Hotel Danieli

The Hotel

Hotel Danieli is a composite of three buildings on Riva degli Schiavoni — the long lagoon-facing promenade that runs east of the Doge's Palace. The principal building, the Palazzo Dandolo, was constructed at the end of the 14th century by one of the senior Dandolo families; four members of the Dandolo family had by that time served as Doge of Venice, the most famous of whom — Enrico Dandolo — led the Fourth Crusade and the conquest of Constantinople in 1204. The Palazzo Dandolo retained much of its medieval and early Renaissance character through the centuries until 1822, when Giuseppe Dal Niel — known as Danieli — bought it, restored it, and converted it into the hotel that bears his name. The hotel was extended in 1895 with electrical fittings and lifts, again in the 1940s with the integration of the adjacent Palazzo Casa Nuova (the 19th-century building), and in the late 1940s with the addition of the Danieli Excelsior (the 20th-century wing). The three buildings are now interconnected and operate as a single hotel; the property is part of Marriott's Luxury Collection.

The hotel has 103 rooms and suites, distributed across the three palaces. The 14th-century Palazzo Dandolo houses the lobby, the principal salons, and the most sought-after suites — the Doge Dandolo Royal Suite (the corner setting on the Piano Nobile, with private stand-up balconies overlooking the lagoon and 180-degree views of the Grand Canal entrance), the Doge Suite (frescoed by 18th-century Venetian artist Jacopo Guarana), the Marco Polo Suite, and a handful of named heritage suites that are essentially museum-grade rooms. The Palazzo Casa Nuova is generally where the standard categories sit; the Danieli Excelsior wing was renovated most recently and houses contemporary-luxe rooms with the strongest direct lagoon views. The lobby of the Palazzo Dandolo is the architectural set piece: a six-storey atrium with a red-marble grand staircase running up its northern wall, lit by ten Murano chandeliers, lined by 14th-century Gothic columns, and crossed by upper-floor walkways. It is the single most-photographed hotel interior in Italy and one of the most theatrical luxury hotel arrivals anywhere in Europe.

The hotel's most prominent dining room is the Restaurant Terrazza Danieli, the rooftop restaurant on the top floor of the Casa Nuova wing, open in season; the Terrazza's lagoon view — across to San Giorgio Maggiore, the Punta della Dogana, and the lagoon islands — is one of the city's most-asked-for dinner tables. The Bar Dandolo, in the lobby of the Palazzo Dandolo, runs the cocktail and aperitivo programme and is a destination in its own right (the Murano-glass-lit space, the live piano, and the staff do most of the work). The hotel does not have a swimming pool. The recent multi-year refurbishment under the operatorship of Four Seasons (the property is, since 2025, a Four Seasons-managed hotel under the Luxury Collection brand on a transitional licence) has substantially refreshed the room categories and brought the service standard up to brand-current levels; some rooms remain at the older specification depending on category and floor.

Hotel Danieli is the most architecturally storied hotel in Venice. Its competition is, for the headline experience, The Gritti Palace (the Gritti has the better Grand Canal view, the Danieli has the more theatrical interior); for the lagoon-view proposition, no other Venice hotel matches it; for proximity to the principal sights, the Danieli is the closest of any of the top tier (the Doge's Palace is a five-minute walk; St. Mark's Basilica, three). The address has been continuously a hotel since 1822, which makes it, with the Baglioni Hotel Luna, one of the two oldest in Venice. Travel + Leisure 500 listed; Forbes Five-Star verified.

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