Today I’m reviewing the Hotel Motel One Zurich, a 3 star hotel in one of the World’s most expensive cities. I’ll admit, I usually only stay in 4 or 5 star hotels. But Zurich was so expensive that even this normal 3 star hotel was almost €275/night (£240).
So, considering that’s more than a lot of 5 star hotels accross the world (like the stunning Danna Langkawi) what do you get for all that? Well, most importantly the location is good. The room is a good size and relatively clean. Plus there’s a average continental breakfast, but that’s about it. So please read my Hotel Motel One Zurich review to find out if it’s worth staying at.
The Hotel
Motel One are a German hotel chain who market themselves as budget, but based of the price here I’d say they’re more a mid-range chain. Founded in 2000 they now have over 70 hotels accross Europe (mostly in Germany) plus one hotel in New York, USA. As far as I can tell all their hotels are geared towards either business travellers or travellers on short city breaks. And the style very much reflects that.
One of the great things about Hotel Motel One Zurich is its location. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the main train station. And 5 minutes from both the lake front and the main shopping and tourist areas. The building the hotel is located in is very non-descript and you wouldn’t guess it’s a hotel at first glance. The neighbourhood is also quiet (especially on a Sunday when we were there). Though there is a tramline next to it so every 15 min you’ll hear a tram rumble by.
The Room
We stayed in their basic room called “The One”. These rooms are 16 sqm with a Queen sized bed plus a few standard features like a 43″ tv, safe, wardrobe and air conditioning. If you want to be a bit fancier you could go for “The Special One” or even “The Special One with Balcony”. The only difference is that The Special One is 20 sqm instead of 16 sqm and one has a balcony.
Overall I would say everything about the room is average. I do like the mountain shaped headboard that runs along the wall behind the bed and the textured cloud wallpaper. Otherwise everything felt pretty spartan. The wall and furniture had many scuffs and scratches all over. There aren’t really any extras besides the safe and coat hangers in the wardrobe. You can tell it is quite a budget barebones experience.
The bed isn’t the largest either. And it comes with two single duvets instead of one large duvet. So it isn’t the best for either couples or a single person in my opinion. That being said it is quite comfy, though on the firmer side. I prefer firm beds but it might be too hard for those that like soft beds.
The toilet is good too, and comparable to many 4 star hotels I’ve stayed in. It comes stocked with limited toiletries. Basically just hand soap and a combined body/hair wash in the shower. But everything was clean and there were plenty of towels. Only downside is that the shower didn’t drain fast enough so we had to make a towel wall at the shower entrance to stop it overflowing.
Breakfast
My original reservation on Booking.com didn’t include breakfast, but we added it for 19.50 CHF (£17.50) per person per night at check-in. That’s relatively affordable for hotels, and if you book with breakfast included that price difference will be reflected in the total. It is just a pretty simple continental breakfast but quality is quite good. And if you try to get a similar breakfast at nearby cafes you’d almost certainly pay more given how expensive Zurich is.
If you’ve ever had a continental breakfast before then you’ll know what to expect… They have cold cuts, cheese, a few bits of salad and fruit. Yoghurts, pastries, bread, cereal etc etc. Both days I just made a ham and cheese croissant and had granola with fruit and yoghurt. Plus a little apple strudel pastry. And coffee and orange juice to drink. It’s a basic but satisfying breakfast.
The dining area is good too, with loads of seating. It did get pretty busy both days, but there were always seats available. You just might have to queue a bit for the more popular food items.
Everything Else
There’s not really much else to talk about. There is a bar (picture below) which seemed quite empty whenever we passed by but the atmosphere is nice and it is pretty large.
The staff were also very friendly and helpful in general. Especially the man at reception that checked us in. He was super friendly and went the extra mile to make us feel welcomed.
Final Thoughts
Overall I think Motel One Zurich is actually quite a nice hotel as far as 3 star hotels go. Location is great, the room is fine and the breakfast is basic but tasty and quite affordable. However, for that price I expected better than this. Maybe I’m just out of touch (or don’t know the Swiss hotel industry) but I would expect somewhere like this to cost under £100/night in Europe. The fact it cost me almost £240/night for breakfast included just doesn’t make it worth it to me. That being said, it is about the cheapest reasonable quality hotel I couldn find in Zurich, so there isn’t much else choice in this price range.
More from me…
Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- Malaysia Airlines Economy A350-900 – Great food on a 13 hour flight
- No1 Lounge at London Gatwick South – Surprisingly good
- Singapore Airlines Economy from London to Singapore – As Good as People Say?
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