Hotel Diana

“Less than Average Hotel”

Having arrived at this hotel during an extensive tour of Northern Italy, I was frankly disappointed. Please don’t get me wrong. If your criterion is to stay close to Piazza San Marco, then this is the perfect hotel for you. However all that the hotel does it provide a bed, a roof over your head ... more

Having arrived at this hotel during an extensive tour of Northern Italy, I was frankly disappointed. Please don’t get me wrong. If your criterion is to stay close to Piazza San Marco, then this is the perfect hotel for you. However all that the hotel does it provide a bed, a roof over your head & some kind of a breakfast. When it comes to comfortable room, you are asking too much. The attitude of the staff is supercilious, bordering on rude & arrogant. Check-in was a slow ordeal with 4 of us waiting to check in. When we asked for a kettle in the room (standard all over the world), the guy at the reception (different from the check-in guy) looked down his nose at us & sniffed, tossed his head back and said “We provide accommodation & breakfast only. We don’t give kettle” “I am so sorry that I asked for a kettle and made you get up from your chair” I thought silently. This attitude rubs off on the non-Venetian staff as well. They wished us good morning in Italian but never made eye contact & you are left feeling dismissed. It seems that the Venetian Hospitality has forgotten that their business is being hospitable. Having just come back from a 5- week tour of India, one can tell that the Venetians have a lot to learn about hospitality from Asian countries. Our room was cramped. If you opened your suitcases on the floor, you could not get in & out of the bathroom. The solitary window is shuttered & looks down on a narrow street below & a wall in front of it. The bathroom fixtures are shambles. The hand held shower was dangling down. Its holder was broken. One gets the impression that no one inspects the room & makes sure that TV, shower, phone etc are in working order. Decor is tired and shabby. A cupboard takes up significant are of the small room. The bating area is a tub which is high-stepping. Those with limited mobility will have difficulty using it. The lack of grab-bars means that even those who are not physically limited have to be careful getting in & out of the tub. The tub has a glass/acrylic half-wall. No shower curtain. Combine that with a dangling shower handle which sprays everywhere, you get a wet bathroom floor. About the only positive in the hotel was the presence of a lift (elevator) so that we didn’t have to lug our suitcases up & down the stairs. The breakfast area is cramped-no surprise. And the breakfast included two kinds of cereals, croissants, a tray of sliced cheese, a tray of ham and a tray of salami. One feels claustrophobic in the room because of the lack of a window. Would I stay here again? No. Would I visit this over-hyped city again? Only if wild horses dragged me here.

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