Carlton on the Grand Canal

"Great location with just a 5 minute walk from the Piazza Roma and train station. The hotel is quiet with a nice bar on thr ground floor with a few tables outside. The rooms are spacious enough with a full size bath with shower, the room and bathroom were clean on arrival and bins and bed made on each day. All the staff were polite and very helpfull, and were more than happy to share there local knowledge of places and how best to get there. This hotel is great value for the price paid."

"Have just returned from a 2 night stay at the Carlton on the Grand Canal. We stayed here as the last stop on our trip across Italy for our honeymoon- disappointingly even though the hotel was informed that this was the purpose of our stay, this was not acknowledged in any way whatsoever. The location of the hotel is fantastic, as the name suggests, directly on the Grand Canal and opposite to Venice Santa Lucia railway station. From here, it is roughly a 30 minute steady stroll down to St Marks Square with plenty of bars, shops and restaurants along the way. To get to (VCE) Marco Polo airport, it is a 5 minute walk from the hotel to Piazzale Roma where regular buses depart. The interior of the hotel is very traditional and elegant with an on-site bar and restaurant. As others have mentioned, the prices are not the cheapest compared to other places in Venice. Our room was 168 and this was a cozy and comfortable room, very clean and with a mini bar, writing desk and TV included. Our gripe with the room was its location- ours was the only room located on the main corridor for other rooms to the staircase and lifts. Our door opened outwards on to the corridor and was very bizarre- we are convinced that this room has been converted from a former service room. For us where the hotel falls short is the service- it certainly looks the part, however it doesn’t quite live up to appearances. We had a relatively late arrival from Florence and had brought a bottle of wine with us that we wished to enjoy in our room, being too tired to venture out on our first night. When we requested wine glasses from the bar, we were told that this was not permitted as the bar is separate to the hotel?. We then asked at reception and the receptionist was very dismissive and unwilling to accommodate this request. I stay in hotels at least once a week for work ranging from 2* to 5* and this has never been an issue. On our last day, we had housekeeping knocking on our door 3 times before 11am. The first two times we shouted out hello and received no response, as it was early in the morning. The third time, at 1030am, we answered and the housekeeper just said “Check out 11am”. We wasn’t sure if this was her asking for confirmation or giving us a reminder. Either way this was annoying and again something I’ve never experienced before in a hotel- it almost felt like we were being hounded to check out and leave. Lastly, on the last day there was works taking place externally that impacted on the water and electricity in the hotel (both working intermittently). This was scheduled to last from 10am to 5pm. We only knew about this due to seeing a poster in the lifts the night before. If we hadn’t taken the lift, we would have been none the wiser. I feel the hotel should have put a letter under everyone’s door to make them aware as it was more than a slight inconvenience. Sadly, our stay at the Carlton wasn’t the best after a fantastic trip in Italy at other hotels. We were really looking forward to staying in what we thought would be an upmarket hotel in Venice with service to match, at the end of our honeymoon. The room was comfortable, location great and lots of the staff were friendly and helpful. Due to the reasons stated above however, the hotel did not live up to our expectations. I would think twice before considering staying here again should be ever visit Venice in the future."

"The photos do not reflect the actual condition of the many rooms we saw. They are all tired, battered and poorly lit. The first room we were assigned was so tiny we could not move around the bed, yet to be separated, and no where to place suitcases. The 2nd room was larger and bath as well. Some rooms do not have windows. Some no bidet or tub, only small shower that either have tiny acrylic enclosure or plastic type curtain. No hot water, so advise turning on hot only to get comfortable temp. Beds extremely hard. Pillows awful. Stingy on towels. Archaic hair blower had broken hose and more air came out of hose than blower area. Small selection of tv channels but did have BBC & CNN for English. Food within hotel terrible and expensive alcohol pricing, even for traditional Aperol Spritz. Only plus is location is across from train station but therefore poorly located for St Mark’s or other sites. And morning of departure, after breakfast, returned to see a cockroach at the door of our room attempting to enter. 4*? Don’t think so."