San Clemente Palace Kempinski Venice

We stayed here at the beginning of our two-week plus vacation and it was a perfect start. The hotel and grounds are to be enjoyed and are beyond written descriptions - must be seen to be thoroughly appreciated. The proximity to Venice is easily addressed by the hotel water shuttle - a ten minute ride to St. Marks. The best part is hopping aboard the shuttle to return to one's private island and away from the Venice crowds. The pool is huge - one of the largest I have experienced - and it's location on the lawn makes the pool area seem even larger. The rooms are classic and comfortable with high ceilings and halls so wide one feels as if they are indeed inside a palace. Very quiet too. We dined at Acquerello one night and had a water's edge view of Venice. Also dined in the garden area with service from La Dolce Bar. Enjoyed cocktails at the bar and thanks to Navid for his excellent service. The breakfast buffet was vast and fresh. The adjacent church was built in 1131 and is worth exploring. All of the above combine to create an extraordinary and unique hotel. I would definitely stay here again.

Beautifully situated hotel. Reception staff not really welcoming, however, other staff were excellent especially the beverage area. The rooms are dated but clean and okay. Grounds are superb and well maintained. Main disappointment was the food, not breakfast or pool bar, the dining room although scenic is expensive and average quality. Strikes me everything is expensive at this hotel BUT it is Venice.

Every five years we treat ourselves to a five star hotel in Venice for our wedding anniversary. Previously we’ve stayed at the Cipriani, Gritti Palace, the Marriott and the Excelsior. This time we thought we’d try the San Clemente. It was a very mixed experience. We arrived after a tiring journey and usually we find ourselves welcomed with the offer of a chair and a refreshing drink. None of this happened here. Our room was nice and spacious and beautifully clean. A real bonus is the free non alcoholic mini bar. We were told this would be refilled every two days. We needed to chase them up on this as it didn’t happen. The biggest disappointment was the breakfast. There were plenty of staff available and not really enough for them to do. So several days running they removed personal items from our table whilst we were at the buffet. A request not to do this fell on deaf ears. The buffet was unimaginative. Very little choice for vegetarians. However the biggest drawback was that hot food was kept warm in hot trays rather than being freshly cooked. The plates to serve the food onto were cold. A request for a warm plate resulted in waiting for them to find a warm bowl in the kitchen. Why not provide warm plates. The food that was kept hot was unappetising. If you wanted a freshly cooked item like an omelette there was a separate charge - 18 euros. I sent some feedback via the hotel app and was told that the extra charge for freshly cooked items was to cover the cost of delivering a personalized and freshly prepared meal. This was a five star hotel charging five star prices. Surely the cost of staying at the hotel more than covers a freshly cooked meal. If this was a three star hotel we’d have thought this acceptable. We also noted that although the hotel website mentioned Prosecco being available at breakfast there was no sign of any. Again I raised this on the app and was told that the Prosecco was indeed a standard offering. An omelette station where freshly cooked omelettes did appear and no charge was made for omelettes. In addition Prosecco appeared. Then the following day it all disappeared. We asked the staff and were told that Prosecco was only available at the weekend. The hotel website and response I received on the app did not mention this. I don’t particularly need Prosecco at breakfast but if it’s mentioned on the website I notice its absence. To their credit the hotel left us Prosecco and truffles in our room as a gesture for our feedback. We found lots of inconsistencies between the different sources of information. There were loads of staff wandering around seemingly doing very little. Maybe they could be more usefully employed on checking the accuracy of information. We were given a welcome letter on arrival which mentioned an open air cinema. We saw the screen in the garden and were excited by this as we love outdoor cinema. The information on the letter and the tv screen were contradictory so we checked with reception. They sai

Wonderful private island with the level of service that you have probably only read about before.