B&B The Caponi Bros — Hotel in Venice

Where do I start.. Booked for 3 nights, stayed for 2 (reluctantly). ||||First of all, we were made to carry our very large suitcases up 5 flights of stairs to the "reception" of one building, only to be told we were staying next door. We then had to climb back down the stairs and back up another 5 flights upstairs to the "budget" building next door.. Not that the first building looked to be any better. ||||This is where the fun begins...||Unlike the pictures shown, we did not have a "triple room", but a double "bed" (piece of foam) and a fold out sofa. ||||The strangest and most inconvenient problem was that NONE of the keys to ANY of the rooms work. There is a communal key to the shared bathroom which worked once, the entire time we were there. The other times, all three of us had to climb out the bathroom window to get out of the bathroom. Thank god it was there. We also spent 10-15 minutes trying to get into the front door and then our bedroom door every time we entered the building. When one of our party was stuck in the other shared bathroom, with nowhere to jump out of the window, the very rude member of staff told us that we were going to break the key and told them to drop the key out the window so he could let her out. ||||There was a blood stain on the blanket on the main bed. ||||The sink in the bathroom was clogged for an entire day, and still clogged when we left. We had to brush our teeth over the toilet. (Please see below) As you can imagine, not the most pleasant of experiences. ||||The toilet flush button was not a button but a coat hanger... Yep. A coat hanger..... ||||All of the power went out on both of the nights that we were there. One of the nights, after waiting for 45 minutes for the overcrowded, shared bathroom, one of our party got stuck in the shower, naked, in the pitch black... Which made it very difficult to climb out the window. ||||The wifi didn't/barely worked for the majority of our stay. ||||Mestre is also AT LEAST 20 minutes on a bus, then a ferry away from Venice.. Not 10 minutes as was described.||||All of these problems were very rudely dismissed by the members of staff. ||||If the staff were helpful or at the very least, pleasant.. The other things could possibly be overlooked (except the bloodstain) and it may have been a bareable stay. ||||It was so bad that we forfeited the final night's accommodation that we had pre-booked and stayed elsewhere. ||||Everyone that was staying there during our stay was having the same issues. Really suprised there are no other reviews to this effect....

Please read Vaskez's review from 22 June 2013. It's very comprehensive, the more so as that person experienced both the nice half and the (apparently) less-nice other half of the B&B.||||I stayed in the nice half (room 3). It was fine. Everything was clean, and the bed was large and comfortable.||||Apart from that, the only things that I will add to Vaskez's great review are about the staff and the logistics.||||STAFF: The person I interacted with (a man from south Asia) was friendly enough and spoke good English. (He preferred English to my good-by-tourist-standards Italian.) He was there when I arrived late (after 9pm). Granted, I had let them know ahead of time that I would be late by sending an SMS to the mobile number in my booking reference, so perhaps that made a difference, but I think he is around late into the evening (like midnight if you pre-clear it).||||LOGISTICS: Breakfast was served promptly from 8 am (sometimes even a bit earlier), which is good if you want to get an early start. The breakfast was somewhat "industrial" (plastic-wrapped "croissants" etc.) but otherwise OK. You're quite close to the Venezia-Mestre train station, which is a 10-15 minute ride into Venice proper (Venezia-Santa Lucia). Once you figure out where the place is, it's only a five-minute walk to the train station (for brisk walkers). Trains between Mestre and Santa Lucia are quite frequent as Mestre is both a bedroom community for Venice and an employment destination in its own right.||||This was so much cheaper (€45) than staying in Venice proper that I thought it was worth it. However, do not be deluded into thinking that this place has any charm. It gets the job done: a clean, inexpensive bed for a night, with a...

Okay for a quick stayover but would not stay there longer/again.||Originally had not booked to stay in Venice this night, but due to Flixbus cancelling a bus from Pisa to Venice overnight, found ourselves catching a train and staying the night.||Needed a cheap hotel as Venice can be very expensive and also one that allowed late check-in as train was not to arrive until 9.30pm. However train was delayed and so arrived eventually in Venice at around 11pm.||Had contacted hotel on WhatsApp just to let them know about delay and seemed okay, as simply got OK back.||Rang doorbell to what I thought was the hotel (was labelled Caponi Bros) to find a man leaning out from a window to ring another bell on another door.||Was welcomed in, and shown basic room (enough for 4 people) and then headed to bed. Man said he was just staying across the room in what I believe was his room/apartment. Grateful he stayed up longer than expected as had hoped to arrive sooner.||Shower room we were shown to use had no lock on it, not great when travelling with family Inc 2 females. Never stayed in a hotel with power/Ariel cables to TV fixed to wall with brown tape. ||Arrived 11pm, left at 10am next morning to make our way to another booked hotel. You get what you pay for, and Venice is expensive. Location was perfect as just a short walk from station or a minute...