NH Laguna Palace - Mestre, Italy     

Hotel itself was very modern. Staff was helpful and pleasant. Rooms were clean and A/C worked fine. Whereas I did have a walkin shower, others on my tour had baths. Breakfast was not what we expect in America, but was OK. Commute to Venice was not pleasant. It is NOT a short walk to the train station. You can get a cab to the train station, which is what I recommend. The bus can take you as well if you don't mind waiting. Also, in the later evenings on the return from the station to the hotel, the bus stops running and you will then have to wait for a taxi or walk (20-30 minutes in a not so nice area). Once you get to the train station it is about a 10 minute ride to Venice. If you are heading to St. Marks Plaza you then have a 20 minute vaparetto ride. Water taxi is available from anywhere between 150-200 Euro depending on how many in your party. All in all if your destination is Venice island -- spend the extra money and stay there. The 2-3 hours you expend getting there from Mestre is just not worth it. But the hotel is fine!

The taxi dropped us off at the hotel address, which is on 2, Viale Ancona, Mestre. At check-in we were told our room was not there, in building A, but on building B. The connection between the two buildings is made only through the underground garage. Building B is located even on another street, on via Torino, if I remember well, but we found all these on the spot, the information was not available at the booking time. We said fine and moved with all luggages, through the underground corridors, to building B. The other connecting alternative was to use the sidewalks, which was not our option on that rainy day. We took the room to discover only later that buiding B has NO ROOM SERVICE, NO LOUNGE BAR and NO RESTAURANT available for guests. If you need the restaurant, go get the grotty corridors or the sidewalk to reach building A! But for ROOM SERVICE there is NO WAY - simply it is not available for guests located in building B! And we paid the rate for a FOUR STARS hotel enjoying only BB services! So if you want to enjoy full services of the hotel, DO NOT take a room in building B! Otherwise, the location might be okay for conferences, but is below average if your goal is to use it as a base for visitng Venice.