Hotel Amadeus — Hotel in Venice

We stayed for 2 nights at the Amadeus in August prior to embarking on a 12 night cruise from Venice with Holland America on the Nieuw Amsterdam. The hotel was an upgrade on a package booked through Cruise Nation. We had asked for a 4 star hotel close to Santa Lucia railway station and the cruise terminal as we came into Venice by train from Paris.

Our train arrived at 10.30am on a very hot morning. We were pleased that the hotel was only about a 7 minute walk (dragging cases) from the station and as we entered, the air conditioned, elegant foyer was very welcoming. We had expected to just leave our luggage as it was so early and go out to eat, but the management had already prepared our room and let us in immediately, which was wonderful.

We were on the first floor at the front overlooking the busy street, but there was double glazing, air conditioning and shutters, which meant the room was cool and silent. We showered and went out to eat.

The room was very pleasant - spacious, with a very comfortable king size bed, seating area, flat screen TV, plenty of storage. The only strange thing about the room was that there was a bathroom with wash basin as we entered in the vestibule, then to access the toilet, we had to walk through the bedroom to another room which contained toilet, bidet and washbasin! This made the whole process of ablutions, make-up etc very difficult! However, it's a very old building, so we managed!

Lighting and toiletries were good, there was an in-room safe in the wardrobe and the room was very clean. The standard of decoration was a little scary - bright red wall behind the bed with a risqué "antique" painting.

Breakfasts were served in a very pleasant dining room overlooking a lovely garden to the rear. There was fresh fruit salad, pastries, typical Italian sweet breads, cheese, bacon, scrambled eggs, yogurts, juices, in fact something for everyone. The coffee machine produced the best latte and cappuccino I have tasted for a long time. Downside - the fruit in the fruit salad was underripe on both days which was a shame.

Service and advice from the breakfast room and the front desk was excellent and courteous. All front desk staff spoke excellent English.

It's a shame there is no bar (although there is a mini bar in the bedroom), because no-one really takes advantage of the garden, which could be a real draw on a hot evening. However, the hotel is in a busy tourist area with many bars and restaurants.

Would I stay again? Yes. It doesn't match the like of the nearby Hotel Antiche Figure (excellent), but it was a pleasant place to stay and recover from a...

This is sold as a 4* hotel, but in my experience, it falls short of being a 4* and a 3* rating would be more fitting.|The first thing and in my opinion, the best thing to note about this hotel is the location. It is literally less than a 5 minute walk from the train station and the vaporetti station (the water buses). Definitely something to bear in mind when you have to lug a suitcase over an infinite amount of bridges! There are restaurants, bakeries, bars all within a stone´s throw from the hotel.||The reception was very classical and the young guy was very polite and helpful. |Our room was on the 4th floor, 401 on the top floor and it was a key with a traditional brass keyring. I have to say that our room was very small and quite old in design. But seeing as we were only going to be sleeping in it, we didn´t let it bother us too much. It was slightly lacking however. Only 1 bedside lamp, 1 chair, no desk or table. The shower was very good though.|The walls are very thin though and you could hear people just talking. We think there must have been a staff room of some sort next to us as there was no number on the door but staff used to go in and out and they made a lot of noise at all times of the day!|We opted to have breakfast in the hotel. It was adequate but nothing exceptional. You had a machine for coffees and teas and another for juices. There were 2 hot dishes of scrambled eggs and bacon and the rest was a selection of fruit, hams, cheese, a yoghurt machine, a pancake machine, bread and pastries. I did ask on the first morning for more scrambled eggs as the dish was empty. I waited over 15 minutes and then gave up. There is only 1 waiter on service.|I also asked at Reception if I could borrow or hire an iron but I was told they didn´t have one. Then I realised why when I found the laundry bag in the wardrobe with the price list for washing & ironing items - €7 to iron a skirt, they aren´t going to lend me an iron!|We stayed for 3 nights. The bed was comfortable and clean, the shower was very good and we had a good breakfast to set us up for the day. Venice is magical and it is a good base to explore this...

I booked a room including info that I use a wheelchair. I was allowed to check in early; I thought how nice of the Grumpy man at the front desk!

A few days later I lost my spare phone. It contained a large chunk of medical notes. I called Venice's Lost and Found but they didn't have an English speaker on duty.

Panicking, I went to see the Smiling guy (two guys man the front desk) and asked him if he could please help me report the loss in Italian .

He flatly refused to assist, telling me I'll never see my phone again; people don't hand in phones.

I was desperate and pleaded with him but he turned away and muttered something under his breath in Italian; then he and a female staff member laughed at me - right in front of me.

I was so humiliated to be mocked that I went up to my room disgusted at their despicable behaviour.

He's not obliged to help me, but it would've been the decent thing to do and this review would've been totally different.

I checked out a few days later. Before leaving Venice altogether I checked in for 1 night due to the hotel's lift service and proximity to the train station. (Wheelchair users would completely understand this).

Upon checking in, the porter looked at the room number and told Grumpy to change my room due to the many steps leading up to it.

Grumpy had intentionally allocated me an unsuitable room.

After much back and forth in Italian between Grumpy and the porter, the room was changed in all of 10 seconds. I was reprimanded for not mentioning the wheelchair in the reservation - the same wheelchair that was right in front of him !

I am at a loss of how Grumpy and Smily are allowed near a front desk. It's as if they're trying to sabotage the business with their rude, obnoxious treatment of...