The Lido's Grand Dame Returns
Hotel Excelsior Venice reopened in May 2026 after a three-year closure, its 198 rooms freshly renovated to mark a full century of operation. The Belle Époque building on the Lido has been the main venue for the Venice International Film Festival since 1932, and its reopening brought a wave of attendees back under its turreted roof: Claire Foy and Kate Mara both stayed this year.
The Excelsior sits directly on the beach, part palace and part seaside club, with the jade-coloured Adriatic stretching east. The top two floors remain the most coveted, fitted with balconies that face either the lagoon and the distant silhouette of Venice or the sunrise over open water. Inside, designers leaned into Orientalist motifs with jewel-toned wallpaper, wicker, and faux bamboo. A crimson carpet leads from the entrance past portraits of past guests, a deliberate piece of theatre that nods to the hotel's role in film history.
Brigitte Bardot posed for photographers on the grass here in the 1950s; Elizabeth Taylor swam in the Lido. The hotel's location, a fifteen-minute shuttle from central Venice, makes it a retreat for Venetians fleeing summer crowds as much as a base for visiting actors.
A Palazzo Built for Discretion
Aman Venice occupies the 16th-century Palazzo Papadopoli, one of only eight palazzo monumentali in the city. The property holds just 24 rooms, each shaped by the palazzo's original layout, so no two are identical. George and Amal Clooney married here in 2014 and spent their wedding night in the Alcova Tiepolo Suite, sleeping beneath frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
The hotel opened as a departure for Aman, a group known for minimalist beach resorts in Asia. Here, the design pairs priceless frescoes and enormous Murano chandeliers with low-slung B&B Italia furniture and dove-grey Rubelli silks. Count Gilberto Arrivabene and Princess Bianca Arrivabene, the Venetian aristocrats who partnered with Aman, lent the project both the palazzo and a layer of local credibility.
The Sansovino Suite features a fireplace by 16th-century architect Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino. Grand Canal views are standard in the best rooms. This year, Kylie Jenner stayed at the property during the festival.
Aman Venice offers privacy at a scale that larger hotels cannot match. With fewer than 30 rooms, the property can close ranks around high-profile guests without fanfare.
Kendall Jenner's Choice on the Grand Canal
The Gritti Palace underwent a 38 million US dollar renovation that concluded in 2013, updating plumbing and bathrooms while preserving silk damask walls, painted stucco, and gilded ceiling beams. Ernest Hemingway set his novel Across the River and Into the Trees at the Gritti in the 1940s, when the hotel lacked en-suite facilities.
Today, even the entry-level Deluxe Rooms are wrapped in Rubelli fabrics and feel steeped in Venetian history. The Gritti Terrace overlooks the Salute church across gondola traffic on the Grand Canal. Kendall Jenner and Sydney Sweeney both stayed here during the 2026 festival.
Executive chef Alberto Fol joined from Hotel Danieli in late 2023. At Bar Longhi, head barman Cristiano Luciani mixes a wild fennel martini that has become something of a house signature.
The Gritti trades on its status as Venice's ultimate grande dame, a museum of the city's decorative past that now functions as a luxury hotel. The Somerset Maugham Royal Suite is airy and magnificent, but the standard rooms deliver enough gilt and grandeur to satisfy most guests.
A Fashion Founder's Canal-Side Restoration
The 13th-century Ca' Da Mosto sat empty on the Grand Canal for decades before Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo, founders of fashion brand Golden Goose, began a six-year restoration. The hotel, now called The Venice Venice, opened in 2022.
Gothic windows overlook the canal. Candlelit staircases and stone passageways run through the building. Suites are large and quiet, lit by reflected water. Contemporary art fills the rooms, with works by Italian Arte Povera artists Gilberto Zorio and Jannis Kounellis. On the quayside stands Souvenir, a sculpture by Fabio Viale that reinterprets Michelangelo's Pietà with the Madonna and Christ separated.
Selena Gomez and Jonathan Bailey stayed at The Venice Venice during this year's festival. The hotel leans into Venice's reputation as a romantic, slightly decadent city, with draperies and low lighting throughout.
The Cipriani's Island Sanctuary
Hotel Cipriani occupies three acres on the Giudecca, an island south of the main city. Unlike most Venetian luxury hotels, which retrofit historic palazzos, the Cipriani was purpose-built in 1958 by Giuseppe Cipriani, owner of Harry's Bar, in partnership with Honor and Brigid Guinness, daughters of the brewing family who owned the land.
Guests arrive by private motor launch in varnished cedar, a short crossing from St Mark's Square or the airport terminal. The hotel's scale and island location provide a buffer from the crowds and paparazzi that cluster around other festival venues. Irina Shayk and Lady Gaga have both stayed here in recent years. Earlier guests included Sophia Loren, Cary Grant, and Jennifer Lawrence.
The Cipriani operates as a kind of clubhouse, offering discretion and space that central Venice cannot provide. Its gardens and pool are rare luxuries in a city built on water and stone.
Why These Five Endure
The Venice Film Festival has run for more than 80 years, and the same small group of hotels has hosted its stars for most of that time. Each offers something distinct: the Excelsior provides beachfront access and festival infrastructure, Aman and the Cipriani promise privacy, the Gritti delivers Grand Canal spectacle, and The Venice Venice offers a newer option with contemporary art and a fashion pedigree.
Room supply in Venice is limited by the city's historic fabric. New luxury hotels are rare. The festival's longevity has cemented these properties as the default choices for actors, directors, and models who return year after year. The hotels, in turn, have learned to manage the logistics of celebrity guests, from separate entrances to launch schedules timed to avoid photographers.
The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: stars stay where stars have always stayed, and the hotels remain fixtures on the festival circuit.
