Palazzetto Madonna
Venice
Reseñas
I love the place, the back court yard was so relaxing. It was so quiet. I enjoy my cigar and my drink with my wife. After that it was a gondola in front of this hotel, which we took for a ride, What a day. By the way, the service at the hotel were so friendly and attentive.
We were in room 205, which is a “suite” at the back of the building, with windows looking out on Campo San Toma. Not so much a suite as a good sized, very nicely decorated room with a bathroom. The room is only accessible through the outdoor courtyard garden and up a flight of stairs – no elevator. Nice high ceilings and characterful decor that felt quite Venetian. Quite a lot of wardrobe space for a hotel room. All seemed very clean. Some noise in evenings from Campo San Toma, including live music, but always finished at a reasonable time. Closing wooden shutters as well as windows insulated noise well. Pretty good selection of food at breakfast. Eggs made to order scrambled or fried, as well as pancakes and crepes. Staff were friendly and helpful. Quite a convenient location, just across the Grand Canal from the centre of Venice. 2 min walk to S. Toma pier where you can get the water bus or taxi, or take the gondola ferry service across the Grand Canal for €2 pp. Quite a few very nice restaurants, bars and cafes within short walking distance. Handy little supermarket on just around the corner. WiFi internet good: 87 Mbps down, 67 Mbps up. Not so good things: The Heating/Aircon controls were awkward and idiosyncratic. It seemed that the cooling was not working at all, and I suspect that as it was winter the hotel had turned them off to save energy — this was not a problem as such, except the heating was very “enthusiastic”, especially in the bathroom, and we struggled to sleep the first night due to the excessive warmth. By the second night I had got the hang of controlling the heat in the bedroom, with the help of opening windows for a while, although the bathroom radiators remained blasting out heat 24x7. No low level lighting controllable from bedside. Paper cups in room — we borrowed proper ceramic mugs from the bar/breakfast room. The rainfall shower head needs a thorough descaling or replacement. Water pressure quite low in shower.
This is a beautiful small hotel in a very convenient location. Many of the staff were delightful and very welcoming, especially Valentina on reception. The lift is rather quirky and basic, but does its job between two floors. Our room was solendid, very well decorated, spacious, with an excellent bathroom and a peaceful view across the surprisingly large courtyard garden. We found the bed/mattress much too hard, as previous guests have commented, and did not sleep well the first night, but the housekeeping team were very responsive the following morning and placed layers of thin duvets under the bottom sheet to create a softer “topper” effect. We then slept very well. The breakfasts are magnificent, better than anywhere else we have visited in many years of Venice. The team doing the breakfast were always so generous and friendly, and you could not have asked for more quality or variety. The hotel has a lovely tradition of offering guests a Prosecco every evening, and we have never met this before.
I'm torn on this review. Torn because I think this hotel deserves 3 and not the 4 stars i've given it but the staff is so helpful, kind, and results-oriented that it was hard to actually give the hotel the rating it probably deserves. First, the good. As mentioned, the staff is extremely kind and helpful. We had a number of requests which they were helpful in sorting and were always happy to do so. We really could not have been more pleased with the service from them. From the gifts we recieved for new years, to their accommodating our room changes and other special requests, they really made our stay as comfortable as was possible. Now, the bad. Frankly, the rooms just are not worth the price. This hotel is charging just under what some of the grand hotels on the Grand Canal are charging -- think of places like Palazzo Stern which is just 10-15% more expensive depending on the day. The Madonna cannot compare to a hotel like that and yet is charging similar prices. As one reviewer below noted, and I agree with, the hotel is trying to be something it isn't. Case in point, we needed to change our room from the floor zero because of the noise which echoed down the hallways from the kitchen prep team at 6am. The staff was happy to accomodate our change to another part of the hotel connected to the courtyard but this room too had a number of issues. First and foremost the bathroom door (which is transparent) would not close as it had come off its track. Second was the smell which was emanating from the shower drain. Clearly someone did not properly install a P trap on that line. Though the room was tastefully updated at some point, it was obviously beginning to show its age. Nevertheless, we found the rooms themselves to be very clean and well taken care of if in need of some updating. Additionally, the location is fantastic and there are great restaurants in the neighborhood. All that said, I would not revisit this hotel at the same price point and would recommend management to address the issues with the rooms and to reduce prices until they have done so.
