The honest review of Aman Venice

The Tiepolo Suite is the one to book if you think the standard rooms look too plain for Venice.

A lot of people complain that Aman Venice's rooms are too spartan for a city known for ornate interiors, and honestly most of the 19 non-signature rooms are guilty of that. But the Tiepolo and the Sansovino Stanza are a different story entirely, both fit the grand Venetian palazzo style much better than the rest of the hotel.

The neighborhood right outside the hotel is one of the best things about staying here.

I prefer staying outside the busiest tourist triangle between St. Mark's, the Accademia Bridge and the Rialto, since that whole zone feels overrun. This location gives a much better sense of an actual neighborhood, with real cafes and shops just outside, while still being an easy walk or boat ride to everything. The converted palazzo itself is genuinely beautiful.

Don't come here expecting a real spa experience, it's a small operation.

The spa is genuinely tiny with very few facilities, and I wouldn't treat it as a reason to book. I did get a good massage there, which is the only reason I'd rate it decently at all, but it's clearly more of a revenue add-on than something built to be a destination in its own right. The hotel's boat can double as a water taxi for a fee, which was handy.

Our standard room didn't match the marketing at all, and it wasn't cheap.

We were told our room would look down onto the gardens and instead got assigned something partly underground, with our door right next to the public restroom. Every time we tried to get into the hotel bar we were told there was no room even though we were staying there. At $1,600 a night, even at a discounted low-season rate, it wasn't worth it.

I went in unsure how to place this hotel for clients and came out impressed by the common spaces.

The common areas, restaurant, garden, reading room and library are all immaculate. Service was excellent and I had one of the best cocktails I've ever had at the bar. If you're booking one of the entry-level room categories you need to be fine with a fairly austere look, but the upper suites have frescoes and other details that make them some of the best rooms in the city. Shoulder season rates make the whole thing much more approachable than peak summer.

“the entry rooms are sparse”in their words

I went in for tea expecting the polish this reputation implies and mostly got small disappointments.

My husband's tea came with no honey and no biscuit, which felt off for a hotel like this. My fresh juice was maybe half a glass. Worse, staff cleared a nearby table while we were seated, brushing crumbs onto the floor and shaking cushions out right next to us, which felt sloppy for the setting. The property itself is gorgeous and deserves better execution on details like these.

We only came for dinner and it was still obvious this is an exceptional property.

The interiors feel like stepping into a private Venetian palace, every detail preserved and elevated. Every person we encountered was gracious and attentive in a way that felt genuinely discreet rather than performed. The restaurant setting was spectacular and the food was refined and beautifully presented. We weren't even staying the night and still felt fully immersed in it.

Out of 58 luxury hotels I've stayed at, this was the worst spa treatment I've had.

My therapist ended the massage nearly thirty minutes early and wore plastic gloves the whole time because of cuts on his hand, without telling me beforehand. When I raised it with the spa manager, she told me I was lucky never to have had a massage with gloves before and treated it as completely normal. The restaurant staff were phenomenal and other staff were great, so I don't want to write off the whole hotel, but this is not what I expect from Aman.

“lucky to have never experienced a Massage with rubber gloves before”in their words

A garden lunch for our anniversary was one of the best meals we've had anywhere.

We used the new garden area and everything about it was right: crisp linen, perfectly chilled champagne, and a server who gave us discreet, well-timed attention along with real history about the property and the garden itself. It's up there with the best lunches we've ever had.

Breakfast under the frescoes was the highlight of three nights during Carnival.

We booked a Palazzo Stanza room right on the Grand Canal with two big windows facing the water, though the TV felt oddly placed and I'd have preferred another lounge chair there instead. Eating breakfast every morning under the Tiepolo frescoes was unbelievable, and I could have stared at the ceilings all day. My one complaint was a masquerade dinner event for outside guests that led to drunken guests trying our door handle late at night; staff should have made clearer which doors weren't part of the event.

Our honeymoon here didn't come close to matching the room rate.

Our room sat next to the offices and needed a secondary staircase just to reach reception. On the first night, a sixty-euro pasta dish took ninety minutes to arrive and nobody seemed to care when we said something. Staff showed little interest in our plans the rest of the stay, though the waiters, spa staff and boat driver were genuinely professional. A one-hour boat trip got cut short by rain with no compensation offered.