Palazzina Grassi
Palazzina Grassi is the design wild card of Venice hotels — a 16th-century Grand Canal palazzo that Philippe Starck reimagined into something playful, mirrored, and theatrical, a deliberate counterpoint to the city's antique-grandeur norm. In a Venice full of damask and Murano-by-the-yard, it offers Starck's particular brand of glamour and surprise. For the traveler who wants their Venice hotel to have a contemporary point of view rather than a museum's, it's the one.
The boat transfer from the airport or station deposits you at the hotel's water gate — which is the correct Venetian arrival, and the one that makes clear the Grand Canal adjacency is real rather than aspirational. The Philippe Starck interiors are immediately apparent in the common areas: deliberately eclectic, glamorous without being heavy.
26 rooms in a building that reads as a private Venetian palazzo from the outside and continues that impression inside. The transition from canal to lobby is one of the better hotel arrivals in the city.
Starck's design throughout — mirrored, dramatic, contemporary, with the Murano and Venetian references reworked through his lens. Generous and design-led.
A see-and-be-seen restaurant and bar scene — Palazzina Grassi has long drawn a stylish, after-dark crowd.
San Marco, on the Grand Canal near Palazzo Grassi — central and walkable to the museums and the shopping streets.
Palazzina Grassi is Starck's Venice — design-forward, theatrical, and unlike anything else in the city. For contemporary glamour over antique grandeur, it's the pick.
The only hotel in Venice — and one of the few in Italy — with a Starck commission. The interiors signal something about the owners: they cared enough to take the project personally, hired someone serious to design it, and trusted the result.
The Krug Terrace faces the Grand Canal. At aperitivo hour, with a glass of something cold and the canal traffic below, this is the version of Venice that the city reserves for people who know where to find it.
A Starck-designed Grand Canal hotel at pricing that does not require an occasion. This is the version of Venice luxury that the accessible-luxury tier actually offers rather than promises.
26 rooms. Small enough that the service operates personally. You are not anonymous.
Venice water taxi from the airport is expensive. The hotel can arrange private water taxi transfers — worth booking in advance.
The Krug Terrace is not a large space. In peak season, it can feel crowded. Aperitivo in the late afternoon on a weekday is the right timing.
The Grand Canal location means water traffic noise. Light sleepers should ask for interior rooms.
San Marco is Venice's most central address. It is also Venice's most crowded. This is the trade-off.