Hotel Rossi

Our Members Say

 The good things about Hotel Rossi--very near the train station and a very good price for Venice. The rooms are basic but totally fine and the beds were comfortable. A breakfast of coffee, rolls and jam is included, although your jaw may get a work out chewing those rolls. The front desk people were generally helpful with inquiries about how to get around the city and they provided us with a decent map.

But everything else about our stay was a comedy of errors and even though I wouldn't declare "don't ever stay at Hotel Rossi," I probably won't reward them with my business again.

I contacted the hotel in December about a 3 night stay in May. We requested a single room with two beds and they confirmed our reservation. When we arrived we were told that they did not have the room we requested. They "explained" that the mix up was because I had booked so far in advance. Something about how they don't actually open till March. As best as I understood it, they just replied 'yes' to me and to other guests, and then figured they'd work out the details later, when they opened. Unsurprisingly, it didn't all work out. After explaining the problem, he told me several times that "You see it is not our fault." Well, I didn't actually see that at all. And maybe it's too American of me but having a customer service person tell me over and over again that it is not their fault doesn't really ease my annoyance.

But since they were going to give us 2 rooms for the first night (no additional charge) and then switch us to our originally requested room, I didn't make a big deal about it.

Our rooms were on the 3rd and 4th floors. The 4th floor room was incredibly small and there was no bathroom on that floor at all. But even that we could have dealt with if it weren't for the fact that the room was like a sauna. At first we thought it was just because it was a warm day so we opened the window as wide as possible. But then I realized the heater was warm. We called down to the front desk to ask if there was any way it could be on and how we could turn it off. No, we were told that the heat was not on.

As we left for dinner, we encouraged him to check out the room--it was truly unbearably hot. He said he would of course check, but that of course the heat was not on. He was definitely doing his best not to be annoyed with us. When we came back there was a different person at the desk and the room was just as hot. You truly could not sleep there. We didn't feel like dealing with the front desk so we just so we moved everything back to the other room and dealt with the single bed.

On our way out for the day the following morning we told them we couldn't sleep in the room and received a shrug in response. Later did saw us and said that yes, it turns out we were right. The boiler was broken and stuck in the "on" position. But it was Sunday so there probably wouldn't be any repairs that day. We let it go because we were being moved to a different room. Although that one wound up being quite warm as well, we were just happy to be in our originally requested room at last.

After a long day of walking and sight seeing, we went back to our rooms to relax. A couple of hours later I was just starting to fall asleep (admittedly early but it was probably around 10 pm) when the phone rang and woke me up. The reception desk wanted to know how many days we were staying. Were we leaving tomorrow? No, we told them we intended to stay three nights--as we arranged when we made our reservations! Why were they calling us at 10 pm when they saw us retire to our room 2 hours before (and they did see us because they keep all room keys at the front desk)? I was starting to feel that Hotel Rossi was determined I not sleep soundly and comfortably in their establishment.

The next night, Monday, the boiler still wasn't fixed. But the windows and the ceiling fan and an evening rain kept us cool enough. Still, since there were no curtains, you had to have the shutters closed in order to keep out the sunlight (I tend to rise at first light if I can't block it out). So the choice was sleep in a sauna or rise at dawn. I chose to rise at dawn.

When we paid I kind of wanted to hassle the management for a discount but I just didn't have the energy. They certainly didn't offer any discounts.

There are lots of reasons for people to stay at Hotel Rossi. I doubt all the things that went wrong with our stay are likely to repeat for anyone else. But even though I'm a pretty forgiving traveler, I have to say I would have to be pretty desperate to give them a 2nd chance. 

215 members live in Venice