San Lio Tourist House — Hotel in Venice

Warning: This is a long review, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible for future guests. The check in process is very different - if you're planning on staying here and don't want to read the full review, I urge you to skip to the check in paragraph so that you can at least be prepared.

I had very mixed feelings about this hotel. The good: -Secure- The building seems very safe and well secured. There are two sets of locking doors that you have to go through to get to the rooms - I think it would be almost impossible for someone to break in. -Location- The location was excellent. About a 7 minute walk to St. Mark's square, located by many shops, eateries, and cafes. As some have mentioned - the cafe right next to the building is a great little place. -Bed- Very comfy! -Clean- Everything seemed to be very well cleaned and room service attended to our room very nicely. -Mini bar- Compared to other places we have stayed, prices were VERY reasonable and there was a great variety.

The not so good, but not awful: -Check-in- Check-in was ... weird. We booked this place on Agoda and I did not see a review that mentioned this, but reviews on other booking sources do mention this. We walked in, went up the steps and walked into a tiny room that served as reception. There was a little screen on the wall, and a guy popped up on it using Skype. He asked for our names, then told us we needed to leave our luggage there in the room and bring our passports over to meet him in a different hotel to finish checking in. We were slightly alarmed that this was some kind of weird scheme to steal our luggage (I'm a paranoid person), but everything was fine. The walk to the other hotel was probably 2-3 minutes; not far at all. I wish they would have disclosed this, I would have felt much more at ease about it. Not a huge deal, but a little weird. -City tax- You can only pay this with cash. Luckily we had some, but I feel that this should have been disclosed as well. Also not a bad thing, just make sure you have cash. -Shower- The shower was SO small. Like physically impossible to bend over or even really bend your elbows without opening the shower doors and getting water everywhere. Not a deal breaker, but definitely a bit annoying. -Noisy- I suppose this is the price of being in such a great location but this place can get pretty loud at night. We were in room 104 (not entirely sure where this faces on the outside) and things got pretty loud outside starting at about 6 in the morning, going well into the night. There are shutters to the window that you can close to help, but they only do so much. -The smell- When we first came in, the smell of baby powder (I'm guessing) was SO strong. Didn't bother my partner, but it bothered me. It took awhile to acclimate to it. Again, not a deal breaker, just something that was a bit offputting initially. -Wi-fi- I'm suspecting this may be a common theme, I've read many other reviews that have mentioned issues with this. Our wifi went out at around 7 PM and did not come back on until the following morning. I called reception, and he apologized and was nice about it. But, as we that made sure to only book hotels with wifi during our Europe trip, this was pretty annoying. I felt like we should have gotten some sort of reimbursement for this.

Would I stay here again? Ehhh, if I was on a budget, sure. If I was splurging, probably not. But the location really is great - just some things...

We have just returned from three nights at the tourist house. The communication received before arrival was brilliant and the instructions on the water boat and how to find the location were excellent. We followed these exactly and were in the hotel less than one hour after landing in Venice. ||||On check in the host was extremely helpful and friendly. He went out of his way to find the details of the night boat and bus we needed for the Saturday for the airport as we had an early flight. Again these instructions were outstanding and we travelled back to the airport at 4 am with no problems. ||||The room was small but quaint. The bedding and towels are spotlessly clean. The bathroom is a little small, my partner struggled in the shower but I was fine. Toiletries are provided. Plenty of hot water. Bathroom was very clean.||||There is a minibar in the room with a reasonable price list of you want to use it. We found closing the window shutters helpful. Heating in the room was excellent. ||||Complimentary coffee and pastries are served 8 am to 10 am.||||Location is great, five minutes to Rialto bridge about 15 minutes to the square. As it was so close to Rialto it was always easy to find our way back.||||If you are looking for convenient, clean, friendly and a great welcome stay here. ||||I would return in a...

I had this trip booked in 2019 for April 2020 and then COVID hit. I had a non refundable room and Umberto had no problem giving me a voucher to use within the next year. I then booked again for April 2021. My flights got cancelled from Dublin and we weren’t allowed leave Ireland for non essential travel. Again, Umberto had no problem letting me rebook my dates for September 2021. He was fantastic and the communication was great. He even sent a list of the best ways to get to and from the airports. We arrived on Saturday and he was so welcoming. We booked the deluxe suite so we were staying just 1 min from the hotel. Our suite was fabulous! It was absolutely spotless and so modern. We arrived to a fabulous bottle of Prosecco. The location is perfect, 3 mins walk to Rialto Bridge. We will most definitely be staying here again when we return to Venice. Thanks to Umberto for a...