Guest House de la Valette in Valetta

We were supposed to stay at this hotel for a few days. We booked a room almost two weeks before our trip, but less than 48 hours before we arrived, the hotel decided to cancel our booking because of overbooking. They probably decided that another booking was better than ours. I advise avoiding this hotel as you can’t be sure your reservation won’t be canceled at the last minute. Be careful and choose another hotel to avoid any issue during your trip!

This hotel could have been great. The location is good and on the surface everything looks nice. We had booked the Harbour Suite and payed €304 for 1 night. For that you get their penthouse room with a private jacuzzi on the terrace. The jacuzzi was the whole reason we chose that room. It was raining the day we arrived so we decided to use the jacuzzi the day after, before check-out.

On arrival there was no one to greet us. After a couple of minutes we had to start looking for someone to help us. That is a bit unprofessional in our opinion. The room looked like the pictures we seen on the website. But it could have been better cleaned. In the bathroom we found long hairs on the floor. When we first tried the hotel's wifi, the internet kept disconnect. We talked to the reception and it got better. But when we got back to the room later in the evening the same happened. A flaky internet is not what you expect.

The room also comes with a king-sized bed which is something you don't often see in Maltese hotels. So that was on the plus side. But the bed was of very poor quality, it was hard as rock and squeaking every time you moved. The good night sleep we had hoped for, didn't happen. A continental breakfast is included in the price and we liked the coffee we got. But the rest could definitely improve. It was the kind of breakfast you would find at a hostel. Not a luxury boutique hotel.

After breakfast we went up to our room to try the jacuzzi. The water was warm, but we were very disappointed to find out that the water was green and smelled bad. We realised this was not something that would be fixed within an hour. So we decided to pack our bags and check out. The woman at the reception didn't ask how our stay was, she was more concerned about us paying the local hotel tax (€2).

When we complained about the jacuzzi, she phoned her manager. She then told us that since we didn't say anything about the jacuzzi the day before, there was nothing they could do. And she also said that they had guests staying in that room a couple of days before and they didn't complain. To say that we were surprised by the answer, is an understatement.

A manager who handles complains like this should be fired and never be allowed to work with customer service again. And a hotel that treats their guest like this should not be in business at all. We payed for something that we couldn't use and instead of getting compensated, we got slapped in the face. We live in Malta and we will make sure to tell our friends not to stay here. "It's all about experience" according to the hotel's website. And they are soo right about that!