Propably the worst hotel i have ever stayed in (in it's price class). The hotel advertises itself as being in the heart of the venice region. This does not mean it's in venice - to the contrary, it is in the heart of venice province, which makes it closer to the next city of Treviso than to Venice itself. The actual neighborhood of the hotel is a quiet residential area, filled with low-cost appartment buildings.
The only bus to Venice passes in front of the hotel every 30 minutes - the difference is that this is a minor stop for an intercity bus, so it will not always stop there. We found that, in order to get to Venice, the best way would be to drive our own vehicle to the mestre train station, and get the train to venice from there.
The hotel charges a ridiculous amount of money (~10 euros, if i recall corectly) for a non-guaranteed parking spot on the street in front of the hotel, and this is their parking offer.
The hotel is not particularly clean - we could wipe the dust off the furniture with our fingers. We stayed there for three nights, and they never replaced the bed sheets. They did replace the towels: only on the last night, they run out towels and left us without any.
Talk about thin walls - they were indeed paper thin. We could even hear the footsteps of the people in the next room!
We even had to make a repair to one of the beds ourselves, as the wood supporting the matress was poorly put in place and failed to support my weight (130 Kg).
The ground floor corridors leading up to the elevator were particularly narrow. I even had to walk sideways to get through.
The room doors could be opened from the outside when not locked. One afternoon, one of the littlie boys staying on our floor went opeing all the doors fro the fun of it.
The hotel supposedly featured an internet access point & wireless service, but a label "out of service" on the monitor of their computer explained it all.
The breakfast was a diabetic's nightmare: absolutely all the served items featured sugar (exept for the butter and the bread). Don't even talk of cheese, ham etc.
On the positive side, the hotel staff was helpful securing bus/boat tickets and bar items for us, even at peculiar hours. They also featured an outdoor extension of their lounge (a few chairs and tables), that catered well for the smokers. Our 3-bed room had 3 regular beds (the third one was not a potrable addition). The hotel was very close to the A4 highway, which made getting to and away from the area very easy.
The time lost in transit to Venice and back to the hotel, as well as the uncormfotableness of the hotel helped ruin my Venice trip. For the pace of the venetian mass transit, staing in a hotel inside Venice is well worth the extra money, especially if you come without a car.

Our party of 4 stayed for 2 nights (Sunday & Monday) at the Ariston. Taxi from Venice Mestre train station cost 15 Euros. The hotel staff were fine - courteous and helpful with information & even sold bus tickets & provided bus timetable. There wasn't anything open in the vicinity of the hotel as it was a Sunday afternoon so we ventured into Venice by bus. The bus stop is a 2 minute walk down the road & tickets were only 1 Euro per person! Missed last bus back to hotel (8ish) so had to walk a fair distance from nearest stop. Rooms were clean and quaintly decorated in Venetian style. No bar fridge though. Walls were quite thin & we had inconsiderate people in the next room who talked loudly & turned telly off and on until after 3. That's just your luck though, isn't it? Not the hotel's fault. Be prepared for extortionate prices once in Venice if you plan to eat & drink. We went to the restaurant right next to the bus station for dinner and paid 100 Euros for a pizza and 2 beers each. Getting about in Venice is easily done by vaporetti and you can get 24 hour tickets for both bus and water bus for 15 Euros or 3 day ones for about 25. These are good value if you're staying in or around the Mestre. You must go to island of Murano as it is less busy, more friendly and as beautiful as Venice without all of the hoo-ha. If I were to go again, I'd pay a little more and stay in the heart of the Mestre where there are loads of restaurants and shops. If I could afford it, I'd stay in Venice itself but sadly that is beyond my budget. To sum up - for the price, the Ariston is fine as the staff are helpful, it's clean and it's situated close to the bus stop for trips into the Mestre, Milan or Venice.

We wanted a 3 star hotel close to the heart of Venice & booked 2 double rooms six months before we travelled.

I didn't find the Hotel staff particularly heplful, they could all do with some customer care training.

I would describe it as a very basic 1 star hotel. Although it was clean the ' newly refurbished rooms' were still woefully under equiped. Part of the renovation appeared to involve installing a shower tray and raising the surrounding floor level, unfortunatley they didn't raise the height of the door frame so anyone over 6' tall keeps banging their head on the door surround., the on suite wash room in the other double, was so small that you could sit on the toilet and still take a shower.

Breakfasts were very poor and consisted of nothing more than, bread rolls, vending coffee,orange squash, cold boiled eggs and some sort of corn flake type cereal.

The bus service was regular but, regardless of what ever time of day we travelled it was always packed & the night bus (after 10pm) stops a good 10 minute walk up the road, which was very scary as the pavements are poor and not well lit.

To get to St Marks square would take over an hour by bus and water bus. I wouldn't recomend staying out late in the centre of Venice as it is a real chore using the public transport system getting back to the Hotel.

I wouldn't go back to this hotel, I'm sure there are much better equiped and friendlier Hotels nearer the centre of Venice.

I personally did not experience bad service, in contrast to the other reviewers. If anything, the service we received vacillated from being warm and amiable to being indifferent BUT efficient.

The room we were assigned was average, with a decently sized washroom and a nice tv; however, the 'double bed' consisted of two twin beds pulled together, which was a tad uncomfortable, especially since the beds kept moving apart.

The breakfast was ok though I, too, was annoyed upon realizing that we only really got bread rolls and jam and had to pay more euros to have the hearty meal advertised. Nevertheless, there was a amazing yet economical restaurant right next door - if you're there, try the parmna ham and the gnocchi which was hearty and substantial; you will never find a meal that cheap and that good in Venice itself.

As for the commute, the bus came regularly and though I can see why some would be annoyed by the 20-30 minute commute, we thought it was a good way to see Venice and its surrounding suburbs. (As a tip, check the bus schedule - this will save you minutes of waiting outside).

Overall, it was an ok hotel and I would be happy to recommend it to others - the money you save by staying at this hotel can be used to pay for all the ridiculous touristy expenses that accumulate when visiting Venice.