Holiday Inn Zürich Messe
The Holiday Inn Zurich Messe is located in Zurich Oerlikon, which is halfway between the airport and downtown Zurich. From the airport or the main station the hotel could be reached either by train or by tram #11. By car, one should follow the signs to Zurich Oerlikon and / or Messe / Hallenstadion. From the station Oerlinkon take the bus #63 to the hotel, the stop is right in front of the hotel.
The hotel is a six floor building in a very light brown colour. The 164 rooms are all non-smoking rooms and divided into Standard and Executive Rooms. The first floor, where the seven meeting rooms are located, is slightly wider and therefore featuring as roof for the entrance and parts of the restaurant. Apart from that, the building itself it nothing special.
One is accessing the hotel through a sliding door and reaches the lobby. The lobby is long but a bit narrow. There are glass windows to the street. A small seating area is close to the lobby, but a bit more lounge chairs would be nice. Right next to the entrance is the “Lobby Bar” and the Brasserie “Bits& Bites”. The check in desks are further down the lobby on the right side. There are two places to check in and out desk, but in off peak times it seems that usually one agent is on duty. Next to the check
in desk is the Business Corner, which has two PC and a printer for printing of up to 20 pages.
A gym is available on the second floor, it is small and called Mini-Gym, what is the right description. Is had a machine for body training, a treadmill, a stepper and a bike. Towels are available. It is open 24 hours, which seems to become the norm at international brands.
The Lobby Bar is open from 06:30 to 0:30 and serving different types of beverage as well as light snacks. The restaurant Brasserie Bits&Bits is open from 06:30 to 23:30 and serving breakfast as well as lunch and dinner, mostly international and local dishes.
Breakfast is served as American buffet with cereals, yoghurt, fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, rösti, mushroom, cheese and salmon. Jam and confiture are available, rolls area available as well as toast, croissant but I missed pastries. Tea and coffee were self service from a machine, orange and multi-vitamin juices are also available.
The interior is modern with mostly dark wood compared with some light brown elements. Nice and modern, but not overly stylish and it might not be that fast out of style. The restaurant is also very modern, the walls are dark, some parts mixed with light brown colours and a dark wooden floor (laminate).
The hotel is offering a covered parking available, which could be reached from the hotel, but is not part of the hotel, since it is outsourced.
stays June, 18 2011
direct link to hotel
Holiday Inn Zürich-Messe
Arrival Date: 18 June 2010
Departure Date: 19 June 2010
Room type booked: Standard Room (got Executive Room)
Rate Plan: Advanced Purchase Rate
Room Number: 613
Room Rate: 136.00 CHF
Status of PC: Platinum
I arrived around 20:10 at the hotel and entered the lobby. I was friendly greeted at the hotel and the reservation was retrieved from the system. I was told that I got an upgrade to an Executive Room due to my Platinum Status. The special features of the Executive Rooms were explained, they are slightly bigger than the average room, having a Tassimo coffeemachine and a minibar with complimentary soft drinks. I had to ask for internet,
which is free if you do not need the DSL 16000, which would be 9.00 CHF for 24 hours, and for the times breakfast is served; I was notified that it was not included in my room rate and would be 24 CHF. The use of the keycard in the elevator and at the doors to the room were also explained.
The room was at a corner of the building, but had windows only on one side. There was a long hallway to reach the room. Located at this hallway was the closet and the Tassimo coffee machine as well as minibar and safe. In the closet were the iron and ironing board placed as well as two bathrobes with slippers. The hallway was painted in Holiday Inn Green which gave it a special appearance, not as bad as one could imagine reading about green wall paint. At the corner to a room was a place to store luggage. The
bathroom was at the entrance to the room.
To safe space, there was a sliding door rather than a real door. It had a toilet, sink and bath. Bathroom amenities were placed next to the sink. Hair-dryer and shaving / cosmetic mirror were also available. The bath had a glas panel, which as usually was too short to avoid dripping water on the floor while taking a shower. Towels of big, medium and small size were available for two persons. A nice feature was the blue night lighting on the floor. The big mirror behind the sink became foggy while taking a shower.
Both, the too short glass panel the the foggy mirror are problems in many hotels and also one gets used too it, they are still a bit annoying. While I could imagine, that a heated mirror would be a bit too much to expect in a Holiday Inn, a slights bigger glass panel should not be a problem.
The room itself was of medium size, the term bigger of the Executive Rooms are more related to the more space related to the hallway. On the left side was a double with two bedside tables with two reading lamps. On one of the bedside tables was a phone, both had power outlets, one even a German plug, and switches for all lights in the room. Kudos, since I have not experienced such a feature in a (Holiday-Inn) hotel for a longer time. Opposite the entrance was a lounge chair with a small table and another lamp.
On the left side in the corner was the desk with lamp, power outlets (again including a German one). The wall mounted Flat TV was also mounted there, which could be a little big disturbing, especially if one was working with a laptop, and had a lot of other stuff on the desk, since the desk was not the biggest one. Another phone was placed on the desk.
The room was laid with dark laminate. A mirror and a wall print gave the room a nice appearance, but overall the room was missing a bit a nicer atmosphere. Maybe it would have been an advantage to place the print or the mirror on the wall where the bed is located. The walls in the room were painted white, not green.
The mattress was hard and exactly as I prefer it.
The room was in good condition, a few stains and scratches but nothing really severe.
Breakfast was mentioned as above, staff was of average attentiveness. Dirty and used plates was cleared, but they passed my table several times noticing it before taking it away and they did not seems too busy. The quality and quantity was okay, I would have preferred to have a slightly bigger selection of fruit.
