Venice Context/Disclaimer

This is one of the more difficult reviews I have had to write up until this point as Venice is a difficult city for hotels. Space is at a premium and prices per night are astronomical. The reality is every hotel in Venice is expensive, even the sh*tty ones. The value proposition is abysmal. There is really no way unless you are Jeff Bezos (get it?) that you will go to Venice, stay at a hotel and be like wow this was a great hotel and priced so well.

The reality is Venice is expensive, most hotel rooms are the size of a closet and overall, your hotel will probably be disappointing compared to equivalent brands in Florence, Rome and other parts of Italy.

St. Regis Venice Overview

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s explore the St. Regis Venice. The hotel opened right before Covid in a historical building overlooking the grand canal just steps from St. Marks Square. While many luxury hotels in Venice kept the Venetian sense of place in their interiors, the St. Regis chose a more modern style which some would argue makes it less stuffy than its competitors like the Gritti Palace. Regardless, the St. Regis markets itself as a top luxury hotel (Jared and Ivanka think so too as we shared walls with them as we were there the week of the Bezos wedding) and is priced accordingly.

Booking the St. Regis

The entry level room at the St. Regis is well over $1,000 dollars a night in the summer. We would have had to sell Peanut to be able to swing that. Instead, we used points, 100,000 a night which is absurd considering that is what we spent for an overwater bungalow in the Maldives, but it is Venice so we knew going in that would be the cost. At least it was ‘free’ in regard to cash, right?

Location

As noted above, the location could not be any better. The hotel is located directly on the Grand Canal, so the views were wonderful. St. Marks Square was less than a 5-minute walk away and all the major shopping opportunities were just steps away. One thing I liked was the hotel was tucked away on a side street, so it was quiet considering we were just minutes from virtually everything.

Arrival and Check-In

We were a little flustered arriving as Air France lost our luggage, but arriving via water taxi along the grand canal was truly spectacular.

Check-in was pleasant and brief, and we were notified that we were upgraded to a suite. Before we got too excited, I told Matt not to expect much with a suite in Venice as a suite in the city of canals is a closet in most places. But still, we will take the additional space!

St. Regis hotels have the butlers and ours picked us up from reception and gave us a tour of the property and ultimately took us to our room. She notified us that the butler service includes packing/unpacking service and free pressing of our clothes. We joked that we currently had no luggage but maybe one day! Notably she did not mention free coffee delivery in the room which is typically a staple of a St. Regis…

The Room

The suite was lovely, but on the small side. Having a separate living space and bedroom is always a threat. The bathroom was beautiful with all the toiletries one would ever need, which came in handy as my toiletries were sitting in Paris somewhere many days away ☹. The bed was very comfortable. While I could ding on the size, the reality is this was a generous space for Venice, and we were upgraded for free. This same room costs over $2,000 dollars a night so we will take it. They decorated the bed which was cute.

The Food

The property has a beautiful outdoor bar that serves lite bights. Matt and I had mocktails each evening before dinner because look at that view.

Otherwise Gios was the dining venue. They served breakfast and dinner, and we tried both. Breakfast had a generous sized buffet for Venice and guests were entitled to one item off the menu as well. The menu was small, but we were happy with the options. Again, the view was everything, but the food was very good.

Dinner was very expensive, but also very good. I know I know, you are all rolling your eyes that we ate dinner one night at the hotel, but Matt doesn’t eat seafood, so our options were limited. Venice is not really known for the restaurant scene either and we figured out why not enjoy the view.

The meal started with an Amuse-bouche which was fish, so I had Matt’s too. It was excellent. Then we were served wonderful bread straight out of the oven.

For the first course I had a fabulous seafood pasta and Matt had vegetarian dish. For our second courses I had possibly the best seabass I have ever had in my life and Matt had a good filet of beef with a giant piece of lettuce on top (for some reason). Everything was great.

Service

This was where we were a little disappointed. On a macro-level the service was all very good, but there were a few slips. The St. Regis brand is our favorite luxury hotel company that takes points because the service is usually impeccable. We have stayed in many all around the world including in other parts of Italy. Yet here, something was off. Maybe it was because we had members of the first family in the hotel, and they were overwhelmed. In fairness despite the wedding shennaginans, the hotel did a good job keeping that out of sight.

However, not long after checking in we called our butler for coffee delivery service. Usually this is complimentary at St. Regis hotels, but we were actually charged 35 Euros for two coffees just minutes after we discussed losing our luggage. When we checked into our dinner reservation at Gios the receptionist told us the restaurant was not open, which was funny cause we had a reservation at that time so we should go to the bar for a few minutes. We sat at the bar with a view of the restaurant and saw plenty of people dining over there so we walked back to the restaurant where there was a different receptionist who smiled and immediately took us to our table.

Again, none of this is a big deal, but for what they charge and the brand’s reputation, we were a little put off.

Overall

The hotel was lovely, but I do not think we would rush back due to service misses. In fairness Venice is not the kind of city most run back too, but it is great to see once.

4 Stars out of 5