Hello everybody

I stayed at this property recently. The hotel has been open for 3 weeks.

Room

The room is fairly large and features a safe, mini fridge, USB charging ports by the bed and by the TV, a large TV, an ironing board and a spacious bathroom with a shower.

Dining

The breakfast cost CHF 25 for guests (CHF 35 for non-guests) and is *not* included if points are selected as Myway benefit. Unfortunately, they were unable to change this on the day itself. We told our room number in the breakfast room and started serving ourselves at the buffet when all of a sudden a staff member approached us to say that the breakfast was not included. I responded that we were Diamond members and that it should be included. The staff member vanished and later another one came to explain that it wasn't included for us due to the Myway benefit. I was very surprised as we usually got both at other hotels. I told them that they should have told us earlier (for example, asked us at check in or when we told them our room number) as it was too late now for us to cancel our breakfast. Anyway, we only wanted coffee and a croissant and had to pay the full price in the end. The staff kept blaming the IT systems and that they were all new. At checkout, no goodwill gesture was offered for this misunderstanding.

The breakfast features a buffet as well as cooked to order omelettes.

The bar, Limmig, offers a variety of drinks including a whisky selection and cigars. I opted for a glass of Perrier-Jouët which was CHF 13, cocktails are CHF 15. Whisky range from CHF 11 to 24 for 4cl.

We were the only patrons in the bar.

Location

Many shopping opportunities are nearby. We used our car to get to the train station as buses run infrequently.

Check In

The check in was slow and took 15 minutes, the IT systems were blamed. No upgrade. I spotted the guest list and there were about 10 rooms occupied. The Deluxe Rooms are located on the 5th floor. To access them, there is a separate elevator which is located at the far end of the lobby, past the meeting rooms. Odd-numbered rooms are facing south, even-numbered rooms are facing north (towards the motorway). The app does not show a floor plan yet, but they confirmed it would eventually. The check in staff was friendly.

They pre-authorise CHF 100 for any extras.

Service

Parking is advertised to cost CHF 20 but for some reason we were not charged for it. There is outdoor parking and a garage.

The staff were all friendly.

The wifi was pretty slow.

Dry-cleaning prices are expensive and can be seen in the picture.

Overall

I have mixed feelings about this property as the staff doesn't seem to be well-trained and there was no Diamond recognition whatsoever.

We stayed a quick overnight in the new Hilton Garden Inn Zürich Limmattal to compare with the Hilton close to the airport or with other hotels we have stayed at in Zürich before.  The location of HGI might not be ideal for some travelers but it comes at a significant price discount relative to other hotels which might make it a decent choice for some people.  

Location

The location might be the biggest drawback but I think it is not as bad as it might appear to be at first glance if you know how to navigate the Swiss public transportation system which is easier for tourists to manage than in almost any other city of the world.  First off, travel from the airport to the hotel can be a bit cumbersome.  You need to take a train from the airport to Dietikon but depending on the time of day it’s not always a direct line and you might need to transfer either in the main station or in Hardbrücke.  From Dietikon you can easily walk to the bus parking bay “F” to catch bus 303 which runs roughly 4 times per hour with some exceptions, and more than 4 during rush hour. From there the Raiacker bus stop is 8 minutes away, and then you have a short 200 meter walk to the hotel.  The hotel is in a residential neighborhood with several apartment buildings and in fact the hotel looks like an apartment building too – you might almost not notice there is a hotel there as it’s quite low rather than a high-rise.  

The hotel is not so easily accessible from the airport, but once you are there the commute to the city can be comparable to lots of other city hotels because you can be in Zürich HB in about 30 minutes which is not so unusual, and in fact is a very similar commute to the city than if you stay at the Hilton near the airport.  I might not recommend either HGI or Hilton for a long stay requiring frequent trips to the city but if you are Hilton loyalist and want to earn Hilton points and night credits, then HGI will be a cheaper option than Hilton without making your commute worse.  Bus 303 to go back to Dietikon train station is also about 4 times per hour and trains from Dietikon to the main station more frequent than that.

Room

I booked a king room and this is the room I got. The receptionist told me proactively that they normally upgrade Diamonds to deluxe rooms but they were full that night. She told me the deluxe rooms are identical to the standard rooms except that they are on a high floor, accessible via a different elevator, and in more quiet area of the hotel.  They also have junior suites but I did not enquire if those are fair game for Diamond upgrades and anyway the HGI brand is normally excluded from Hilton’s upgrade program.  

This being a new hotel, the hardware looks quite nice. The bathroom was well done and it has a modern walk-in shower although I was surprised it’s not a rain shower. The bathroom amenities are better than you would normally expect in a HGI: it was Crabtree & Evelyn as is normally offered in Hiltons and DoubleTrees, instead of the cheaper variety of Neutrogena found in HGIs elsewhere in the world.  The bed was comfortable, there were convenient USB ports on both sides of the bed, and I liked the metal blinds outside the windows which you can control from the wall panel to completely block out any light from coming into the room early morning.  One weakness of this room is that soundproofing was not the best.  Given that the building is not high, we could easily hear people talking loud in the parking lot during the evening, and sound from the hallway was audible as well.  

Dining

Breakfast was free for Diamonds as expected and it is great that it starts as early as 6am which is suitable for people here on business (end time 10am).  The fruits were standard hotel fruits such as pineapples, melon, etc. and warm food was also relatively standard with tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, scrambled eggs, and sausages.  As expected they had pastries, birchermüsli, and yogurt, but unfortunately no raw veggies to make a salad so my takeaway was that there is nothing wow in the buffet and breakfast at Hilton at the airport is clearly a notch better, but I would not say HGI’s breakfast is lower than expectations given the brand and the lower price tag too.  Besides the food, I can say the restaurant is a nice and pleasant environment; at least it was not crowded when we went there.  

Overall

Overall this is a solid hotel which would be a great choice to earn Hilton stays especially for people who need to be in this suburb of Zürich.  Otherwise I would recommend spending more money and stay elsewhere to be more centrally located in the city but for people on a budget willing to have a longer commute you can get this hotel for less than 100 CHF per night and free breakfast as Diamond which can be expensive in Switzerland, so HGI is solid value for the money.