My guidebook listed All Suites Torre Dell'Orologico as a middle range hotel in Venice, and that's what most of the reviews seemed to indicate when I did some online research. Some of the reviewers had complained about service, so we weren't really expecting the greatest treatment but figured we wouldn't be in the room much anyway.
First off, I'd have to say that the best thing about this hotel is the location: it's just off Piazza San Marco, within easy walking distance of most of the major sites. Finding it the first day was a bit of a challenge, however (again again again, blame the stupid Venice maps). At first, we wandered aimlessly up and down a few streets off the square (with luggage, stroller, and baby in tow), harrassed some local policemen for directions, and then headed back to the piazza in frustration. At that point, a kind older man saw us and started pointing down a narrow side street and rambling in Italian. Luckily, 'hotel' seems to be an international word, seeing as I had no idea as to the meaning of the other words he was uttering. Turned out he was pointing us to the back door of the hotel, thank you sir!
The main entrance is actually one street to the left of the largest street that heads north off the square, but it wasn't noted on the map and I doubt we would've realized it anyway, seeing as Torre Dell'Orologico is part of a complex of hotels run by the San Marco group, so the entrance door said San Marco Hotels instead! Oh, and if you're not able to haul heavy luggage, don't bother staying here--there's no water door so you have to schlep bags across the piazza from the San Marco vaporetto stop. We were probably quite the site, pushing a stroller loaded with bags while I had Keila strapped in the Bjorn and Yuki hauled along another large suitcase!
On to the room itself. We arrived a bit early but luckily our room was already made up. Quite a decent suite for the price and location, although it wouldn't really suit a large family, seeing as there was only 1 double bed. Maybe the couch folded out, but I never checked. The rooms were rather larger than we were expecting but not incredibly fancy. Bathroom was ok too but again nothing glamorous. Everything was pretty clean, and the maids did a great job every day we were there. A baby cot/travel crib had been provided as requested (the hotel sent me an email confirming this, 'as a special favor, just for you free of charge' which was rather amusing because their website clearly stated cots were free for babies).
The first problem arose when Yuki couldn't get our in-room safe to open. We called reception and were told someone would be right up....15 minutes later and wanting to head out soon, we called again and the clerk got a bit snippy with me, saying that she'd already told me someone would be up soon. The man did show up shortly thereafter....reeking of alcohol and obviously drunk! I guess he was celebrating Christmas day in style. He was quite nice so we weren't too bothered...but he couldn't open our safe, something about not having the right master key? We ended up leaving after being told he had to go get a key from somewhere else. Probably from the bar.
Needless to say, the safe still wasn't open when we returned early that evening. We called reception again and this time another (sober) man did come and open it right away. So I guess it really was lack of a master key and not lack of sobriety that kept the first guy from opening it!
Only other complaint about the room was that our phone didn't work--we couldn't dial out no matter what. Reception didn't really seem to care that it wasn't working and didn't offer to fix it, either. I kept having to go down to the main lobby to try and make dinner reservations--and I will say that while at most hotels, the conceriege will offer to make the reservations for you, here the clerk would simply dial the number and hand me the phone. At least most restaurants have staff that speak English!
Overall, I'd say it was a decent stay, although service was definitely lacking based on the incidents above and a few more I won't bother detailing. It bascially seemed like most of the staff just didn't care about their jobs or the clientele and would only do the bare minimum to keep people from complaining. If you're just looking for a hotel with clean rooms, and a reasonable rate for its location, then All Suites Torre Dell'Orologico is your place. Otherwise, keep searching!
Next post will be something much more fun involving beautiful Florence, I promise!
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