Review at TripAdvisor.com

Our review was just posted at TripAdvisor

Venice: Hotel Continental Venice: "Worst Hotel Experience Ever"May 29, 2005: A TripAdvisor Member, NY, NY

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I stayed at this hotel in:May, 2005

I traveled to this hotel with: spouse/partner, a large group or tour

My visit was for: extended vacation

Would I stay at this location again: no way!

I recently stayed in the Hotel Continental for a few days as part of a tour. I ended up leaving the tour a day early because the hotel was so bad. I paid approximately $500 extra (changing my plane ticket and paying for a water taxi) just so I could get out of there as fast as I could. So that should give you an idea of how bad it was. There was only 1 more day left in the tour but I literally could not spend one more night there.Everyone on my tour hated the hotel. It is not well maintained, the rooms are incredibly old fashioned and dirty, the staff was horrible, the lobby is tiny and not nearly as nice as the two nearby hotels which have full floor lobbies with mahagony counters...and cost the same...(yes, I tried to switch hotels but the others were booked) When we first arrived at the hotel we quickly found out that the air conditioning didn't work. We were told that it broke several days ago and a repairman should be here 'tomorrow'. Why wasn't he there several days ago when it first broke? Not only that, the entire staff refused to apologize and simply laughed when anyone asked when it would be fixed. They just didn't care. Any 'real' hotel would at a bare minimum offered its guests bottles of water so that they didn't pass out when in their 90 degree rooms. And nicer hotels would have provided fans (which my incredible tour director managed to borrow from a different hotel, since of course the Continental didn't have one)Like I said, the place is dirty, grimy, and just plain awful. I will admit that there are a FEW decent rooms in the hotel which must be where the other reviewers stayed, but those rooms are very hard to come by. Our first night there we had a room which was disgusting. The wall paper was peeling, there was dirt on pillows, and to top it off, the floor sloped. Yes, if you put a bottle on the bed it would roll to one corner. The whole room was on a slant. After about 3 hours of arguing and trying to convince us that they had no other rooms, our tour guide managed to convince the staff to give us another room. The room they gave us, I admit, was somewhat nice. It was obviously renovated somewhat recently, unlike the other room which I don't think has ever been renovated (in fact, there really was no comparison). However, at 8:45 the next morning I was informed that I had to quickly pack b/c they were taking that room back and giving me another. When we got back from the tour that evening we got our new room, which was now moved from the 1st floor (where it was already hot enough), to the 3rd floor where it was unbearable. Not to mention that the bed in this room was broken as it completely sloped inward from both sides. And again, the carpet was dirty and the wallpaper was peeling. That's when we called the airline and made our flight a day earlier...So, in summation, I would do everything in my power not to stay here. If for some reason you must, do your best to get it in writing that you will have one of the more modern rooms, and that the air conditioning will work. But I'm sure the staff will just laugh and not care one bit about what you want...

Yahoo Travel Review on Hotel Continental

Our review was just posted on Yahoo Travel:

Continental Hotel, Venice

Everything about this hotel was awful. Do not be fooled by online pictures and reviews. There are only a handful of decent, clean rooms and the rest are just disgusting. The staff is awful, the lobby is tiny, the hallways are dark and dirty, and there are only a few rooms with actual views of the canal. Most rooms are extremely outdated with poor furnishings and lighting. We were there recently on a tour and had to switch rooms 3 times, and even ended up leaving the tour a day early b/c everything was so bad. The first room we had was dark and dirty and literally sloped. The second room we had was one of the decent rooms the hotel offers, but they kicked us out of that room at 8:30 the next morning. Oh, almost forgot to mention that the air conditioning was broken and the hotel didn't care. In fact, the next room they moved us up to was on the 3rd floor and must have been 90 degrees. We couldn't stand it anymore so we left early. The staff was very rude and didn't care at all that the a/c was broken. They didn't even apologize or offer anyone water or any form of compensation. They simply laughed and said they were 'working on it'. So we would highly recommend that you avoid this hotel at all costs. Even if they offered to let us come back for free there is no way I would stay there.

Our Experience at Hotel Continental in Venice

This was by far the worst hotel we have ever stayed in. I cannot urge you enough NOT to stay at this hotel. I've posted some pictures we took showing the dirtiness of the hotel, and I'll include some links to review sites. Do not be fooled by the postive reviews you may see. These people were clearly lucky enough to stay in one of the very few decent room available at this hotel. We had to switch rooms 3 times, and a friend of ours ended up with 4 different rooms, the majority of which were just awful.

We found the hotel to be so awful in fact, that we paid $500 extra just to leave our tour a day early. We couldn't get out of there fast enough... We switched our flights, hopped on a water taxi, and left the Hotel Continental as fast as we could.