Venice Apartments

The room turned out to have a shared bathroom, and the person sharing it with us was up and down every 10-20 minutes all night. I don’t know what kind of business he had on the streets, but he didn’t seem like a regular hotel guest or tourist. We barely slept. The fridge and boiler were also so noisy that we had to switch them off. We had booked an "apartment for 2 with bathroom" at Hotel Ariel Silva. The booking listed Calle della Masena 1391/A, which was supposed to be opposite the check-in building on Calle Zotti. When we arrived, we were told the apartment was actually in a completely different part of Venice, 800 m away, and there was no availability at the closer location. I’d picked it because it was near the station, so the unexpected long walk was a problem. The furniture was old, the tablecloth had a big hole, and the bed was really a sofa bed, as the pictures showed. I assumed I might have made a booking mistake and had no other options, so we took the room anyway. When we asked for compensation for being given the wrong room, the hotel was unhelpful. Screenshots of the booking didn’t help, and they kept saying it was the room we had booked. I feel scammed. A total disaster, and luckily we only stayed one night.

The room was a typical low-budget European setup, except we had to share a bathroom. We could hear everything, and the windows did nothing to block the street noise. The apartments are right by a restaurant, so expect to hear it being cleaned and set up well past midnight. We had two terrible nights of sleep. I admit we chose somewhere too central. With the crowds, staying so close to everything wasn’t worth the cost. Lesson learned, next time I’d stay outside the old city.

The owner was so pleasant with us, and even came to pick us up at the boat station late at night. The apartment was fantastic, with a good location, plenty of space, heating, and everything clean. Totally recommended.

There was plenty of space for our family of four, and the place had a classic Venetian look. Great location. I’d recommend it to anyone.