Ostelli a Zermatt

First of all, this place look MUCH better than the pictures. The whole building is new and well furnished instead of the rundown look on the booking website. And the bed is comfy and new. You just have to make your own bed: mattress, pillow and quilt. Locker is spacious too, with partition and hanger. I love how espresso/cappucino is free flow in the breakfast. And the breakfast has a good variety tho basic: different cheeses/ham, breads, jams etc, enough to keep me not bored for two nights. The staffs at reception were mostly helpful and vibrant in personality as well. There are fridge in the dining room too, which is a very important feature for guests staying in youth hostel. Because saving on food is one of the major reasons guests stay in youth hostel. Another good thing is free luggage storage before check-in and after check-out. That said, there are two huge problem with the hostel: one, the charger in the room. Because the socket is facing down, if one’s using heavy adapter and, even worse, along with a big charger, it’s almost certain to fall. And there’s only one socket on the wall. I was lucky for the 2nd night to switch to that bed, else I had to spend a good 1-2 hours in common area to have my phone/laptop etc charged. To me it’s a design that serves almost no purpose and even arguably insensitive to international traveler. Not sure how they’re gonna fix it for other travelers, but charging is almost #1 travelling need for travelers. The 2nd issue was with the bathroom on the top floor. The automatic light went off way too quickly, and it’s barely sensitive to motion when you’re in the shower cubicle. You have to open the door, and reach your hands out to have it turned back on, when everything is pitch dark. Many including me had talked about it, but no effective action was taken. P/S: From this place to Gornergrat, you have two stations to choose from: Zermatt or Findelbach, the latter is closer and 3.5CHF cheaper, but at the cost of more demanding uphill climbing.