B&B Diamante e Smeraldo

We stayed at this B & B after being badly let down by another Hotel I had booked 6 months previously. We were attending a wedding in Venice and we were very lucky to have been helped out by the New Manager of the other hotel. The room and bathroom were very nice, clean and spacious. The location was great, right at the heart of everything 2 minute walk from the Grand Canal and 6 minute walk to Saint Marks Square. We would definitely recommend this B&B

We stayed as Family, 2 Adults & 2 Children for 2 nights. - Booking: We booked through Booking.com. But as mentioned by many previous reviewers I sent a confirmation e-mail to Diamante e-mail (info@bbdiamanteesmeraldo.com). First you get an automatic response confirming your e-mail has been correctly sent then they replied the next day confirming our room reservation & even giving us hints on how to reach the hotel. I recommend you do the same & confirm your booking directly with the hotel by e-mail. - Location: The Hotel is in Heart of Venice, lying between Rialto & San Marco. The Location is just Excellent ! All Attractions are waling distance from Hotel. Rialto Bridge is 3 - 5 min. walk. Rialto Market is ~ 5 min. walk. San Marco square is 6 - 10 min walk. Scala Contarini del Bovolo is 2 min. walk. Most important attraction is Venice it self with all small canals, bridges & alleys. Just wal any direction from hotel & you'll sense the real charm of vince. Esp. at early morning or at night when the day trippers are gone. - Transport: Rialto Vaporetto Station is ~ 3 - 5 min. walk. - Directions: If this is your first time to visit Venice, Sure you'll get lost to reach the hotel ! since it's only ~ 5 min walk from Rialto station, so directions seems easy but its not ! Detailed Directions: When you get off the Vaporetto from Rialto station, give the station your back & walk opposite to the Rialto Bridge direction (right) , parallel to the Grande Canal. After ~ few meters Cross a small bridge crossing a small side canal, then keep walking forward parallel to the Grand canal till you find sign of Alley ""Calle Carbon", turn into this alley (left , right is the grand canal !) walk forward till you find a Square with shops (including H&M in the middle of square in front of you when you come out of Calle Carbon). Move forward & keep on the far right side of the square, go to the alley on right side - between small bar & bank - the hotel is few meters forward in end of this very short alley. It is above shop called "Godi Florenza". The Hotel Door is on LEFT side , Not right side as shown in Google Maps , if you're coming from Calle Carbon direction. Do not turn right at end of the alley bec. it leads to another square. - Hotel: The Hotel is in a building & has NO Big Sign, It's just a wooden door with very small piece of paper having the hotel name on it !! If you check in at night or even late after noun, you'll find NO Staff in the Hotel. You will ring the Intercome outside hotel door. It's actually acts like a phone & will connect you to an operator who is not inside the hotel. He'll open the door for you & tell you that you'll find instructions up stairs on reception desk. The hotel has no reception on ground floor, you'll find stairs infront of you. There is NO elevator. There is no hotel personnel to help you carry your bags upstairs. Please consider if you are an elder or special need person. When you go upstairs you'll find a small desk - NOT a reception - with Envelope with your name on it. You'll find inside the envelope the Keys of your room, Application form & Breakfast Form. - The Room: As per our request, we had a baby cot (bed) available in our room. We stayed in the Winter room. The room is modern & new. Paint & furniture are new. Nice decorations & paint color. It contains a big kind size bed - was enough spacious for 2 adults & our 3 old year child - , a small table with 2 chairs, Flat Screen TV, Windows view on the alley. (No Canal View, the Hotel is an alley not on a Canal). The bathroom is clean, enough towels, hot water ... Generally, the room is quit good. - Food: There is NO dining room or restaurant in this hotel. No Luch or Dinner service bec. they have NO Kitchen. Breakfast is served in your room. It's a classic Italian breakfast. Croissant, Jam, Honey ... It's a light breakfast. Hot drink or Fresh juice is available. Generally, it's a good & fresh breakfast. To specify breakfast serving time & Drink. You'll find a form with your check in documents for breakfast. You Fill in required serving time (for example ~ 8 am) , You specify type of drink you want (Coffee, Cappuccino, Fresh Juice, Hot Milk ... etc. , a list is available , you choose from ). You fill at night & leave on reception desk so next morning the responsible person can see & process as you requested / Instructed. We had only 1 copy of this document, so for our second night I just filled a blank paper with required breakfast time & required drinks , clearly wrote our room no. / name (Winter) & left on reception disk. For lunch & dinner, there are MANY MANY restaurants near the hotel, We personally ate at Al Vaporetto restaurant for 2 times. Just walk around, check the menus that are always displayed outside the restaurants. If you dine inside any restaurant you'll pay ~ 2 - 3 extra Euros per person for service, for take away you do not pay this ... - Staff The Hotel has NO permanent staff. ONLY 1 person comes at morning till noun. This person does EVERYTHING from serving breakfast to cleaning the rooms (you should leave the room by 10 am for cleaning if you require it) also for payment. At night there is NO staff at hotel. - Payment If you'l pay by VISA you must pay at morning while hotel personnel is present. They will take you to ANOTHER hotel - ~ 1 min walk - to use the VISA machine bec. they do NOT have at hotel. I Highly Recommend this hotel for a short stay based on my personal experience. Real advantage is Location.

So many issues with our 3 night stay... TV works for a few min then stops working - AC only worked the first night and it was super weak - Fridge doesn't work - hair dryer is useless - sink doesn't drain - No hot water on the last day Need I say more?? Don't stay there!