Hotel Review: The Student Hotel, Rotterdam

I'll be honest, before we checked in, I struggled with the concept behind The Student Hotel.

So, is it a hotel for students? Or is it student accommodation with a fancy name? But I'm not a student, will I be allowed to stay there? Is it like a hostel then if it's for students, because most students can't afford hotels, right? And will there be abandoned shopping trolleys and stolen traffic cones in the bedrooms, if it is truly student accommodation...

Review of The Student Hotel, Rotterdam

In short, The Student Hotel in Rotterdam is all of these things - apart from the shopping trolley and traffic cones. There were none of  those anywhere. In fact, The Student Hotel - a place for students to stay during term time and a hotel for guests (of all ages and academic backgrounds) to find affordable, comfortable and stylish accommodation - is one of the best designed hotels I've stayed in. Strong but simple design with statement pieces a plenty and vintage inspired furniture (if not the real deal), the nature of The Student Hotel is that there is a vast space dedicated to communal living - plenty of comfortable desks and a number of corners to lounge in. But for us, the highlight was the table tennis table. We're big ping-pong fans and when we arrived too early to check into our room, this was exactly where we killed time. (Ignoring the gym and multiple cool spots to work in, obviously.) The rooms were basic but comfortable and surprisingly spacious.I loved having long soaks in the bath and NewMan enjoyed having a proper desk to work at. There was also a kitchenette area we could have used, had we not been tempted downstairs to the "Berlin canteen style" cafe which adjoins The Student Hotel. The Kitchen has a weekly menu of three dishes and serves continental style breakfast, all for a handful of Euros each. The lattes made at The Kitchen almost single handedly fuelled me through three days of the North Sea Jazz Festival and despite being very busy at times (because of NSJ) the staff always had a smile ready. In actual fact, The Kitchen was one of the free "Round Town" venues for live music as part of the North Sea Jazz festival and I'd like to think that they'll continue to use the space for late night live music. Located east of central Rotterdam, there are tram and bus links within stumbling distance from The Student Hotel, but one of the best bits about staying here for us was their complimentary use of their downright sexy silver bikes. We used them to cycle all over town and then some. On bike you're just over ten minutes away from Centraal Station and about five minutes from the River Maas where you can stop and gawk at super size freight tankers sail along, just like we did... While our stay was complimentary thanks to The Student Hotel and Rotterdam Marketing, I'll certainly consider The Student Hotel again for our next visit to Rotterdam, and not just for the ping-pong, lattes or possible live music on offer. But because it's a very affordable, very stylish, very cool place to stay. You can find more information here (and take note that they've also got locations in several other European cities including Amsterdam, Amsterdam West, Den Haag, and Paris.