Universo & Nord

This was a decent hotel with clean rooms, beds and bathrooms. Free WiFi that fluctuated in the room but had strong signal strength in the lobby. The complementary breakfast was good and the location of the hotel was great as it was next to the train station.
The staff was nice too.

I am writing this review as someone who did not even stay here as a guest. Generally, since Venice has been turned into Disney World by the excessive and unsustainable levels of tourist trade, it is understandable to an extent the rudeness and unfriendly nature of many Venetian natives. However, this does not excuse or make acceptable such behaviour. My experience at this hotel happened upon a rainy thundering night two nights ago in the middle of the night when there was no more boat transportation anywhere. I had just gotten in on a train from Rome that was a little bit delayed, and after managing to get some food elsewhere, I came in here simply wanting to sit down and collect myself and seek some refuge from the awful weather. It was also quite chilly out, even though temperatures this summer in Italy have been scorchingly high. The rude man at the desk with a bad attitude would not let me sit down let alone get on the WiFi and then proceeded to lecture me about how «nothing is free» in this world and that I should try «another country». Before I left, I told him that he would not be getting a good review, that I would be documenting my experience, and here it is. I was not even asking for a room. I would never come here to stay next time I am in Venice.

No stars for this place. Worst experience ever. Hotel rooms are small but it’s Europe so I expect that. The beds are hard and the two pillows you get are practically non-​existent. I asked the front desk for am extra pillow for myself and my friend and they looked at me like I was crazy and said we don’t have any more pillows. Then my friend and I consistently were bitten all over our face and arms by bedbugs. We told the front desk. He smirked and said that doesn’t mean anything. We asked to speak with a manager and he looked at us like we were nuts again and said, «manager?! No, not tonight.» We asked to be moved and he said we would have to stay in the same room we were already in. The other front desk workers seem nice. But this one man, in particular, is a total jerk with absolutely NO customer service.

Look past the outdated décor, curt front desk guy, less than mediocre (complementary) breakfast, cramped hotel room, and questionable security. This is a traveller’s haven. a three-​second walk from the San Lucia train station and a 4-​minute jaunt over the bridge to the Roma bus depot, Universo/​Nord was exactly what i needed for my two days in venice. 60 euros a night, i had a place to dump my stuff and i was in (one of) the hearts of Venezia. I would definitely consider this place when comparing different hostel-​quality places to stay while in Venice, because i personally didn’t need any amenities past free wifi (which they have) and a single/​private room. you will not get the cool, unique/​boutique character you deserve, but hey, i had a locked door with a free little fridge (which i packed with 2-​euro Prosecco).