Venice Lido’s Hotel Des Bains begins renovation: over 200 million euros and reopening targeted for 2030

◉ First GlanceOur report on opening day

Sixteen years of closed shutters and locked gates. On September 11, 2026, renovation work on the Hôtel des Bains officially began on the Venice Lido, with a declared investment of over 200 million euros and a targeted reopening in 2030. This marks the first concrete step in a resurrection that has been announced, and repeatedly postponed, since the property closed in 2010.

The Lido’s first grand hotel, and the setting for Death in Venice

Inaugurated in 1900, Hôtel des Bains was the Lido’s first luxury establishment, at a time when the island was transforming into a seaside resort for wealthy Europeans. Thomas Mann stayed here and used it as the setting for Death in Venice, which Luchino Visconti brought to the screen in 1971 by filming on location. The image of the lobby, beach huts and jetty has traveled the world, and still clings today to a building that no one is permitted to visit. The Lido owes part of its mythology to it, much like the Venice Film Festival, which was also born on this beach.

Two hundred million, an Italian fund and an Abu Dhabi developer

The deadlock was not architectural; it was financial. Coima SGR acquired all of the property’s debt from the banks, which unlocked the operation and allowed for the creation of the Coima Des Bains fund, held equally by Coima ESG City Impact Fund and Eagle Hills, an Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer. This vehicle is funding the announced 200 million euros plus. The arrangement reflects modern Venetian hospitality: heritage assets cost too much for a single owner, and Gulf capital has become an ordinary partner.

Four phases, and an operator still unknown

The program is divided into four stages. First, the consolidation and waterproofing of the roofs, begun in September, followed by the restoration of the facades, the consolidation of the structures, and finally the interior design, which will align with the standards of the future operator. The technical team is Italian: TA Torsello Architettura in Venice for design, R&S Engineering in Padua for restoration procedures, Buro Milan for engineering and structures, and Climosfera in Treviso for MEP engineering. The name of the brand that will operate the hotel, and that of the interior designer, are expected to be announced by the end of the year. This remains the final major unknown of the project, and the one that will determine the address’s positioning.

Our perspective

One must recall how many times the reopening of Des Bains has been announced since 2010 to gauge the significance of this September. The debt buyout and the first tranche of work turn an intention into a construction site, and this is the first time in sixteen years that this can be written. Two caveats remain. Four years of work on a listed building by the sea, in a city where permits are slow, leave room for the unexpected. And a hotel of this scale will only be as good as its operator, about whom nothing is yet known.

Good to know

• Hôtel des Bains · Lungomare Guglielmo Marconi, 30126 Venice Lido, Italy · closed to the public, renovation underway
• Access to the Lido · vaporetto from San Marco or Fondamente Nove · Excelsior and Grand Hotel des Bains face each other on the same seafront
• Schedule · roofs in 2026, facades and structures thereafter, interior design last · targeted reopening in 2030