Kathysa

The last night of our 2 week vacation will be spent in Geneva. We'll be arriving by train from Paris, spend the night, and then have a fairly early flight the following morning. Should we stay at an airport hotel, or would one near the train station in Geneva be better? Any recommendations? Thanks.

Therese

Stay in the center city near the train station (which will be convenient for your arrival as well). Your hotel will give you a card that entitles you to free public transit (it's an honor system in any case) . It includes the train from the main station to the airport (which is surprisingly close to town). Easy, fast, frequent.

Therese

As for specific recommendations, I stayed at Hotel Warwick, which is literally so close to the station that you could get there on your knees if you needed to. It gets mixed reviews at TripAdviser, but I had a lovely room and pleasant service for a very good rate through one of the hotel booking services (can't recall which one). Sort of scary ugly modern appearance from exterior, but lobby and room were fine.

suze

I don't have a specific hotel but I agree you can easily stay in Geneva near-ish the train station. It's very easy to get out to the airport by train even early AM, no need to actually stay at the airport overnight.

elaine

If you will be flying home on Swiss (airlines) you can arrive at the Geneva train station, check your luggage for your flight home, and it will be transported for you to your aircraft, so need to manage it on and off the train or at the airport.

spaarne

Geneva is a small town with international big city creditentials. Stay anywhere. You are no more than 10 minutes to the airport by taxi from anywhere north of the Rhone. Also, bus 10 from Gare de Cornavin in the center of the city goes straight to the airport. It couldn't be simpler.

Recommendations? If someone else is paying take any hotel on the Quai du Mont-Blanc.

Even though you have an early flight you can have some high times in Carouge the night before.

spaarne

BTW, there are three train stations in Geneva.

Kathysa

Thanks for all the advice. Hotel Warwick is out of our budget (it's 640 chf for 2 rooms), so if anyone has any other recommendations, that would be helpful. We were hoping to stay under 450 chf for 2 rooms. Proximity to the airport or train station would be first priority. We will arrive early evening and be departing early morning, so will not have time to do much other than eat. That's good to know we can check luggage at the train station. Thanks.

lincasanova

Try www.hotwire.com or www.priceine.com. You can see winning bids at www.betterbidding.com. ( Put Geneva" in the search box at top of page for quick results).

Of course you may not be so close to the train station but if you save enough it might be worth it.

I stayed at a Catholic "hotel" in Zurich. maybe there is something similar in Geneva, but near the train station, perhaps not. I hope someone can help you.

Therese

I paid much, much less than 320 for my room at Warwick. I don't recall exactly how much now, but I never pay that much for a room, ever. I'm guessing that it was about 150. Geneva is very expensive, and since it's so small you should be pretty safe with a blind bidding option like Priceline or Hotwire, though they may not be particularly well-represented there. Booking.com is another option.

Therese

Just did a couple of dummy searches (since I don't know your travel dates) on Hotwire and Priceline (the open version, not name your own price) and found lots of options (including the Warwick for one of the dates at $177 per night).

Kathysa

I checked Hotwire but didn't see where you can find the hotel name (I'm a novice at those sites.). Since we need 2 rooms for our family, I'm not sure if that makes a difference. I'll keep playing with it and try to figure it out.
Thanks.
Date is July 6, just the one night.

lincasanova

you will have to go to www.betterbidding.com and ask there. sometimes they can help you out. they have some hotel lists also .

Therese

I looked at Priceline for July 6 and it looks like you may have managed to pick a particularly pricey date for your overnight, possibly competing with one or more meetings. An airport hotel actually may be your best option if you're really trying to keep prices down.

Since you've not got any experience with blind bidding (Hotwire or Priceline "name your one price" option) I wouldn't pick Geneva as your first opportunity, as it's not a particularly great market for doing it and the bidding help sites like betterbidding aren't going to be too much help.

Do cross reference your options with opinions on TripAdvisor---you can generally discount a few negative reviews, but the information is generally pretty good.

Kathysa

I did end up booking 2 rooms at Hotel Warwick, but am wondering what the end result will be. I had contacted the hotel directly (and a second time to make sure I understood their rate correctly) and was told the cost was 320 chf per room per night. Since we live in the US and are AAA members, I decided to try the AAA website. On their website, I was able to get a rate of 160chf per night per room, so went ahead and booked 2 rooms for the 4 of us. I've never seen that big of a price difference before and tried to make sure there was no fine print or hidden cost. I guess we'll see what we get.

Therese

Great work, Kathysa. I have no experience with AAA, so can't comment there. There's often a great deal of variation in room rates, and the rate you've been offered is similar to what I got (from a different source) last year, and my experience was just fine.

Don't forget to ask for your free transit passes when you check in (though mine was offered before I could ask).

prepar

You could try the Ibis Geneva Centre Gare, beautiful and clean rooms and 5 mins from hotel to the train station by tram.