HDA Services

HDA Services has been moving households and businesses out of Geneva since 2008, and the detail that says the most about how it operates is not on the homepage's list of services but buried in a single line further down: the University of Geneva once handed it the job of relocating more than 25'000 volumes from its own collection. Moving a library is a different discipline from moving a living room. Books have to travel in sequence, stay dry, and land back on the right shelf in the right order, and a firm that gets chosen for that kind of contract, alongside cited clients like the UN, the WHO and Swiss banks, is being trusted with logistics, not just muscle.

What it is

HDA Services runs from three registered addresses: Route des Jeunes 4ter in Les Acacias, Geneva, a second office at Rietstrasse 36 in Glattbrugg, Zurich, and a coordination address in Porto, Portugal. Each location has its own phone line and, in Zurich's case, its own email address (umzug@hda-services.com rather than the Geneva info@ line), which reads as three real regional teams rather than a single office running a wide-reaching website. The Geneva line is +41 22 793 13 62, Lausanne is served on +41 21 311 00 19, Zurich on +41 44 810 30 00, and international moves route through a dedicated line on +41 22 300 41 69 or +41 78 836 40 16.

The company works across three registers: domestic moves within Switzerland for private clients and businesses, international moves in both directions for private clients and companies, and a commercial line that covers office relocations specifically. It is a general Swiss mover with an international arm attached, not a niche freight forwarder that happens to also do apartments.

What you get

The core move is described as a three-part sequence on the site: HDA packs, HDA transports, HDA unpacks, and the client is "welcome home" at the other end. Around that core sit a set of named add-ons rather than vague promises: a handyman service for small fix-it jobs during a move, house and cellar clearance, furniture storage, moves that account for pets, commercial freight transport, a delivery and transport service, and custom-built certified crates for anything that needs more protection than a standard cardboard box. For a company that moves both households and university archives, the range makes sense as one team that scales its packaging up or down rather than two separate operations.

Cross-border moves come with a customs formalities service, which matters more than it sounds: a move to or from Switzerland that gets stuck at a border because of paperwork is the kind of failure a reader only hears about after it happens to someone else. HDA lists this as a named service rather than folding it silently into "international moving," which at least tells a prospective client the paperwork is being handled by someone rather than left to chance.

What stands out

The volume estimate is done through a virtual visit rather than a home visit or a guess over the phone. The client walks a video call through their rooms, and HDA Services uses it to size the job in cubic metres before quoting, described on the site as "secure, precise and fast." It removes the two worst failure modes of a moving quote: an in-person visit that eats an afternoon, or a phone estimate that turns out wrong on move day and reopens the price. Whether it is actually faster than a scheduled home visit depends on how quickly a slot comes up, which the site does not say.

The stated differentiators beyond that are licensed movers, flexible working hours, a claimed emphasis on securing belongings, and personal tracking through the move, though none of these come with a number attached, so they read as positioning rather than a measurable guarantee.

How it's organised

The five contact points (Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Portugal, and a separate international line) suggest HDA Services is set up to route an enquiry to whichever team is closest to the job rather than funnelling every call through one switchboard. That structure fits a company doing both a local Geneva move and a relocation to another country from the same brand: the Lausanne line for a nearby domestic job, the international line for someone shipping a household abroad.

What it costs

HDA Services does not publish rates, packages, or a minimum charge anywhere on the site. Quotes are free and requested either through a form or a phone call, and the virtual cubage visit exists specifically to make that quote accurate rather than a rough estimate that changes later. Anyone comparing this mover against a competitor will be comparing two quotes, not two published price lists, because neither this company nor most of the market it competes in prices moving jobs online.

How it compares

Against a small independent Geneva mover, HDA Services' edge is reach: a household leaving Switzerland entirely, or a company relocating an office with sensitive equipment, gets a firm that already runs the Zurich and Portugal ends of that kind of job rather than handing it to a partner at the border. Against a large international relocation brand, its edge runs the other way: three offices and named regional contacts read as more reachable than a national call centre, and the University of Geneva contract is the kind of reference a bigger, more anonymous operator would not need to lean on.

Who it suits

This is a good fit for a Geneva household or business planning a domestic move who also wants the option of an international leg without switching providers, and for anyone whose move includes something delicate enough to want a custom crate rather than a standard box, whether that is fine art, an instrument, or, evidently, a library. It suits someone comfortable doing a video walkthrough for their quote rather than waiting for an in-person visit. It is a weaker fit for someone who wants a published price before they pick up the phone, since that information simply is not on the site.

The verdict

The University of Geneva reference is doing real work here: a firm capable of moving a five-figure book collection intact is a firm that has already solved the harder version of most residential moving problems, and the three-office structure across Geneva, Zurich and Porto backs that up with actual regional infrastructure rather than a website claiming national reach it cannot deliver. The one open question is cost, which stays invisible until the virtual cubage visit produces a number, so anyone comparing several movers should expect to request quotes rather than shop from a published list.