Hotel Riviera - Venice-Lido, Italy 

This hotel is very conveniently situated at the end of the main street and directly across from the vaporetto stop. The sign is easy to miss as it is not large. Like many hotels in Venice (it seems) it is looking a little faded. We booked a room with a lagoon view and a balcony (they ignored the request for the rate offered by the conference we were attending, on booking, on arrival and the next day, with differing excuses). The room (20) was large (so was the furniture - I could not reach the hanging rack in the wardrobe) and the view spectacular. The bathroom had a window and a bath! The balcony was quite small but the french doors enabled you to sit and enjoy the view. It was very hot and sticky so we were glad of the A\C at night. So far so good. The breakfast was the usual, meats, boiled eggs etc. but the plastic cups for the watery juice were a bit tacky and the coffee was not great. We used the internet but thought that 6 euros an hour was a bit steep.On the morning of the 5th day we reported that the toilet was not working properly. When we returned several hours later it was still not right and eventually their plumber decided it was broken and removed it so we had to change rooms. No help was offered and the second room (39) was much smaller. It still had the view but only if you stood right at the window and there was no balcony. There were rugs on the floor which slid whenever you stepped on them (we rolled them up before one of us fell) and there was an 8 inch step up into the tiny bathroom (no window and a very small shower). The TV was high up in the corner and you could only see it comfortably if you were lying on the bed. Even taking the humidity into account we thought the sheets felt damp. When we asked for a discount for the last night their English suddenly desserted them (as, by then , we expected) and they thought we should just be glad they had a room to give us (we didn"t remove the toilet!!!). All in all this was the worst of the 3 hotels we have stopped in at the Lido and at 240euros a night it was the most expensive. Taking into account that this was the first week of high season we thought this hotel was bad value for the money. I would not reccommend this hotel mainly because of the bad attitude of the daytime front desk staff.

My wife and I stayed here for 3 nights in May of 2008, we were booked here through our tour group. Overall we had a great time and thought the hotel was very nice. The rooms are small (even for Europe), but the staff was very helpful and the hotel was very clean. The hotel is a small, family run and very charming. The location is right across the street from a vaporetto stop, so St. Marks is a short boat ride away. There is a great caf? across the street and just down the main street are several wonderful restaurants. What really made our stay great was the view from the room, we had a 4th floor room that overlooked the lagoon with St. Marks in the background, was great to come back to the room after a long day and drink wine while watching the sun set. I would recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a relaxing few days in Venice.