San Giorgio Hotel in Venice

Reviews born from frustration seldom flatter, but I will endeavor to be fair—and honest.

We booked our stay about a year from our arrival. At the time of our booking, the hotel advertised air conditioned rooms and included a complimentary breakfast. Our reservation indicated we had a breakfast included with our stay—something we paid extra for. However, upon arrival, our situation had shifted in the hotel’s favor.
We arrived just after 2PM, which was the earliest we could check in. We found our room on the second floor (actually third, as they don’t count the ground as a level), and entered our room. The first thing we noticed was the room temperature. It was warm and stuffy. A quick inspection revealed the air conditioner was completely disconnected from electric power, as the wires were openly dangling from the ceiling. One of the staff members was helping guests carry their luggage to their room, as the hotel did not have an elevator. We asked about the air conditioner and she said it was unavailable throughout the entire hotel as they were upgrading the system. She brought us a fan. We asked to be moved to another room, but she insisted that none of the rooms had air conditioning. We asked to be moved to a room with more windows so we could get air flow, but she said it was impossible. We asked if they would allow us to check out so we could find better accommodations, but she said there were no refunds. We were stuck with our prepaid room. To make matters worse, our sister and her husband checked in at the same time and their room had air conditioning. To be fair—the hotel did offer to exchange our room after some other guests checked out the next day. But, we declined, not wanting the hassle of having to pack our stuff again to move down one floor. But, sleeping with an open window drew mosquitos, so we should have accepted the room change hassle.
The room was clean, but it was tiny. There was no room to walk around the bed, as it was pushed against two walls. Our “dresser” space was taken by the fan. The bathroom was clean and had a decent stand-up shower. It was super small. Only one person could be in the bathroom at a time. And only one person could stand beside the bed at a time. There was little room for changing clothes. We had to place our second bag in front of the door to open it.
The bed was fine, leaning on the firm side. Our pillows were uncomfortably hard.
The next morning, we were expecting to breakfast in the hotel and then start our day. But, they stopped us in the lobby and tried to charge us 15 euro for coffee, juice, and some pastries and possibly some lox. When we told them our reservation included breakfast, they were quick to show our printed receipt with the words highlighted indicating breakfast was not included.
Positives: the room was clean. The hotel was in a great location and was central to almost everything within the San Marcos district. It was a 4 minute walk to the water taxi that took us to the airport.
Overall, we had a clean room and a hot shower. So, our major complaint was them not meeting up with what they advertised. The staff seemed annoyed to have guests interrupting their day, and they went out of their way to ignore us. Unless we directly stopped them or spoke to them, they avoided interacting with us. This is not what we’ve come to expect with European traveling. Most hotels offer friendly service and are quick to be helpful or accommodate our requests. But this hotel is not tourist friendly.

This hotel is at a very nice location and the staff were super friendly. However, I did not quite enjoy this hotel as others in Italy. The room was half the size of a normal hotel room. As a matter of fact, it was hands on the smallest hotel room I ever experienced. I had to close my luggage if I want to open the door. No A/C until June. I tried to open the window, but there were lots of mosquitos. I barely had much sleep at all, unfortunately.