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3.5
#2 of 3 hostels in Geneva
Location
Rooms
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Geneva Hostel enjoys a central location in Geneva and is in a historic building from the 19th century. It features free Wi-Fi and a restaurant serving Swiss cuisine in the evenings. Lake Geneva is only 800 ft away.
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We needed a place to stay for one night after a long day travelling. We had a family room with bunk beds and a double and en suite toilet. It was basic as expected but did the job. It was a little noisy at night but not too bad, there weren’t many guests due to coronavirus. Most importantly the beds were comfy.
I don’t know if it was better pre-covid but the breakfast was lacklustre with not much choice and it wasn’t obvious how it was supposed to work with people milling around confused.
It’s kind of convenient for the station, you can get a tram not far from the hostel to the station but it’s still a bit of a walk.
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Date of stay: August 2020Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The hostel is located in a good location. Not far from the station and the lake. We took a private room, which was on the 6th floor with a great view. The room was big and clean. The hostel sends us a link to register the free public transport so the distance to the city center and sights is no issue. A short walk to the beautiful lake and with free transportation you can easily find restaurants and local eateries. Everything was fine and the staff is very friendly and helpful!
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Date of stay: April 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Geneva Hostel was very good for our 3 nights in the city. Location is excellent being a 10 minute walk from the train station and a 5 minute walk to the waterfront. There are plenty of grocery stores, resturants and shops in the area as well. Breakfast was decent, it included gluten and lactose free options. The rooms and washrooms were very clean. Lockers were just outside the rooms and were a generous size, we had lots of room for all our bags. We stayed in Geneva in the midst of a heat wave, 38°C everyday. Without AC or any fans, the hostel was very warm making it uncomfortable. The temperature would drop outside at night, but the hostel remained hot. This is our only complaint, a fan in the room would have helped a lot.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â Reserve gluten free breakfast ahead of time.
Hair dryers and outlet adapters are available for...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Be careful when booking this accommodation as the Booking.com listing may not match reality! Due to Geneva Hostel's product not meeting the description at time of payment I will not be staying in this place.
I booked a 2 night stay for two; taking two beds in what was labelled a 'two bed dorm' on Booking.com at a non-refundable rate. When I later wanted to extend the stay, my 'accommodation type was no longer available' via Booking.com.
I contacted the accommodation who informed me that my booking was in fact for two beds in a 6-bed dorm. This is unacceptable for personal reasons during the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Besides, there is a difference for sure between a 2 bed dorm and a 6 bed dorm. The accommodation has now twice refused to engage with me to process a refund due to the room not meeting the description.
Booking.com agrees that it was strange that their system cannot extend my stay. The 6 bed dorm is available for the additional night and pending further investigation I believe this indicates that Geneva Hostel has made the two bed dorm unavailable for some reason.
I'm currently waiting for Booking.com to send me screenshots to confirm exactly what I booked in August to further pursue my complaint.
Please be warned before making a booking!
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Date of stay: October 2021
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Very spacious and clean, nice communal area including kitchen, picnic area and laundry on -1 floor. Room big enough, private spacious locket outside, bathroom with shower and private changing room, hairdryer between the sinks. Breakfast with hot drinks, yogurt and fruit, bread withe and brown, jams, juices, ham and cheese. Available dinner at reasonable prices with self service. All this at walking distance from the station, or 2 tram stops, few steps away from the lake shore and in a quiet area. Just noisy if there are school trips or young people gathering, but nothing you can do about it! Beds comfortable enough, you have to do your own at arrival. Towel costs 12CH but 10CH is deposit. Tourist tax includes travel card that arrives before the staying, in a way that you can use it to enter the city. Overall a very positive experience
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Date of stay: February 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Geneva Hostel was a clean and comfortable place to stay for the one night we spent in Geneva while backpacking in Europe. Our room was on the 1st floor and had a shared terrace. We rented a quad room that had two sets of bunkbeds that were very comfortable. It's about a 15 minute walk from Cornavin Station, and about a 15 minute walk to Lake Geneva. The bathrooms were very clean. Overall, we had a good hostel experience.
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Date of stay: December 2019
Rooms
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I've stayed here before and it is much the same but now there are electronic gates in the dining room, presumably to stop free-loaders from raiding the buffet. The staff are as pleasant as ever and the beds are comfy. Prices are little changed and I still appreciate the location close to the railway station.
Your keycard gives you access to the stairs and lifts, your room (single-sex) and bathroom (single-sex) as well as a locker for smaller bags. Larger bags go behind the counter. It seems the floors are mixed-sex but the rooms are not.
Lunch and supper can be eaten in the restaurant and a fairly unexciting Continental breakfast is included in the price.
Otherwise there is not much more to say - there is the usual crowd of slightly odd hostel-users and the beautiful plane tree still stands outside, hopefully for many more years.
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Date of stay: September 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
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Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled solo
Room Tip:Â You can borrow hair-dryers and charging adaptors from the front desk for a deposit
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Very good place for budget and quality accommodation. Book online early for no hustle experience and as this place gets easily full. They also provide free public transport within Geneva which could save you a lot.
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Date of stay: October 2019
Rooms
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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While passing through Geneva, I slept here one night in a room shared with other guys with whom I immediately made friends. The structure is youthful, welcoming and clean. You certainly don't expect the style of a 5-star hotel, but I would say that the value for money of this hostel is practically unbeatable.
Exactly 7/8 minutes walk from the station (exiting the station, road on the left, always straight and then turn into a small street). The breakfast is very abundant and included in the price, the staff was always kind to me. If you are young and passing through for a few nights, with a minimum spirit of adaptation, I recommend it.
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Date of stay: November 2023Trip type: Travelled solo
Room Tip:Â Approfittate della colazione. All'interno ci sono anche macchine distributrici di bevande e snack
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The most exciting aspect of staying in a hostel is to talk to and meet other travellers. This is the entire essence of the hostel experience, so it's hard for me to imagine a hostel that was not set up with this in mind. But that seems to be the case in Geneva hostel. Everything seems to be set up so that you have least chance of interacting with your fellow hostel travellers.
There are a bunch of seating pods in the cold, impersonal lounge. If you sit in one you are too far away to talk to anyone else. Same goes for the breakfast area. it is HUGE. So everyone sits far apart from each other and the chance of talking to and meeting others is essentially nil. Unless maybe you are there during the summer and the place is so crowded maybe you will sit next to some other travellers?
The hostel says, in its website, says it is housed in a 19th century building. You can look high and low for this 19th century building, but I certainly couldn't find it. Maybe the description needs updating? Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place.
But now the good points!
1. Free lockers for everyone so your things should be safe as long as you don't let the card fall into the wrong hands.
2. There is a bit of a saving grace: The breakfast is absolutely fabulous! By far the best I've ever had in a hostel, and even exceeds most hotel breakfasts, except for one I've had at a hostel in Merida, Mexico. If you stay here, do not miss the breakfast!
Also the breakfast is "AT WILL" (according to their signage) -- whatever that means.
At about 11pm a guy came into my room who looks like that Mountain Man guy from the TV show where he is challenged to eat a six pound steak in an hour. Which is fine except that this guy was a big snorer. I wish hostels would create a separate room for snorers.
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Date of stay: February 2023
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi, No worries, it is safe. It is also like 10 min walk to the main train station, which is usefull. Just around the station in the night are few people taking drugs and these kind of things, asking for money... But still it is safe. I stayed there alone too. Enjoy Geneve! Zuzana
Worksop, United Kingdom52 contributions49 helpful votes
Yes. They have like a garage downstairs and they for you a key to get in. We left ours there before and after we got our rooms. You might have to enquire before, we were a big school group and I think the travel company might have arranged it
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