Venice -- Sleeping for 100 - 150 Euros per night in mid-September

Lo - You are wise to book ahead if you know the dates you'll be in Venice. Especially if they coincide with the Venice Film Festival.

As to your question about experiences with moderately priced hotels in Rick's books. Everyone has negative experiences to some degree - It's a matter of expectations and flexibility. So be careful about asking what people didn't like about a particular place.

If you're familiar with family-run European hotels, you'll likely enjoy what Venice has to offer.

Tripadvisor.com is a great resource for reviews from people who have stayed in particular hotels - more than you will get here.

Thanks for the advice about booking this far ahead. One of my options is already full for one of the nights we'll be there. I did check Tripadvisor and found reviews on all my options. I wouldn't have thought of that without the suggestion.

Great! Glad I could help. Tripadvisor is the best site I've found for concentrated reviews of individual hotels in any country.

Venere.com is another, although more of their reviewers use other languages.

Villa Rosa is decent. Nice, quiet little walking streets, but very close to the train station, the GC, and sites. I've read some bad reviews about one room they have, but our experience was a good one, and most of the reviews on TripAdvisor were too. It does have AC.

Usually runs about 140EUR a night. Cheers!

I had a great stay at Ca' Centopietre on Dorsoduro which would be in your price range. Check the reviews on tripadvisor.

We liked Allogia Alla Scala. (Stayed there in 2003 and 2008) Great location. I don't know if it is one of the ones you have contacted or not.

We stayed at the Pensione Guerrato in Venice near the Rialto Market (they are in Rick Steve's Italy 2008). It was great! Great staff, spoke some English, let us leave our luggage after check out time so we could explore some more before leaving Venice. They had a decent breakfast. We had the room with no bathroom, and had to cross the lobby area to get to it. But no biggie; we enjoyed it, it was nicely decorated with a cool Murano glass chandelier and antique furniture, and it was 95 euros if paid in cash. We were there September 19th 2008.

One little note about Venice: a "street" in Venice is the size of a big hallway here in the U.S.; so when they say "take the second street on the left", that translates to "take the second really skinny alleyway on the left". We were looking for a STREET-street, and walked waaaayyyy past the one we needed. :)

Pensione Guerrato is great. We've stayed there twice and really enjoyed it both times. We'll stay someplace else next time just to get to know another area of Venice. But highly recommend PG. And they have a much closer vaporetto landing now that makes it even easier to get your bags there. No more hauling them over the Rialto.

A lot has been said on this site about Pensione Guerrato, and I second (or third) the votes for this great hotel. Terrific location, rooms, breakfast, and - for Venice - great price.

We stayed in Venice in September of 2006 and used the Rick Steves recommended website www.cross-pollinate.com. It lists B&B's only. Includes photos, amenities, and all the details. We found a place in the Canneregio neighbor, real convenient, off the beaten path but near everything, and very reasonable.

It is very wise to book ahead. Have the room held with a credit card and then pay cash, you get a discount. We have always stayed at the Hotel Arcadia. It is a very clean, safe place. the staff is great, very helpful. the price includes breakfast. It is about a 20 minute walk from the train station.

Love, just LOVE, the well-located, small but charming Locanda al Leon, near San Marco. Highly recommend it--been there 2x this past year with my wife. About e125 per night, with breakfast.