I am very late, I know, in finalizing our plans for Italy in September; however, we will be in Venice for three nights, September 22, 23 and 24, 2007. I tried making reservations at Pensione Accademia and Locanda Orseolo and much to my dismay, they are completely booked. I know we can book a room for $700 a night, but am reluctant to to that. We are looking for a nice hotel at a reasonable price. I know Ira is going to ask, "what is reasonable"? I would define that to be under $300.

Thank you all.

My guess is that almost any hotel in Venice frequently mentioned here will be fully booked at this point. Your best bet might be to look through www.venere.com. If anything there strikes your fancy, you can always ask here about people's experiences or look at www.tripadvisor.com.

If you're really desperate you can book a hotel in Padua. Padua has at least one good tourist attraction, a stunning Giotto fresco in a chapel not far from the train station, and the train ride to Venice takes less than an hour (I think).

700 a night. That's too much! I was there in the spring and I stayed with http://www.holiday-velvet.com/venice
I rented an apartment with them but I think they also do hotels.

Venice is a great city and I am sure you will have a great time there. Try and avoid August always as things close down a lot in that month.

I would not normally recommend staying on the Lido. However, on Octopustravel.com the Westin Excelsior has a double/twin room, including breakfast, which costs a total of $583 USD for your two nights. That's about 211 Euros per night, which is a pretty good rate for the Westin, I'd say. I'm guessing you want a very nice hotel, based on your comments, and not what's left over of the budget hotels, which is why I am mentioning it. I did not cross-compare to the Westin site.

check out Hotel FLora (www.hotelflora.it). My guess is it's right around $300. It's very charming, and has a nice little garden courtyard.

DianeBee,

Check out the Ca dei Conti (www.cadeiconti.com). The rates should be in your range.

It's small but lovely, with large rooms, most overlooking a pretty little canal.

Look at the pictures on the website. The room look exactly like that--maybe prettier and roomier.

Byrd

We were in Venice 2 years ago and stayed at a Best Wetern rightoff the main square. It was very nice and a wonderful location.

A year ago we stayed at the Hotel ai do Mori. It wasn't fully booked as far out as the ones you mentioned. It's quiet, clean and just a block off Piazza San Marco.

See http://www.hotelaidomori.com/en_hotel1.htm

I will reccomend (again) the Hotel Tre Archi in Cannaregio. I am well aware it gets mixed reviews but most seem to be because of lack of an elevator, lack of assistance with baggage and lack of English from serving staff at breakfast. If you are a fit and independent traveller with a little Italian these things are not a deal breaker. Quiet, charming, clean, excellent access to vaporetto: now I sound like an ad...I don't mean to, but we have stayed here three times now and find it just fine.

Hmmmm.....as a follow on to my previous post apparently it's not as quiet as I remember...but still a good find. See TravelAdvisor reviews here:

http://tinyurl.com/337zl6

Whatever you book, do it quickly as this is clearly a very high-demand time. The lack of availability is quite apparent when you look at a typical consolidator site.

Try Hotel Ala. Great location. We liked it. I think it was 180E

We will be in Venice September 18-21. I had a reservation at Ca'Angeli, which has gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor. It is small; but the service sounded very good. However, I recently can across an auction on Luxury Link for a new 5 star hotel that opened in June 2007 - Ca'Sagredo. The auction was for 3 nights in a Junior Suite Canal View and a 3 course dinner for 2 at their restaurant, plus a bottle of wine upon arrival. The min. bid was $1360, tax included. I was outbid the first time around; but a few days later, it showed up agian. Before bidding, I contacted the hotel to see if the room was available on the nights that I intended to be there; and it was - I bid and won for the minimum and will be staying there on September 18th!

Let me know if you have any questions - Also, you may want to post on the Italy forum.

Linda

A friend just booked Palazzo Del Giglio in St. Marks for under Euro 200 a night. Check it out.

BTW, e-mail Flora directly, even if the website states that no rooms are available. Flora would be around Euro 260.

Anna

ttt

BTW, Hotel Flora has a great breakfast buffet!