Granda Sweet Suites

Beautiful room and a beautiful location with incredible views of the canal! There's also a great communal area with complimentary tea/coffee/biscuits, which was a bonus. However, a word of warning to solo female travellers: there is a male staff member called Ervis who used the details he got from photocopying my passport to contact me on Facebook after I'd left. The message was inappropriate, inviting me back to Venice to stay with him and saying that he was unable to communicate his attraction to me when I was there because I was staying at the hotel with my boyfriend. It didn't detract from how beautiful the building, rooms and location are, but I would advise any women travelling alone to be wary, as I'm not sure what could have happened had I been there alone instead of with my boyfriend.

Beautiful place to stay, lovely size room with comfortable bed and the gentleman that owns it was very friendly. Would loved to have had the option of a late check out as our flight were in the evening. But the owner allowed us to keep our bags there until our transport to the airport was due.

Perfect, relatively cheap and central room to stay in Venice. The baroque furnishing creates an authentic atmosphere and for 90 Euros (cheaper options are available) you have a panoramic view on the Grand Chanel. From Tronchetto Parking you have to take the taxi boat (line 2 to Piazza de la Roma and then line 1 to San Angelo) and walk for another 3 minutes (google helps). Breakfast is not included and I would highly recommend to communicate with the hotel in advance, since the receptionist is only there occasionally and you have to wait for him to get in. Over all, a good value for money!

We chose this place in good faith as it looked like it was in an ideal location and it accepted dogs. However, our experience was awful. There are much better places to stay in Venice. It took us ages to access the building as there was no sign on the bell. We called the hotel manager, Lucy, and she was really aggressive and impatient. She shouted at us repeatedly to "just press the bell" but wouldn't accept that there were many bells and no sign on the bell. Eventually she sent down the receptionist to open the door. He arrived many minutes later and casually admitted that the sign had probably been taken off by someone. No apology, no welcome, just get inside...now. So in we went... The entrance to these apartments is grimy and the building looks semi-derelict. I know this may be normal in historical Venetian buildings, but you can have an old building that is well presented and well cared for, and this was not it. The whole place has an air of mustiness and decay. The receptionist was impatient and had no idea about customer service (taking personal calls during the check-in process, abrupt manner). Then the attempts at overcharging started...an extortionate extra fee for our dog was announced (who we'd already checked with management and received permission via messenger that she would be most welcome, with absolutely no mention of extra costs for her), adding an additional third of the cost to our booking, and an insistance on pre-authorisation of our credit card for "extra guarantees". When I questioned the dog charge, I was then told that I'd lied about the size of my dog, as small dogs apparently stay for free. When I showed the receptionist the message thread where I'd specified that she was a "well-behaved German Shepherd dog" he called the manager and she still insisted that I'd lied. Why would you do that? There's a written message trail! I mean, a German Shepherd is a German Shepherd, right? I'd been up front about her - she's a medium/large fluffy dog and they'd agreed that she could stay. Hmmmm, not great! The place was not as advertised and we could see it was just a total rip-off. These apartments look okay in the photos, but honestly we decided to stay somewhere else where we were made to feel welcome, where they'd made an effort to clean the entrance and where the customer service was top notch (for the same price). Granda Sweet Suites continued to be sneaky as they cancelled our booking via an online booking service, so of course we cannot review them that site, but then deducted money for the first night from our account without our authorisation, and refused to refund it. I continued to receive emails from them about checking out, so they had kept us on their system as if we had checked in in order to charge us for the first night but then noted us as a "no-show" for the purposes of the online booking service. Very dishonest. Surely if someone doesn't stay because your apartments are not as advertised you don't charge them. Surely you don't invent extra charges at the last minute? Nope! They just took the money. It didn't surprise me, having seen the state of the place, but if you do decide to stay here, just be willing to have a tricky time entering the building, be tutted at, have eyes rolled, have voices raised, be accused of lying and be overcharged. And if you have any issues with your stay don't expect them to resolve the issue. They simply just don't care. No doubt there will be a snippy response from the manager in reply to this comment, but in many years this is the first negative review I've ever left on Google, and believe me, it is justified. Granda Sweet Suites are a bad option for a stress-free stay in Venice.

(!ALERT! - make sure you call the hotel 30 mins before you arrive. Otherwise they are not there to let you in.) We stayed for 2 nights, this place is incredible. Beautiful classical Venetian furnishings. We had the corner room overlooking the grand canal and square. The number 2 ferry was not running currently so the best way to get around is on foot. Everything is really close by. The receptionist guy could've been more a little more outwardly friendly but he was polite. Would definitely hope to come back and stay again. Would be much better if the staff preemptively contacted you to arrange a check in time - that's such a massive letdown for such a great property.

I have written the hotel four times with no response! There was no one to check us into the hotel on 2/22 and that was before seven pm! There was no communication regarding their process or even a response from my emails after they confirmed our stay! We were traveling with a grandmother and two children, all of whom had to carry luggage up the Rialto bridge steps as well as countless others. We persevered, all to find a dark empty lobby with a piece of paper taped to the front door. A local was able to help me send a message via WhatsApp as the area code for the number listed was incorrect and he told us the correct one. The Wi-Fi was locked so our phones were of no use in that area as there was no reception! The lights kept turning off, leaving us in complete darkness with no one around! How is that a practice?!?Absolutely horrible business communication. They still have not responded to correspondence or refunded our stay. This is not a hotel. This is a scam.

The check in experience was terrible. The instructions sent were unclear and they did not provide a way to enter the door to the suites. Apparently you need a smart lock card in order to access the door where you can find your room. If you arrive after hours, it’s impossible to enter unless you are lucky enough to find a guest that is exiting and lets you in. The shower clogged on the first day, we asked for it to be unclogged but all that was provided was a chemical we had to pour down the drain ourselves. No iron available or refrigerator in the room. The air conditioner doesn’t cool enough and there were lots of mosquitoes. It was a very uncomfortable stay despite the hotel’s aesthetics. We ended up checking out early to stay elsewhere. I do not recommend.

They say to get in touch if you are arriving by 10.30pm, which we did when we booked it. We informed them several times and never received an answer. When we arrived on Friday night nobody was there and we had to find another overpriced hotel not to spend the night on the street. We haven't received an apology or even a simple answer, and of course no intention of a refund. We spoke to other people at the hotel and they had similar issue - you have to be there whenever is convenient for them even on standard hours so be careful if you are tight with time. Besides, the shower was clogged and it was disgusting; beautiful place but they definitely spoiled our weekend