jvasiles

Just returned from a 3 night stay at the JW Marriott Venice.
A couple things to note before I share my thoughts on the hotel: 1) Airport transfer to the hotel by water taxi costs 150 EUR (for up to 4 people) and can be easily booked upon arrival. I recommend this option if you're traveling with another couple and can split the cost or if you're in a hurry to get the hotel. 2) Airport transfer to St Mark's square by water bus / ACTV Vaporetto costs 15 EUR per person (13.50 EUR if you book a round-trip). This option takes about 1hr and 20 min and is much slower than than the water taxi since there are many stops along the way. On a sunny day, this is a cost effective option that allows you to see several other islands, including Murano.
Overall the resort is fine. As a Titanium Elite, I was upgraded to a Jr Suite which is one category above the base room type (Deluxe). Breakfast was OK, but nothing special; a basic buffet with an omelet station. A unique aspect of the omelet station is that you have to fill out a card specifying what ingredients you want and have to include your table number. After being seated, you can expect the hostess to drop off a pen and card on the table which allows you to specify the amount of tip (personally I found this to be somewhat off-putting and presumptuous for a buffet). The Jr suite room was nice but I could not open the balcony doors. There was a sign warning against opening the balcony doors due to insects. Carpet had a huge stain near the coffee machine and there were several other signs of wear and tear in the room. The bed and mattress were not very comfortable, which was disappointing.
The biggest drawbacks of this hotel in my opinion is the distance from St Mark's square and the relative infrequency of the hotel shuttle boat. First shuttle leaves the hotel at 9:00 am and every hour thereafter until 11:00 pm. Shuttle is very slow and travels at ~7 km/hr for most of the trip. For this reason, I would choose to stay at another hotel in the future. As a side note, the dock where the shuttle departs from St Mark's square is very poorly marked which made it a bit of a challenge finding it on my way to the hotel on the day of arrival.

rstidolph

I, also just finished a stay at the JW Marriott. Used two of my certificates from my Amex Bonvoy card, plus used two SNA’s .

The above comment about breakfast is right on the money. A nice, breakfast, but no where as good as the Hilton Stucky.

Our room was a king suite on the 1st floor. Large balcony and view of the gardens.. I’ll attach pictures.

we enjoyed the rooftop restaurant, Saga for it’s setting. Not so much for the food.

For us the shuttle was every half hour, and took 20-25 minutes to get to San Marco.

I would stay again if price was right. Very quiet and relaxing.

rstidolph

Some pictures from our stay.

Rooftop pool

Balcony

A very large tub


Sitting area

jvasiles

Would have been nice if your SNAs cleared for a better room type (i.e. Studio Suite, Premium Suite, Uliveto Suite, La Residenza Pool Suite, La Maisonette Loft, La Maisonette Pool Loft, or Villa Rose 2 Bedroom Villa) since the Junior Suite King is only a one category upgrade from the base room. Good to know that the hotel has now increased the frequency of the shuttle.

mayday23

does anyone have an email for the hotel or the concierge?

rstidolph

Try this

[email protected]

mayday23

Staying here now and similar to other posts:

-Shuttle running every 30 minutes and has been on time
-Used SWA to upgrade to junior suite. Showed us a ‘private residence’ that was priced at 800e difference per night (from junior suite) but would give it to us for 400e per night. We declined
-Seems every restaurant in Venice has a ‘cover charge’ that is around 6e per person. Sagra had it as well as restaurants in San Marco. Annoyed at those charges
-We really enjoy the breakfast buffet
-Very friendly services
-Private water taxi is 150e + tip
-Eating at Dopolavoro tonight

Any consensus on tipping in restaurants? 10% ?

German Expat

Cover charge (coperto) is common in Italy. 6 Euro is high though.

https://www.alongdustyroads.com/posts/coperto-italy

For tipping check if 'servizio' is already shown on your bill. You can still tip if you really liked the service. A lot of times you will need cash for tipping (leave it at the table). In general you tip less in Italy and most of the locals would just round it up. 10% is the max I would do but then the service would need to be very good.

ACYYZ/SD

Any personal experiences to share being marooned on the Island? Convenient or Inconvenient for a 4 day stay in Venice?

There appears to be a shuttle service, although mixed info regarding the schedule.

applesauce

Hotel nice. He had an end room that looked out into trees. Very pretty. Breakfast for us was bad. Extensive, but low quality mostly junk food. Restaurants of course expensive, it's Venice and you're stuck on an island. Shuttles frequent and convenient, but consider 25 minutes each way. We made full day trips. Four days is a long time in Venice in my opinion, unless you're really going to soak in some art, but if you're going to enjoy a day or two at the pool it can make sense. Fun little island to walk around, opportunity to ferry past a deserted island.island which I thought was pretty cool.

ACYYZ/SD

Appreciate the advice thank you. Have been to VCE before and yes 4 days in long. Using it as a base and will also hit Bologna, Florence or Verona. Figured shuttle time was 10-15 minutes. Again, thanks.

Tonyh120

I posted this review to TripAdvisor in July 2018. Hopefully this helps:

Our stay got off to a great start. We were in touch with the hotel before we arrived and the concierge was very helpful, booking restaurants and also booking a private water taxi from the airport to the hotel. This was our first time in Venice and we loved taking the boat from the airport directly into the hotel registration area. As they said, it had a James Bond feel to it

My Marriott Platinum status was recognized at check in and we were upgraded to a very nice suite in the main hotel. The room was spacious, clean and modern. So far, so good.

Negatives:
1. We had dinner on our first night at Sagra, the hotel's rooftop restaurant. It was expensive (cover charge of US$10 per person). The food was fair. The service was very slow. But what ruined the evening were the mosquitoes. The air was full of mosquitoes. They had a server who's only job was to hand out a kind of wet wipe to cover your skin with a bug repellent; whatever it was, it didn't work too well - I left covered in bites.
2. The next day we went to the rooftop pool. It's a nice setup...if you get there at dawn. We arrived around 9:30am and all of the dozen or so loungers were already taken. Because the pool and chair area is so small, we were escorted to a lower floor that was just dreary. Within an hour, this lower level "holding pen" was also full. (The hotel also has a larger family pool elsewhere on the island but that wasn't the vibe we were looking for).
3. Since the pool was a bust, I asked if we could use the Spa pool. As a Platinum member, I expected to receive complimentary access, as in other properties. Answer: no. The next day I asked if we could have late checkout. Answer: no. So, just a note to Marriott members with elite status, don't expect too much - no lounge, no breakfast, no late checkout, no access to the hotel's facilities...
4. The biggest problem with this hotel is its location. There are 3 hotels in the lagoon - Cipriani, the Kempenski and the JW Marriott. The Marriott is the furthest away from Venice and the water shuttle takes about 25 minutes to get from the hotel to Venice (the boat could go faster but it needs to time its arrival with when its space on the dock will be available). Our vacationing approach is to sightsee in the morning until mid-afternoon, rest, and then go out again for dinner. Being based at the Marriott, this means we lost 2 hours each day (4 trips on the boat), which really hampered our plans.

Net: if you want a hotel that's new, has fairly large rooms and has a pool, this could worth a look. But, if you want a hotel that's actually in Venice, where you won't be attacked by mosquitoes and where loyalty to a particular hotel brand is appreciated, you can almost certainly do better.

friedablass

Just completed a 2 night stay here earlier this week as Marriott Plat. I chatted in the app about an hour prior to my arrival regarding an upgrade and first they said they have taken note of my request and will see what they can do at check in based on availability, but when I asked them to check what they have available (which I doubted would change until the time I arrived an hour later), they came back and said they upgraded me to a Junior Suite. Not sure they would have proactively upgraded.

At check in we were offered free breakfast or points as welcome amenity so I'm not sure why the poster above wrote that there is no breakfast.

The room was nice and spacious and I liked the layout of it as well as the large bathroom. You don't get such large rooms at most hotels in the main area of Venice, even the base rooms are nice size. I found the bed to be very comfortable and the fact that this resort is not on the main island didn't bother me much. I actually liked retreating to a
quieter place at night and I don't know if I would spend the extra money or points on the St Regis or Gritti when it's just a night or two and you don't really need more than that in Venice. Overall had a nice stay and would consider coming back here in the future.

VickiSoCal

We are starting to regret booking a stay for March. I am attempting to verify the free shuttle schedule as well as book private arrival pickup and am being told by Ambassador Service that nothing can be done as no employees of hotel are available until March 11 when the hotel reopens. As we arrive March 12 this seems unmanageable. Does anyone have a shuttle schedule from last season? We have a couple of day trips planned and I need to know the earliest we can leave island I the morning.
I guess we will book arrival via a third party water taxi service if they cannot respond.

VickiSoCal

To add insult to injury the Ambassador just responded that the JW offers no complimentary shuttle, anywhere.