I"ve been given several recommendations for hotels in Vencie, Sorrento, and Rome and I'm wondering if anybody has an opinion of them.
In Venice: Hotel Realto or Santa Marina
In Sorrento: Hotel Gardenia or Hotel Plaza
In Rome: Hotel Savoy or River Palace

Thanks for your help!

Let me guess---are these tour company hotels?

yes, they are
is that a bad thing?

All the Perillo hotels we stayed at on several of their tours were outstanding, so tour hotels are not necessarily bad. Of course it may depend on the company. Check the web sites for each of these hotels.

Check the reviews on tripadvisor.com

Bettina,

I'm not familiar with any of these hotels. I suggest like Bev says that you go to the websites of each hotel and, very important, check their location to make sure they're in a good area. Also go to Tripadvisor and other sites like booking.com to see comments from recent customers.

I agree--it all depends.
Look at tripadvisor and locations---I have never heard of any of them.

I'm guessing that in Venice, it's Hotel Rialto and not Hotel Realto.

We loved a restaurant across the small campo from Santa Marina, and went by several times during our last week in Venice. It looked fine, a little hard to find, but then isn't everything in Venice? Actually we talked about it being a possible place for us to stay in the future. It wasn't overrun by tourists, but was central and pleasant.

I have stayed at the Savoy Hotel in Rome 1 year ago.

I had seen some rooms of the hotel before, as friends of mine were staying there at the same time with me ( i was in another nearby hotel), so i decided to stay there as well.

We arrived early, around 10 am, in January 2010, in the absolute low season... we had booked a triple room, with 3 beds ( for 3 adults).
When we went to our room, all 3 of us got shocked, as this room had nothing in common with the rooms i had seen in the past.
They had given is a non renovated room, that was looking like the room of a cheap 2 star hotel.
I immediately went to the reception asking for another room, and we landed in a spacious room that looked like a mini suite.
The breakfast of the hotel was moderate, as in most 4 star italian hotels.
The location though is great, it is located only 20 meters away from the famous Via Veneto.

Hotel Rialto in Venice was upgraded to 4 stars ( it was a 3 star property before).
I like it because of it's location, directly on Canale Grande and a few meters away from the Rialto Bridge.
The Hotel might be too noisy because of the activity on Canale Grande and the many tourists that are passing by....
Rooms also like in most hotels in Venice vary in size, should you get a tiny room with now view at all.... go immediately to the reception and ask for a change...

There are lots of restaurants and shops nearby, i would avoid the ones located opposite to the hotel on Canale Grande..
They offer a very low quality and are extremely overpriced, taking advantage of the view over Rialto.
I had there one of the worst meals i ever had in Italy....

Thank you all for your replies.............I'll follow your advice!