My husband and I had the misfortune to stay at the New Tower Palace Hotel from September 30th to 13th October - unfortunately I had already booked when I read the reviews on Trip Advisor
The hotel is ideally placed on Sliema's water front, near to the bus stops, however it was a massive disappointment.
Upon our arrival we were met with an off hand receiptionist who proceeded to try to sell us a package which included use of the miniscule safe, television, kettle and mini refridgerator. Fortunately having read some reviews I had purchased a new travel kettle so politely declined this. When I asked what stations the television received it seems we would only be able to understand two - BBC 1 and BBC News, so I declined that too. I did pay for the elderly mini refridgerator (which had to be brought to the room, it would seem that the mini refridgerator is taken out unless one pays the ransome for it!) which was 2.50 Euros a day and the safe (2 Euros a day plus deposit of 20 Euros for the key) which as previous reviewers mention is literally one brick out of the wall and barely took my purse and two passports!
We stayed in room 501 which is extremely small. The balcony (also extremely small) overlooked the sea and had a table and only one decrepid though usable chair the other chair I can only describe as a death trap. There were only two pillows and some very tatty unsavoury blankets if one was chilly. It took four days to acquire another two wafer thin pillows and another equally decrepid usable chair, which in turn broke two days prior to our departure. When I had repeatedly asked reception for a chair, more pillows etc she stated rather off handedly that the hotel was a three star and what did I expect and that our room had a lovely view - I did have to remind her that we had paid for all of this - handsomely! What I did not understand was why there was a trouser press in the room - this too was hanging off the wall.
The electrics are also dodgy - I plugged in our kettle and there was a huge blue flash and then none of the sockets worked. I informed reception and was informed that it was my kettle that had caused the problem as it was a different voltage, I pointed out that the voltage was exactly the same and I was then informed I could not use my kettle as the hotel provided one - for hire of course. Needless to say I continued to use the kettle and my own hair dryer (the one in the bathroom was right over the sink!!!!). A very nice man, Salvo was sent to fix the electrics, he asked my husband if he had a screwdriver with him, and we politely said it was not something we ususally packed for holidays. It turned out Salvo works for the Courts and is the odd job man - he clearly knows nothing about electrics bless him, we suggested that the electric had "tripped" and after a little time helping him look for the mains electric box he managed to get the electric sockets working again, however we did have to leave the plugs half out of the sockets to get them to work. We did also have two power failures during the evenings and when I phoned down to mention this I was spoken to as if I was a nuisance and told that it would be back on soon - no apologies!!!!
The bathroom was kept clean however the shower curtain was past its sell by date and was pretty disgusting and the towels were small but clean.
Breakfasts are barely adequate, you have to be down to the dining room early if you wish to have a hard boiled egg! One cannot describe the breakfast as "continental" it was pretty unusual - stale bread, magarine, one type of jam, marmalade, some curly cheese and meat slices, tinned fruit, already portioned yoghurt, left over cakes and some chopped melon. We had taken our own tea bags, just as well!
One can hire beach towels - another 3 Euros a day for each - we bought 3 towels for 12 Euros at a little shop further along from the hotel.
The lifts are a joke, antique to the extreme and one had the most revolting filthy dirty stained it it was a disgrace.
On the plus side the our hotel room had a sea view (which we paid for) and was kept clean due to the hard work of the lovely cleaning ladies. The "Breakfast" staff (Suzie in particular) were very nice, and the elderly gentleman on duty overnight was a little "love". The pool, whilst small was spotlessly clean. T
I was actually born in Malta and this was the first time I had visited with my husband - I will be returning to Sliema but definately would not stay at this hotel again.
- New Hotel Palace Malta
- New Hotel Sliema
