5-person moderately priced rooms hotel near zurich hbf for late arrival with kids

Have you tried Booking.com? I see Hotel Allegra with a quad room and sofa, shuttle from the airport, next to Kloten train station for continuation of travel the next day.

No idea what you call moderate but looking at booking.com shows airport area hotels ranging from $250 to $500+ for five people in June

To be sure you can check in late night and get the kids to bed asap for your next day departure, this may be worth your consideration

Thanks for referral to booking.com and similar sites. Certainly we will look, but I was hoping to cut down on search time with some personal recommendations. I have often found that the collector sites will return a list of results initially seeming to accommodate 5 people, but when you spend time to click through to details, it turns out that the rooms actually do not fit five and you would need two rooms for the listed price (this is true of hotels.com, travelocity and many others I've used for USA travel). Frustrating waste of time! Also, i don't know the geography of Zurich at all, so I'm hoping the experienced travellers on this forum can help us narrow down areas and possibilities. Thanks!!!!

You have a highly specialized need in a highly specialized location. That means it would be a great stroke of luck to happen across someone on this or any other forum who has been in your exact circumstances.

I suggested Kloten as it is a nearby town, and the S7 train runs to Zurich Hbf every 30 minutes and takes 15 minutes. At the airport itself, trains are more frequent, like every 10 minutes or so, but you would be paying a premium for that location. Same for hotels near Zurich Hbf.

If you land at 9:50 pm, from past experience I'd be willing to bet you will have cleared immigration and be waiting for your luggage to come off the belt 30 minutes after you land. Customs is just walking out the "Nothing to Declare" door. If you are transferring from another airport in the Schengen Zone (just about anywhere in Europe except the U.K. and Ireland), you will already have cleared immigration.

Where are you going the next day? All you need in Switzerland is to be close to a train station and you can get anywhere with minimal waiting time.

A room for 5 is exceedingly rare in Europe and Switzerland.

Airport chain hotels will likely be in the best place to help you. Most Swiss hotels have much smaller rooms than you may be used to, and all people staying must be registered.

There is a Holiday Inn Express at the airport (and another at Affoltern am Albis next to an S-Bahn station).
Good luck... I agree that booking dot com may be your best option.

If this is just somewhere to flop and sleep, and you intend to continue to your actual destination the following morning, I would stay at Zürich airport.
Zürich airport station is a rail hub, and you can get to anywhere in Switzerland directly from there.
I very much doubt anywhere does 5 people in a room. Rooms have a bed (double or 2 singles) and enough space to walk around the bed, that is it. What are the ages of these 5 people? It would have to be 3 rooms, 2+2+1. Expect to pay CHF 100-200 per room.

Taxis in Switzerland are expensive, only use them if you have no public transport alternative - you have been warned.
"safe area for midnight arrival" = anywhere in Switzerland

9:50 pm arrival, you should be through immigration and exiting the airport ~1 hour later, assuming plane lands on time. Zürich immigration (passport control) is quick. Customs is after bag pick up (it has to be, it is the check on the contents of your bags); it is a random check only, 95%+ do not get stopped and it takes zero time.

Agreeing with all the above advice - not worth going into the city at midnight for one night stay. But you must, Hotel St Josef might fill your bill. Its been awhile since I've been there, so don't have recent experience or cost info.

Sam referred you to a specific hotel that has rooms that actually sleep five people.

https://www.welcomehotels.ch/allegra/en

It is not a booking.com listing; look right on the website and you will see that the room has four single beds and a sofa bed. Booking on the hotel website gets you 50% off breakfast.

The 272 CHF price ( late June date) is with advance payment, non-refundable. It is 15% higher with a flexible rate. you might book the flexible rate if you want to keep looking, but as you can see from the responses it is pretty unusual to find a room for five in Switzerland.

Presumably you are seeing a good price for the flight with that long overall travel time.

Hi Amy,

Try the Holiday Inn Express near Zurich airport. It has easy connections to airport, city center, and train station.

https://www.hiexpress.com/hotels/gb/en/zurich/zrhap/hoteldetail

Unfortunately, the HI Express does not have any rooms for five people, even if it is 2 adults with 3 children. They would have to take two rooms.

Thanks all for the feedback - the Allegra in Kloten is a wonderful tip - we'll check it out!

Youth hostels have family rooms. Check hostelworld.com

Lindas Beauty Hostel has 6 bed private rooms. I did a test availability for June 27-28 finding one 6 bed private room available at $303.34 USD with free cancellation:
https://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Lindas-Beauty-Hostel/Zurich/290635?dateFrom=2019-06-27&dateTo=2019-06-28&number_of_guests=5&sc_pos=2

Our property Lindas Beauty Hostel offers the lowest fares, located in
the heart of Zurich. With us you will have a unique experience you
will never forget. You can use the washing machine and tumble-dryer in
the common laundry room on the 5th floor at a surcharge.

Located at the Central Square, Lindas Beauty Hostel is only 100 m from
the Main Train Station and the Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich’s main downtown
street and shopping avenue. The Central Library and the University of
Zürich are less than 10 minutes’ walk away. Zurich is a great choice
for travellers interested in old town exploring, shopping and walking.

All our rooms include an en-suite bathroom with a shower, cooking
facilities, a fridge, a microwave, a wardrobe, lockers and free Wi-Fi.

The 100 m from train station sets the Lindas Beauty apart from the other hostels with higher ratings that are 2+ km from city center.

The Lindas Beauty Hostel's location description of 100 m from the train station looks incorrect. Google Maps shows the walk from the Bahnhofplatz/HB to Zähringerstrasse 12 to be about 600 m.

BTW you can use Google Maps to identify hotels near the train station by serching for:
hotels near Bahnhofplatz/HB, Zürich, Switzerland
The difficulty is that Maps will populate the map with the lowest price for hotels but does not appear to screen for 5 bed accomodations.

They might have trouble checking in to a hostel around midnight. And the price is only slightly lower than the flexible price at the Allegra ( and higher than the pre-paid price).

Lola is correct about checking hours. Lindas Beauty reception closes at 11pm. Youth Hostel Zurich has a 24 hour reception and prices their 6 bed private room at $273 USD (current conversion) but is reported to be 2.7 km from city center.