Association pour le Bateau Genève

A boat on the Geneva quay, run by an association

The Bateau Genève is a boat at Quai Gustave-Ador 1 (Quai Marchand des Eaux-Vives) in Geneva, and the Association pour le Bateau Genève rents it out for private events, weddings among them. The association runs a summer buvette (a casual bar and café) on board, a catering service and a training program: its kitchen and service teams include trainees in social and professional reintegration, working under the chef. Its site also has sections on heritage, on the social mission and on supporting the association with donations, so this is a cause as much as a venue.

The rental page opens with the essentials. In winter as in summer, the boat can be rented for private events (birthdays, aperitifs, company dinners, weddings and so on). The minimum for privatizing a space is 35 people, and the maximum for a private event is 300. Events can start at 17:00 at the earliest, and no event can take place on a Sunday. The page asks readers to go through the details carefully before getting in touch, because the options differ between the summer season and the rest of the year.

Summer, while the buvette is open (May to September)

During the buvette season, the boat is partly open to the public, and a private event works differently depending on the day. From Wednesday to Saturday, a couple can privatize one of the 2 terraces at the front of the boat, on the side facing the Jardin anglais, one on the upper deck and one on the lower deck, together with a fallback area in case of bad weather. The terrace text gives the upper terrace up to 80 people and the lower one up to 50; the booking calendar labels them at a maximum of 90 and 50. The booking form states that the maximum for a private event between Wednesday and Saturday is 90 people, and that a larger group should book a Monday or Tuesday instead.

On Mondays and Tuesdays the whole boat can be privatized, with or without the association's catering. That is the route for a summer wedding above 90 guests, or for a couple who wants no public on board.

Summer rental fees range from 500 to 1000 francs depending on the terrace, the number of guests and the catering ordered, and the association then sends a tailored quote.

The rest of the year (September to April)

Outside the buvette season the boat can be rented every day of the week except Sunday, and the event has to be strictly private and closed to the public. Parties run for profit and events charging an entrance fee are not allowed.

There are 2 types of rental in this period. The first is a rental with the boat's own catering: standing dinners (cocktails dinatoires), buffets or more elaborate meals made by the chef, which the association says showcase the training and reintegration work it does with its teams. In the page's words, "Nous construisons vos événements ensemble" (we build your events together).

The second is a simple rental without catering. The renter has the whole boat, up to 300 people, with a kitchen with fridges and plenty of chairs and tables, but no crockery for hire. The important condition: the renter may not bring in an external professional caterer. The prices for this simple rental are CHF 1,300 plus VAT from Monday to Wednesday (off season) and CHF 2,000 plus VAT from Thursday to Saturday. Additional charges for cleaning and for a manager on board may apply, depending on the number of guests and the hours requested.

The booking form breaks the calendar into periods: 25 April to 19 September (the terrace season), 16 January to 23 April, and 21 September to 17 December (whole boat). Dates between mid December and mid January do not appear among the options.

Evening hours

Closing times depend on regulatory constraints and the day of the week: midnight from Monday to Wednesday, 1:00 on Thursday, 2:00 on Friday and 3:00 on Saturday. Combined with the 17:00 earliest start, this makes the boat an evening venue. A wedding day with a ceremony in the afternoon elsewhere and dinner and dancing on board fits these hours well; a lunch reception does not.

Food from the association's kitchen

The catering service offers cocktails, buffets or more elaborate meals, prepared by the chef and the reintegration trainees, who work in both the kitchen and the service. Prices and dishes are on a downloadable catering menu (carte traiteur), linked from the page. The association notes that because of the success of its catering service it is handling a large number of requests and asks for patience. For a couple, choosing this venue means the wedding dinner also supports the association's training work.

How to book

Requests to privatize a space go only through the online form on the rental page. The form first asks for the season, the day of the week and the estimated guest count, and it filters out requests below 35 or above 300 people. It then asks for contact details, the preferred date and start and end times, and a message. The availability calendar is marked as indicative only, and a couple whose date appears taken can ask to be put on a waiting list in case of a cancellation. The page stresses that the form is a first contact, not a booking confirmation: the team comes back to confirm whether the date and the event are feasible.

The association's administrative line is 022 786 43 45, and general questions about the association go to info@bateaugeneve.ch. A virtual tour of the boat is linked from the page, which is useful for a couple planning from abroad. Smaller table bookings for groups of 4 to 18 go through a separate reservation site and are not private events.

What the page does not cover

The rental page is published in French and does not say whether the team handles bookings in English. It gives no cancellation terms and no deposit rules. It does not describe access for guests with reduced mobility, which matters on a boat with an upper and a lower deck. It says nothing about parking or public transport to the quay beyond the address, and nothing about a ceremony on board: the page speaks of events, meals and aperitifs, so a couple wanting to exchange vows on deck should ask.

Who it suits

The Bateau Genève suits a Geneva wedding party of 35 to 300 guests who want an evening on the water side of the city, a relaxed setting and food from a kitchen with a social purpose. Couples with 90 guests or fewer have the most flexibility in summer; larger groups should look at a Monday or Tuesday in season, or at the whole boat from autumn to spring. The limits are firm: no Sundays, no start before 17:00, no outside professional caterer, and a booking process that runs in French through a single form.