Venice: B&B that I originally booked just cancelled my booking!

Try Gli Angeli Bed & Breakfast. We stayed there in '07. It may not be the cheapest, but it was very pleasant. It's located just off the Grand Canal, near the Arsenal.

Jenny,

Sorry to hear that your room was cancelled. When are you planning to be in Venice?

You might try www.albergodoni.it/ (not a B&B but a small budget Hotel). It's in a very convenient area, fairly close to Piazza San Marco.

You could also try one of Rick's favourites, www.pensioneguerrato.it/ (which gets consistenly good ratings).

If those don't work out, check the Italy Guidebook as there are lots of lodgings listed there.

Good luck and happy travels!

Jenny,

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boy, that makes me want to email to confirm my reservation with them! I am so sorry this happened to you!!

I agree with Michael, it sounds like a language issue. I think his advice about a friend is good, or another option is to ask someone to help you write a brief inquiry in Italian. Especially online, there are many boards like this with Italian speakers who would be more than happy to help translate something for you.

Also, overbookings and cancellations do just happen sometimes. We got cancelled in Orvieto after the B&B hostess accidentally reserved us a single room instead of a double. Fortunately, she was able to put us in contact with another B&B that had an apartment available. And I DID write all my emails in Italian!

I hope that you are able to find another place that you like, and have a wonderful trip!

Try Ai Tagliapietra. Lorenzo has been so good to me and also it's 5 minute walk from St Mark square. Sorry to hear about your B&B misfortune with the cancellation!

Jenny, It would be nice for us to know which B&B did this, and how far out is your trip? Did they give you a reason? I'm sorry, I don't have a recommendation of budget/cheap, so I recommend that you also try expedia & venere.com.

Good luck finding a place and I hope you have a great trip.

Hi, it is actually Ai Tagliapietra that cancelled my booking! I knew they had great reviews online, that's why I booked with them! I had origianlly booked in September and already confirmed with them. Last thursday I emailed him and "inquired" another date in August, but NEVER said I wanted to cancelled my September booking! He emailed back and said there is availability in August. So I said I will let him know as soon as we made our decision whether we wanted to change (again, I did not say I want to cancel my Sept booking nor did I say I want the August date) Last Sunday I emailed him and said I wanted to keep my Sept booking, but received an email from him saying he had already cancelled my Sept booking!!! And now I have to start looking for other B&B or hotels!!

So does that mean if I want to "inquire" another date after my booking, I have to use another name or email address so he woouldn't cancel my original booking?!!! Even if he wanted to cancel my Sept booking, shouldn't he at least let me know and confirm with me before he cancelled me!!???

You're probably dealing with a language barrier issue. In the future, you could say that a friend of yours wants to know if they have a room on X date. That would make it less likely that they would cancel your reservation.

Remember, most Italians in the tourist industry have a very basic knowledge of English, so keep your English as simple as possible. Hypotheticals are especially difficult to pick up on, e.g. "I was thinking we might want to change our reservations so do you have a room available on X date" could easily be read as "We want to change our reservations to X date", especially if they're in a hurry or dealing with lots of emails.

http://www.bbvenezia.com/

Try www.cross-pollinate.com run by the same folks that have the Beehive in Rome. Dozens of B&B listings for Venice. We stayed at the Ca' Riccio four years ago and it was very nice and reasonably priced.

http://www.hotelriva.it/index.html

We recommended it to two other couples and they had a great experience as well.

I second the recommendation for Cross-Pollinate. We just stayed in an apartment Rachele that is owned by Ca'Riccio, and it was great. Give them a shot.

I can recommend El Teatro B&B situated right behind the opera house for clean, air-conditioned rooms in a great location. It's a family's home (3 fun kids, up a flight or two of stairs, no elevators). There are loads of positive reviews on TripAdvisor. We could lean out our window and watch the gondolas pass below. One of my favorite camera shots was watching from above as one gondolier rowed, sang and text messaged! I cannot say it was cheap, but around the same price as all the other family-run B&Bs in Venice.(It seems that for Americans to stay in a cheap place in Italy, we have to opt for the spartan quarters offered in convents/monasteries.) Breakfast was decent, though breakfasts in Italy are skimpy by American standards -- some bread and excellent coffee, yogurt or cereal if you're lucky. I experienced no miscommunications due to translation issues. It's likely they'll only accept cash, which was the most troublesome part of traveling in Italy -cash only unless staying in major hotels and cash demanded in restaurants even if a decal for every possible credit card going is posted on the door. Good luck. You should have plenty of time to find a place between now and September.

I'll second the recommendation for Al Teatro (we've stayed there twice the past two years). Yes, it's cash only. And check with Eleanora, the proprietress...when we stayed with her last year, she told us she and her husband we're planning to open a second B&B just off San Marco.

This is drifting off topic but I had to respond to the comment about cash being demanded in restaurants. I've spent seven weeks in Italy in over 20 different cities and I've never been asked for cash in a restaurant that had credit card signs displayed. As a matter of fact I don't remember having to pay cash in any restaurant.

Oh no, you should let us all know the name of the place so we won't use it!

Rebecca, it sounds like a miscommunication rather than a problem with the b and b itself. Remember that you are dealing with a small business owner's livelihood. Personally I would never hold two reservations for longer than 24 hours--- it creates a loss of opportunity for the business, expecially since everyone is predicting fewer tourists this summer. This doesn't sound like a business to be avoided, but rather a business where English isn't a first language and communication needs to be handled more carefully.