My husband and I will be driving to Venice and looking for hotel recommendations for areas just outside Venice. Thanks!

Hi tamala, when you say you need a hotel outside of Venice do you mean for a night during your drive to Venice or do you mean that you want a hotel to stay in while you visit Venice daily?

If for a night or two while driving from Venice where will you be driving from? If for the time that you will be visiting Venice were you thinking of say Mestre which is outside of Venice proper but about a 10 minute train ride into Venice (Mestre train station to Santa Lucia train station)?

Have stayed in Hotel Bologna in Mestre. It is located across the street from train station. It is one stop to Venice; an 8 minute ride with trains departing every few minutes.
decor of room is most modern I have ever seen.

I've never done it, but you can drive to the Lido and some hotels have free parking. Then you can just take the vaporetto over to the area of San Marco. I think it takes about 8 minutes to cross the lagoon.

I see three options here assuming you are going to be in Venice for a few days.

1) Park your car at your hotel where you can't use it anyway and then travel back and forth into Venice all the time.

2) Park your car in a big lot at the edge of Venice (Piazza Roma) and take a boat into Venice where you can "live" in the city you came to experience.

3) If you don't need the car when you leave Venice, or if it is just as sensible to get a different one when you leave, you could just plain dump the car at the rental agency when you arrive and not worry about, but still stay IN Venice, presumably the place you are going there to see.