Originally Posted by
wildace
Is this hotel worth spending 190K points (4+1 night free) to get Lounge access as Platinum at the Renaissance or am I better of sticking with the new "Home Hotel" Zurich with the welcome price of ~189 CHF I have locked in for now? Which location is better suited to be able to come back from
here safely late at night?
How good is the Renaissance staff at processing refunds if I cancel a points-based booking? Or does it not matter because the Marriot system/website takes care of it?
Also, is it easy to get onto the S-bahn and off it if coming from the airport or Hauptbanhof with quite a bit of luggage for solo-travellers? (at least two rollers and a little bag on top)
How is the lounge in his hotel in general? What's the food/snacks offering like? What do they have for breakfast?
I don't know how familiar with Bonvoy hotels you are (given your questions on points cancellation, which are, by stanndard fully flexible and refundable), but the lounge is certainly nothing to write home about. Standard European lounge with bottom shelf alcohol and small portions of hot food (so better than US lounges and worst than Asian lounges). Certainly not worth spending a very long time in. Breakfast is ok.
Location will depend on your needs/wants. Ren is in a hip post industrial area with grungy indoor/outdoor bars and restaurants (as well as some corporate offices) but going to any of Zurich's popular attractions will involve a (1 stop) train ride and navigating the central train station.
The Home Hotel (previously a Four Points, and later just a "pop up" hotel unaffiliated property) is not new despite the "opening offer". Opening only refers to them joining Design Hotels while they were previously unaffiliated solve the pandemic. The property is in a good state despite having been around for around 15 years. The area is in an outdoor/indoor shopping mall which has nothing of interest in the immediate vicinity and is a 10 minute tram ride from Paradeplatz.
Neither of them are particularly convenient to the airport with heavy luggage (you'll need to change at Zurich HB). Both hotels are 7ish minute walk to a train station (Home Hotel has tram stop adjacent).
Any area of Zurich is safe at any time of the day or night and well served by public transportation so either hotel would be ok from that bar (public transport mostly stops shortly after midnight) so you'd have to take a taxi/Uber.