Mövenpick Hotel Zürich Airport – Hotel review

Our tour around Switzerland starts early in the morning from the Mövenpick Hotel Zürich Airport.  It made sense therefore for us to stay at this hotel when we arrive the evening before.  “Oh No, not the Mövenpick!” criesTony.  Having stayed at other Mövenpicks in Europe, they tend to be very lacking in character and one night in one of their rooms is enough to bring your spirits down so low that you’re actually quite glad to be leaving and be on the road again the next morning.

Movenpick executive suite

If you have a look at the external view of the hotel, it looks like a 3-star office block.  Furthermore, as the name suggests, it’s in the vicinity of the airport, so forget about being in any kind of exclusive environments or having anything around it at all.  Although the hotel is conveniently located just 2 km from Zurich International Airport, it’s 10 km from the city centre.

Room tea-making facilities

Our flight arrived in the early evening and we were glad that the hotel had its own shuttle bus to deliver you to the hotel.  A very pleasant and helpful young man at the reception offered us a complimentary drink whilst he attended to the check-in formalities.  We told him that the tour group was spending the first night at this hotel, so could he give us a room that we could stay in for two nights without moving.  That seemed to cause a momentary problem as he said that he was actually going to upgrade us to an Executive suite for the first night which was our own private booking.  Okay, if we could enjoy one night in a plush room, then having to move room the next day is the price that we had to pay.  Luckily though, this exceptionally nice guy fixed it so that we could stay for two nights in an upgraded suite.

Bathroom collateral

When we arrived at our room on level 10, we were pleasantly surprised at the plush decor.  We gawped in disbelief at our good fortune to land in such a nice room.  The room was a nice size and a rich red voile curtain served as a wall between the sitting area and the bed.  First impressions was that this looks more like a harem than an ‘executive’ room.  The next thing that caught our attention was the tea making facilities.  The box of supplies was filled with all kinds of teas and infusions and then, oh my God, we had our own private espresso machine.  If you have a coffee dependency as we have, finding an espresso machine in one’s room is a real high.  We used all the N’espresso supplies that evening and then prayed that we will have refills the next day, which we did.  Getting good coffee in hotels is a challenge, so this was a real treat. To my surprise the N’espresso wasn’t bad.

The third pleasant surprise was the collateral in the bathroom – plenty of Bulgari soap, Bulgari body cream and Bulgari shampoo.  This place was out to impress us and we were impressed.

Zurich airport foodcourt

Zürich is an expensive city and we noticed that many of the guests did not dine at the hotel restaurants, but instead took the free hotel shuttle to Zürich Airport where there is a foodcourt, large supermarket and other shops.  A problem with this shuttle when we were there was that there was a big group of Arab families staying at the hotel.  When they used the shuttle service, they usually took up two buses, leaving other people stranded and having to wait for the next service in another 15 minutes. A little bit of crowd control would have been helpful for those who actually had flights to catch.

We found that even the food from the foodcourt was not cheap.  At CHF 18 for a plate of ordinary looking Chinese stirfry noodles, it’s enough to turn you off Chinese food if you weren’t keen on Chinese food in the first place.

Well, if we have a need to be close to Zurich Airport again, we certainly would stay at the Mövenpick Hotel again … in the Executive suite. 

Helen