my room key to someone too?
anyway,i also talked to my visa chage comonay and they have 2 charges from the hotel, i should only have one for the 5 nighst i slept there, i asked the hoteel and they told me when the regular charge goes thru the first one a deposit will be retuned, which it has not been.
so would i stay there again? never.........the location is good,,,,,,,but who wants to sleep in a ahotel where you cant trust your locked luggage in your own room with the hotel?