SINA Centurion Palace

In the US, the FTC has guidelines that hotels need to be upfront about all fees when booking a room. Booking through Hilton, this applies even for international properties. This hotel charges a 5% surcharge for “discretionary service.” Because the charge can be removed, I think the practice might still be legal. But I’m giving it a low review because hotels should strive to do more than things that are barely legal. Europeans often say they pay their workers a living wage and have no need for tips, but not here. The tip was around 50 euros, and we paid for having our bags brought up to the room (which we could have done ourselves easily), the front door opened a few times, breakfast, maid service, and booking a water taxi back to the hotel. Is that worth 50 euros? Extraordinary service should be proactive. No one in the hotel checks if the shower drains are working. The first night, I took a shower longer than five minutes and the whole bathroom flooded. It was obvious what happened, using the robes to clean up the mess, but the maids did not report this to maintenance. Nor was there proactive maintenance checking the drains for “discretionary service.” Maybe Europeans take their green energy serious and this is their way to tell you to shower in under five minutes, which is fine, but not how I would describe a “luxury” property. I would think Marie Antoinette would take longer than five minute showers. So the property should just call it a resort fee and disclose it upfront. Next best would be to tell you when you check in, so maybe I would wake up ten minutes earlier on checkout to have someone roll my bag twenty feet to the elevator and bring it down for me. You can ask to get the fee to removed, since it’s “discretionary.” But also the star levels of our reviews are “discretionary” as well. Other properties that ask for separate tips are often in poor developing countries. There, issues like bathroom drains not working could be expected as well. Has Italy become a third world country? India was a lot worse. Egypt had a lot more aggressive sellers and people demanding tips everywhere. Maybe Italy is slightly better than Turkey?

We love this hotel and been staying here 6 times. The staff are excellent. We were upgraded on arrival for one night only and because we had a problem with the room, we were demoted which was sad considering the hotel wasn’t full at all. Also housekeeping completely forgot to leave us towels one day. Breakfast at the hotel is excellent and the staff very friendly. We had drinks in the bar almost every evening, again great service. When we checked out a discretionary service charge was added and although we were told we could refuse, we didn’t as we felt embarrassed with everyone around us. But, we had tipped cash in the bar and restaurant and concierge and felt this was a badly thought out method of getting more cash off clients. You should be asked whether you’d like to add service and we would have said that we had already paid in cash! Don’t add it to the bill. We left very embarrassed and disappointed. It hasn’t happened before during our stays. Badly done Sina Centurian!

This hotel is stunningly beautiful and has a great location - very central, but still quite tranquil. I loved the art on display everywhere, and the food was delicious.

The most wonderful hotel stay we’ve ever had. The hotel is in a beautiful part of Venice, close enough to the center of town, but also romantic and quiet. The entire staff made us feel special, especially Chiara the night manager. We were renewing our vows and could not have asked for more beautiful accommodations.

Loved the location of this contemporary hotel with its traditional Venetian exterior. A lovely quiet area at the rear, but still close to some great attractions. The highlight of this property are the wonderful staff, professional, friendly and very helpful. We had an excellent dinner in the restaurant, after a long day of exploring. I would particularly like to thank Elvira for taking good care of us.