Ok, I will try to keep this as descriptive and factual as possible so that you can make your own mind up.
Firstly, this place is absolutely tiny. The photos are deceptive and make it look far larger than it really is. It’s tiny. You can barely swing a cat. You are on a massive Dutch barge but you don’t have access to 90% of it. You only have access to a tiny part of it. It is a small square room. In one cupboard is the bed. In another is the bath. The ‘cooking area’ is by the door where you come in.
It is very cold and damp. There is a heater. It would heat the room up quite well but you are warned to leave the door open to let the fumes out! So essentially not only doesn't it heat the space that well, you are also wasting fuel heating the outside. Absurdly inefficient.
The space is very dark and dingy. It has 3 lights, each gives off approximately the light of a candle. It is too dark and dim to read by even with the 3 lights on. Oddly, the bathroom has a dazzlingly bright light right in front of you and right at eye level. A bright white bare naked bulb with no shading. Great for burning your eyes out. You will see nothing when you stumble back into the ‘living’ room. (I say living room, obviously I mean the one and only room).
Do make sure that you are staying with someone you are truly comfortable with because you will be taking a dump in full view of everyone and anyone sat in the living room. Yep. They will have a great view of you sat on the throne doing your thing. Nice.
Then there is the question of how to feed yourself. There isn’t a kitchen as such, just some items in the cabin where you come in. This is what we found:
No washing up liquid provided; we had to buy our own. Not serious but didn’t really want to buy a whole bottle just for a few days of something that really should be provided.
There is only 1 cup in the whole place. Literally just one cup.
There is a coffee machine but the one cup doesn’t actually fit underneath so you have to kind of hold it and tip it under the nozzle where the coffee comes out to catch your coffee.
There are 3 chopping boards but not a single knife to cut anything with. If I hadn’t have had my Opinel knife we literally wouldn’t have been able to prepare any food. Just ridiculous.
No kitchen utensils other than knife, fork and spoon. Nothing else. Nothing to stir, turn or serve any food you cook.
There is a nice big tea pot. But there is no kettle to boil water with. There is a steel pan with steel handles one can boil water in. Then one has to pick this up, hoping the handles aren’t burning hot, and carefully try to pitch this open pan of boiling water into a tea pot or cafetière. It’s not just ridiculous; it’s dangerous. It’s an accident waiting to happen.
There is a microwave but nothing to grill on so you cant even make toast.
There is only a single hot plate and just two pans. The only space to prepare food is a sloping top over the stairs which one has to lean across to do anything on whilst balancing on the top stair. It is the most ridiculous cooking environment I have ever experienced. It hurts one’s back from leaning across, one’s feet from balancing on the top stair and the prep surface is on a slope so everything roles towards you and onto the floor.
Basically, if you are staying for a night, in the summer and just intend to use it to sleep in before moving on, it will probably be fine and seem like a fun place to stay in. If you are staying in winter (don’t), are intending to cook (don’t) or staying for more than a few days (don’t), I don’t think it is suitable.
The listing says: “Entire home. You’ll have the boat to yourself”. Well, you do get the entirety of the tiny bit you get so I guess that’s kind of true. But you don’t get the entire boat. You also don’t get the boat to yourself as there were people coming and going repeatedly during the latter half of our stay. No idea what was going on there as we didn’t hear anything from the host until I asked. Turned out it was rented out to someone else.
On the good side:
Inge responds quickly to any queries.
The bed is very comfortable and the duvet is very warm so you wont be cold at night. Not until you get out of bed into the freezing cold cabin.
Personally I think that the lack of facilities gives an impression of a total lack of thought and care for anyone staying here. It is also just a tiny studio space and should be clearly advertised as such. It does not have a separate bedroom and one doesn’t necessarily have the boat to one’s self, which is how it is advertised and what we paid for.