[*CLOSED*] Four Points Sihlcity, Zurich, Switzerland [Master Thread]
 

I have a vacation to Zurich planned for the end of March and I'd like to book here. When will it be available for reservations?

It's bookable now!

"Now accepting reservations for arrival on or after March 22, 2007."

And for SPG, the website indicates:

Starwood Preferred Guest Category 4:
10000 Starpoints for a free night.

The city centre of ZRH is not that big. It is a ten minutes ride by S-Bahn to Main Station. They have built a new station right at Sihlcity (S4 stops there) and you could use the tram 13 (Utobrücke). This means the location is not that bad at all (probably better, I had thought earlier) if you prefer the location near the city instead of near the airport or with better connnection to the airport.

Zurich - Sihlcity anyone?
 

After my second distinctly mediocre experience at the ArabellaSheraton Neues Schloss in a month and in search of a new hotel for Zurich, I noticed (too late for this trip) that the Four Points Sihlcity opened at the weekend - the pictures on the website look pretty good and the location is in my preferred area so wondered if anyone had stayed there in the opening few days and could report on it?

It seems there are fairly mixed reports on here about the AS NS depending on whether you manage to get an upgrade or not. I arrived late at night and got given the key to room 104 - this was just about the smallest room I have seen in a European hotel for quite a while and had a single bed and a bathroom with only a shower and no bath. I immediately telephoned down to the front desk and requested another room and was told the hotel was totally full but on pressing he said he could give me 205 which was "a little larger" and had a king size bed. This was ok but still pretty small and certainly not what you'd consider a platinum upgrade. My beef is that I can accept the hotel is full but given platinums are supposed to get the best available room at check-in, I am pretty peeved that they gave me a tiny room with a single bed when they had available a king room!

Update on the Four Points - Sihlcity now that I've been a guest at the hotel for 3 days -

1. The location of the hotel itself is in a brand new shopping area of Zurich - Sihlcity is actually the name of the area itself. The ENTIRE shopping center opened on March 22nd, 2007 - not just the hotel, so prepare accordingly for everyone being relatively unfamiliar with the hotel and surroundings.

2. That said, the hotel is in an excellent location - the 13 and 5 trams stop steps away from the hotel, and there is an S4 train stop at Sihlcity also - making for relatively easy connections to/from the airport (S4 to S2 or Tram 13 to S2) and the main Zurich train station/Hauptbahnhof.

3. There is ample parking at the Sihlcity shopping plaza - NOTE that there is parking specifically for the hotel, however it is not yet open, so hotel guests have to park in the mall parking lot. Parking is steep - roughly $30USD per day.

4. The rooms themselves are W-esque on a bit of a budget with modern fixtures and amentities. The beds are very comfortable.

5. Make darn sure you're comfortable with people you are sharing the room with. The shower and toilet are in separate frosted glass "stalls" and there is no separate door for bathroom/bedroom privacy. You can't help but see a fuzzy silhouette of the person sitting on the can if you look in that general direction. The shower stall door opens right into the bedroom/sink area, as does the door from the toilet - privacy? Forget it. Neat design - not practical at all.

6. As a platinum I got "upgraded" to a "deluxe" room. I have no idea what makes it "deluxe". It's a standard double room with 2 XL twin beds smashed together to give the illusion of a king size bed. (They are completely separate beds.).

7. Housekeeping and the hotel staff are VERY green. Just keep your expectations in check while staying here until they get used to their own environs. Patience is a virtue.

8. Be VERY wary of the hotel's breakfast buffet - it's rediculously expensive at 28 CHF per person. The selection at the buffet and service (serve yourself) is not worthy of the price tag. Everything is generally expensive in Zurich as it is, but this is approaching ripoff status. Save your money and have breakfast somewhere else. As a side note, oddly, the Starbucks at Sihlcity doesn't open until 8AM, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. (Sihlcity is a ghost town until around 11AM when people flood the area.)

9. Sihlcity shopping area is a typical mall type shopping center. Folks who like chain stores and "new" feeling things will find a lot to like about Sihlcity. Folks that don't will apprecaite the more traditional Zurich shopping districts which are a 5-10 minute tram ride away.

10. The hotel is situated on 3 floors - floors 1-3. Floors 4 and 5 are conference rooms, so a room on floor 3 is the "top" floor of the hotel. I'd suggest requesting a room on the river side if you prefer quiet. A room on the opposite side will face onto the main walkway for people walking to/from the shopping center and the tram stop = throngs of people during the day.

- T

FWIW, got upgraded better than you here now. Offered a senior suite or junior suite overlooking the plaza outside. Took the junior since I don't care much abt the room. Offered amenity to me and had a nice little nut plate and toblerone out to welcome me in the room. Staff was super friendly. Agree about the privacy - glad I'm not sharing the room w/ any coworkers...

Stayed there last week and though didn't get upgraded was asked if I'd like a bottle of champagne when I checked in - they delivered a half bottle of Veuve with a selection of mini-toblerones about 10 minutes after I arrived. I just assumed this was the amenity in place of a choice of points etc but looking at my account I see that 250 points have posted as well.

Agree with the earlier comments about the breakfast buffet - quite miserable selection when I stayed, even the cheese and ham selection looked dried out as if it had been sitting there for hours...

My wife and I just completed a one night stay on Thanksgiving. We redeemed points and we were upgraded to a very nice suite. We checked in early and when returned before dinner a bottle of champagne, an assorted fruit plate and a tin of chocolates (lindt) were waiting in our room. The staff was nice, the location was convenient with the tram. I would definitely recommend this hotel.

Two stays in this hotel recently. I'm gold and no upgrades at all.
First time it was during the soccer championship, so they were booked.
2nd - last week, they were full too (?). A modern hotel, good location,
5 minutes from Bellevue on line #5 or Parade Platz on #13.
I liked my deluxe room, but my friends had a standard one, and it was
much worse - smaller and less... everything.
Good breakfast. Quite a cold service, but I guess it's just Swiss...

The Marriott get's better reviews than the Starwood properties here. Although I'm only gold there and Platinum with Starwood, I'm thinking of staying there.

Anyone stay at both the Four Point (Arabella Sheraton) and the Marriott who might compare the two?


Thanks in advance.

Bumping to ask...
which *Wood Zürich property has easier access to the ZRH airport, FP Sihlcity or Sheraton Neues Schloss?

Thanks!

There isn't that much of a difference. For both locations it's either a short tram or train ride, then followed by a train to the airport. Will take you roughly 30mins in total.
If you don't want to connect you could walk to Station Enge from Neues Schloss, but it's a good 10-15mins.

http://www.zvv.ch/en/timetables/online-timetable.html is the online timetable for the region of Zurich, and if you change the first field from "Haltestelle" to "Adresse" you can enter the street address and the nearest stations will shop up (Tram / Bus / Train) incl. distance and map.

HTH
Patrick

stayed at both properties and personally I prefer the Four Point hotel due to the fact that it's just next to a shopping mall and the tram stations is also within the walking distance.

Regarding the rooms: I stayed at a standard corner room and it was the usual Marriott room (I don't have status at Marriott). But being SPG Platinum member, I have been upgraded to a big corner room which should be considered as Junior Suite and I was quite happy about the room.

How about location and public areas between the Marriott and the Sheraton?

I saw so many "never again" posts about the Sheraton that it pushed me over to Marriott even though I'm Platinum on SPG and only Gold in MR.

I know...it's crazy. Apparently the hotel will be closed in August & September for renovations. Right now I am trying to decide between a C&P booking at the Sheraton or the 4P for mid-September.