Sorry don't fancy paying first class money for a dive that is rationalized to be "charming". Mold is hazardous to one's health. That's like real estate agents who advertize a run down house in need of serious upgrading to have "it's own charm". Nonsense, a place can be charming without being ratty. On long tours it seems one or 2 stinker hotels may have a good chance of appearing.

I'm with Roxy. I don't find mold and dirt to be quaint or charming. That the hotel is old is not really a good excuse. Old hotels can still be clean. Do I expect every hotel on tour to be a Ritz Carlton? Of course not. But I do expect a room that, at the very least, isn't hazardous to my health.

I agree that TT is not responsible for the original poster's lost items. But, after reading the original poster's account of his stay at the hotel, I do think TT should be notified of that hotel staff's bullying attitude towards the TD (who did absolutely nothing wrong to them) and their rudeness towards the guests.

Roxy,

At last someone else understands that mould is not cute/OK/quaint. Mould is living spores that we breathe & is hazardous to ones health. Sorry, it really doesn't matter how old a hotel is there is just no excuse for mould.

One thing is peeling wallpaper, water stains in corridor ceiling and sealant -filled cracks, mould is a different thing. The photos enclosed above did not show mould as far as I can see. Unfortunately mould can and will grow in many areas of poor ventilation, it doesn't need only a 500+ year old building in Venice. How many other hotels and motels of modern times get afflicted by it simply because the establishment doesn't have the time - or care- to air it properly from time to time, wash the mould with mould repellant or repaint more often?

Roxy's comments confirm what I said many posts earlier. TT needs to know how the clients feel about the accommodation on their tours. No point spending large chunks of tour budget offering the passengers an accommodation directly in Venice, when they do not appreciate all the implications and yearn for a more modern hotel in Mestre at a fraction of the cost.

If the Italians started to pull down parts of Venice to build Hiltons and such right there on Grand Canal, the world would howl in protest at such vandalism! So there is a compromise to be made as far as accom. in the area is concerned: it is the old Venice in old hotels, or the more modern places but outside the city.

I believe there are horses for courses. TT/Insight should offer two types of tours in this area, one staying in the old Venice for tourists appreciating the real thing. Others with accom. in Mestre or on Lido (incidentally we enjoyed Rialto in 2001 as well as hotel Hungaria on Lido in 2004), more comfort for one's $$ and with the understanding they have to commute to see the real Venice. How many times have I read a disappointment in the TT passenger's remark - "I thought we will be accommodated in the middle of Venice, not on the mainland!" TT -through TAs and more publicity in brochures -obviously needs to make the passengers more aware of their product BEFORE they choose their tour, so there are no regrets one way or another.

Wow! Look what I started! I had no idea this would turn into such an active post...

It's been great reading everyone's responses, especially those of you who agree with me that mold, etc...is just not quaint or old-world or authentic Venice...

To respond to some of the other guys, nowhere did I say that I expected the hotel to be like a hotel in the U.S., but I did expect a clean, safe-feeling hotel. We stayed in Rome and Florence and had decent hotels, nothing special, but at least the staff was nice, the rooms and hallways were clean, etc..

The Continental was just awful. They clearly don't care about their hotel. Even a simple thing like changing the lightbulbs in the dark, dim hallways would have made a world of difference. Same goes for the guest rooms too. New bulbs, maybe new fixtures, a little paint, etc.. really go a long way. But they clearly had not renovated, or even touched-up, or in some cases, even dusted the rooms in decades.

Again, I didn't expect some fancy hotel, I know they are old, I know they can't knock them down and rebuild them, but there has to be some level of maintenance.

Our tour group was probably split 90% who hated it, and 10% who tolerated it, but not 1 person, not even the people who got one of the new, large, canal-view rooms actually liked the place.

And I should mention (in case I didn't earlier) that the staff was simply horrendous. They like about the air conditioning, not once apologized, and just stood there with odd grins on their faces the whole time. It really was a weird experience dealing with them.

Regarding one of the prior posts about me leaving early b/c I didn't get a room as nice as someone else's is just wrong. The reason I left was because I did not feel safe in my room. It was dirty, dark, grimy, smelled, etc... I literally cringed everytime I walked in there and my wife was really freaked out. And regarding my lost travel adapter, I think in this particular circumstance that Trafalgar, or the hotel, or someone (not me), should reimburse me for a lost item since they are the ones that forced me to pack and switch rooms in 10 minutes. Obviously if I lost something in the normal course of being at a hotel it would be my responsibility, but this should was not a normal circumstance nor under my control. We were so rushed to pack so they could move us out that I'm lucky I didn't leave anything else behind.

Maybe it's changed since those who have been there previously have last visited, but it is not the nice, 'old world' hotel, filled with 'character' that perhaps it used to be. It was just an old, run-down, poor quality hotel with a lousy staff.

As several people have said, a hotel can be charming without being filled with mold and peeling, dirty wallpaper (certainly doesn't sound charming to me).

Why all the stress?? Were you just visiting Venice to sightsee and spend minimal time in the room, or were you planning to move in???

I personally can't see what all the fuss is about. Ok the room is bad, the staff were dreadful, but why let that spoil your whole holiday. (Judging by the website Josh has spent a lot of time and energy on complaining about this hotel)

I would just chalk it down as bad luck and move on. But that is just me.

Very good point Kell. Unles one is very lucky, there is always one hotel (sometimes even two!) that's not up to our expectations and it doesn't matter whether on tour or independent travel. In such a case - there is even more incentive to spend as much time out sightseeing and as little time as possible in that hotel. Travelling is not cheap, particularly for us from Down Under, so let's make the most of it.

I couldn't care less what a hotel room is like as long as it is clean. It all adds to the tapestry of tour memories

Experiencing other cultures is what travelling is all about and Venice has quite a bit of it including wallpaper falling off the wall, but who cares, the view alone more than makes up for a bit of wallpaper.

My very first time in Venice was September 1968 and I couldn't afford anything better than Youth Hostel on Giudecca, the island across the Laguna from San Marco Sq. The lodging was cheap, so was the food and it was just so good to finally see Venice, who'd care about the lodgings! We were accommodated in dormitories, about 20 girls per room. There were no drapes and no wallpaper to check if it was peeling or not, just whitewashed walls. I travelled by myself but met three other Czech girls there and had a ball those 3 days I stayed there.
There were also some Aussie girls staying at the time as a part of their "round the world working holiday" but we didn't get much chance to have a chat because none of us 4 spoke more than just a few words in English.

30 years ago I carried luggage without wheels!! Now I look back and say: "how did I do it?"

Australena thanks again for your tips on the Amalfi coast! It was a fabulous place!

Hope you visited Pompeii on your trip to the Bay of Naples! Isn't it the most amazing place!

Regards,

Chris

The whole Amalfi Coast is just tops! My father spent about 18 months in that area after escaping from Czechoslovakia many years ago post-communist take-over. He was in a refugee camp in Bagnoli near Naples, which held people from many European countries while they were being processed for o/s migration. A lot of them went to Australia afterwards. He wasn't in a big hurry to move from there because he really liked it there. He was fluent in Italian, Spanish, German and had a good knowledge of English, French, Portugese (and Latin) as well as his native Czech. He naturally worked as an interpreter (surprise?) and travelled around the whole region whenever he had spare money and time.