Hotel Iris - Venice, Italy 

I reserved this hotel last minute and unfortunately did not have the time to read reviews beforehand. What a mistake. I paid about $250 US per night for this hotel room. The Bad: The hotel is old and is a dump. Not old as in charming. It is anything but charming. The hotel is decorated with nasty old furniture that is in disrepair. I've stayed in many Euro hotels and know what to expect from them. I'm fine with charming and old. I like the small hotels better than the chains in Europe because they are usually charming. Our room was horrible. We were in room 102. The air conditioning unit was broken. The beds were really gross, so gross that we wanted to sleep on top of the blankets. We found a dead bug in between the sheets and two long black hairs. Really gross. Because the AC was broken we had to open our windows for fresh air. What a mistake. Our room was invaded by tons of nasty mosquitoes that buzzed in our ears and ate us alive. These bites stay for up to a week and itch like mad! Only after this did we inspect the walls and discover the DNA of a hundred past guests on the wall and furniture. People had been squishing these bugs all over the walls and headboards and the staff never clean them off. There were hundreds of blood spots on the walls. The ceiling had yellow leak stains all over it and huge cracks everywhere. The next night we sealed up the rooms by shutting the windows. The mosquitoes still got in our room and bit us further. It was so bad that we could hardly sleep. The shower head was broken so you couldn't just stand in it (it pointed at the floor) but had to hold it. To add insult to injury here the metal hose on the shower head was shredded and cut me when I held it. The furniture was disgusting. One chair had a weave in the seat that was punched out. I would have left except (OF COURSE) this place has a policy that even if you leave early you have to pay for your entire stay so we were stuck there. Had I had the option we would have left to go somewhere else. The Good: The location. The hotel is a very short walk from the S. Toma vaparetto stop. It's about ten minutes walk from the Rialto Bridge/Markets. If you take the vaparetto then it's just two stops down the water. I like being near a vaparetto stop in Venice because it makes it really easy to get around. It's a little far from San Marco but you can ride the vaparetto to it. Also, I think that San Marco is the least interesting and most crowded part of Venice so it's not an issue for me. Summary: Don't put yourself through the horror of staying at this hotel. Pay another $50 a night and go somewhere that you feel safe sleeping between the sheets.

Venice, Iris Hotel Stayed 21st to 24th April 2008. Reviewed by Jo Knight, Exmouth I booked this hotel by chance, being unable to get the one I stayed in three years ago. It is a lovely little hotel, with a very nice restaurant attached and the food is superb. This is very welcome after a hard day walking round Venice. We were welcomed even though we had arrived at about 11 p.m. and the staff did not make one feel that it was too much bother to serve us a meal. The room was very comfortable and clean with a lovely view of the canal, the breakfast of orange juice, rolls, croissants and wonderful coffee served to us was just right. Location of the hotel was within easy walking distance of the Rialto and St. Marks, with lovely shop windows to gaze at on the way to these locations. Plenty of very nice places to eat or have a coffee - If we ever manage to go to Venice again, (and I sincerely hope we will) then I will definitely book this hotel again.