Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz Malta — Hotel in Saint Lawrence

Having stayed at the Kempinski in Istria Croatia a few years ago we were looking forward to staying at this property having enjoyed the previous stay. We booked a grand deluxe pool view room for 5 nights via the hotel’s loyalty programme and felt the rate including breakfast offered good value for money at around £212pn.||The hotel is slightly off the beaten track but in a quiet location near to some coastal walking paths. The hotel is clearly an older property that has undergone recent room and bar area refurbishments. We were given a room on the 5th floor which was spacious and nicely furnished. Unfortunately, due to an issue with the room we had to move to an adjacent room. There were a couple of issues with the second room which involved us liaising with the ‘Lady in Red’ Fanni who attended to the issues and kindly provided a bottle of prosecco as an apology.||The main issue with the room for us was the bed. The king-sized beds are actually two single foam mattresses zipped together which are incredibly soft and sag in the middle. We found them amongst the most uncomfortable beds we have ever experienced in a hotel of this standard. It could be forgiven to have foam mattresses in a lower category of hotel but for an international chain of this standard a sprung mattress should be the standard. ||The room amenities included a fruit basket, kettle, sachets of instant coffee and tea bags. The hotel does not provide bottled water. Instead, there is a filtration tap in the bathroom which provides drinking water. Although this may be a good in concept, unless you bring your own water bottle you have no means with which to take drinking water out of the hotel if going on excursions. Again, most hotels of this standard provide a coffee pod machine rather than instant coffee but maybe that is a logistics issue with Malta being so remote.||The hotel was quiet for the first few days of our stay and the experience was quite relaxing. It seemed to change however as it grew closer to the weekend. For example, our room was cleaned very well for the first two days but then it was barely touched. A ring left around the bath, the rug covered in fluff and the outside table with the same crumbs on it for 2 days in a row. On out last day the room was still not serviced at 2pm.||The hotel isn’t bad but there were enough areas which we felt were lacking. Firstly, the breakfast service is shambolic. It seems the team is made up of young trainees who stand around talking and have no idea that if someone is sitting with a menu, either take the order or remove the menu. We walked up to the buffet one morning to get out food leaving 2 almost full glasses of juice cups of coffee only to find the table cleared when we returned! In the mornings, many guests wanted to dine on the terrace and are shown to the area by the hostess only to find there is no cutlery or place setting on the tables but staff are trying to look busy wiping unused tables. There was a young French guy who was very good… he should be promoted.||The bar area isn’t much better. The only staff member who has a clue is the lady that makes the cocktails. We got the snacks with out drinks most evenings, but one night the drinks were dumped on the table with no placements, napkins or snacks. |The gym has decent enough equipment but the room itself is grubby and tired as is the whole spa area. It is in need of refurbishment.||The pool area is nice but the pool is very deep and cold. The staff are again a young team who really don’t know what they should be doing. We watched as the usual scenario unfolded where different sets of parents felt it was ok to let their young children run and jump into the adult’s pool. The pool attendants just stood and watched this happen twice and did nothing. The cushion covers on the loungers are stained and grubby and need to be cleaned. Again, not the standard you would expect.||We dined at L-Istorja twice which is supposed to be the fine dining steak restaurant. The menu is very limited and didn’t appeal to us at all. A steak which was supposed to be 300g was far shy of that amount and the fish of the day was overcooked. The aged steak was also tough, tasteless and being 50% more than other local restaurants wasn’t worth the money. The dessert menu is odd and the quality poor. The apple pie was soggy and looked like a trainee had made it. Considering the skill of the pastry chef that makes the cakes for the patisserie we would suggest the cakes be put on the restaurant dessert menu instead as they are far superior to the current offering. ||This is a really four-star hotel saved by the modernisation of the rooms. In all honesty the spa and gym facilities wouldn’t even warrant a 3* rating. The facilities are limited and the majority of the staff lack the necessary training. The food and beverage management need to up their game as it is an underwhelming offering. Whilst our stay was pleasant we...

We stayed at the Kempinski Hotel for a week in September 2023.

Our stay started off well: the service from all staff was excellent, our room was very nice (if a little outdated), and the food was delicious.

However, it started to go wrong when we had a noisy neighbour above our room. The ceilings and walls must be very thin because you can hear almost everything, including other guests opening and closing drawers. The issue we had was with our neighbour's children who ran up and down the room constantly. This woke us up early on a few occasions. They had also thrown food down onto our balcony. We asked reception if they could possibly ask the other guests to stop their children running up and down repeatedly. In all honesty, we knew it was unlikely we would get anywhere but reception were polite and agreed to speak with them. Overall, not the end of the world, but would have been great to resolve if possible.

Towards the end of our week long stay, there was a company conference, so tables were put out in the lobby and they took over part of the pool area in the evening. The conference included evening entertainment, which we could hear until late evening, but it didn't disturb us too much. Nevertheless, we were surprised that such an event would take place by the pool area which all of the hotel's rooms face.

The real problem started when a large wedding commenced. The hotel was taken over entirely by the wedding (100s of people showed up) and wedding decorations were all around the hotel (including a timetable showing that the wedding was to last three days and every night there would be a party plus after party). The first after party of the wedding (the pre wedding party) kicked off late evening in the pool area with a DJ. The music started off loud but only got louder as the night progressed. We genuinely felt like we were sat in a nightclub. We called reception around 10:30pm to ask when the party would be over so we would at least know when we would be able to get some sleep. They explained to my husband that the music would end at 11pm and the bar would close at midnight. We thought that wasn't the end of the world so looked forward to being able to get off to sleep shortly. Gone midnight, and the music hadn't stopped. In fact, it had got louder. We called reception again and this time they just say that they "will see what they can do" or something along those lines. It wasn't until 1:40am that the music finally stopped. We were flying home the next day so had to get up at a reasonable time in the morning. We had planned to have lunch at the pool bar before heading to the airport. However, when we looked out to the pool area, all of the loungers had been removed and staff were cleaning the poolside until early afternoon. Only one small pool was open for guests and the pool bar was closed, due to the events the previous evening.

My husband complained to the manager the day we left and we received 100 euros off of our food bill. The manager explained that they were apparently between a rock and a hard place because the wedding party had complained about the music being stopped at 11pm. However, an 11pm close appeared to have been agreed and it felt there was absolutely no consideration for other paying guests at the hotel, by the hotel. In our view, they should have closed bookings of the hotel to anyone not part of the wedding when the wedding was booked. It was unbelievable to me that a 5* hotel would think it OK to keep their guests up until 1:40am in the morning due to a function and then limit access to certain amenities the next day. We would much rather have had a good night's sleep than received some money off our final bill.

We left the hotel feeling exhausted and having gone on holiday to recover from being unwell, the whole experience was a massive disappointment. The only silver lining was that we weren't stuck there for the entire wedding.

This was our third time visiting Gozo, but needless to say we will never visit...

My husband and I spent four nights at the Kempinski at the very end of June 2025. It was our first time at a Kempinski and visiting Malta/Gozo. A true highlight is the extra mile the staff went for us after we checked out. We had used the spa in the morning (more on that later) and I foolishly forgot my swimsuit in the changing room. I didn't realise until I was comfortably seated on the fast ferry to Valletta. I immediately called and emailed the hotel who informed me that they had found the suit. They then arranged for it to be shipped back to me in London in just a few days time. The process was seamless and I was very grateful for the assistance and communication (and to have my favourite suit back!).||||ARRIVAL/CHECK IN ||We arrived in the evening, just before dinner time and check in was a breeze. We were promptly greeted and escorted to the lifts. The lobby has a lovely light installation and we had no complaints here. ||||THE ROOM||Larger than expected! The bed was huge and very comfortable. I had selected the garden view for fear that poolside would be too loud in the morning/evenings, but that turned out to be a non-concern due to the pool hours and generally respectful behaviour from other guests. ||||The bathroom was modern and very comfortable. The A/C was great and easy to adjust. ||||Some of the furnishings feel a little cheap and the light sensor on one of the wardrobe doors was a bit touchy but nothing to derail an otherwise great room. ||||HOTEL POOL||The pool area is lovely. Neither my husband nor I like to be in direct sunlight so we were relieved to find plenty of shade in/around the pool. I paid for a cabana for one afternoon, which was a great buy. They were comfortable, spacious, and shady. It was nice to set up a base for the most leisurely afternoon of the trip. ||||The biggest downside was the bar service. Even in the cabana, service was infrequent at best and downright absent at worst. We aren't huge drinkers so it wasn't that big of a deal but it did get a bit annoying at times. Likewise, the food from the pool bar was the weakest at the hotel. ||||There is an indoor pool (not in the spa) that also looks lovely but we didn't use it. ||||HOTEL RESTAURANTS||We managed to try all the restaurants for dinner and they were all solid choice. The Japanese restaurant in the garden was my personal favourite. The setting was beautiful and the food was absolutely delicious. We had our favourite cocktails from the hotel at this one! ||||The steakhouse is also a great shout. The quality of the meat was high and the vibe inside was a good change of scenery for a lovely meal. ||||Breakfast buffets were solid. We also did room service once, which was a pretty good value in comparison to other experiences, but eating in the dining area was a nicer experience. ||||I do wish there was a place to buy coffee before 10am, though. I can't stomach the instant stuff in the room and would've appreciated just a plain old americano to go before heading out for a day on the island. ||||THE SPA||We did a spa day on our last day (right after we checked out). The spa facilities were truly great. The couple's massage was top tier and I highly recommend. The pool/sauna/steam room areas were all dimly lit and very relaxing. I spent a couple hours reading in the loungers while my husband methodically cycled through the various bits, having a great time. ||||The gym facilities were perfectly adequate for vacation. ||||SUMMARY||A really great hotel. The staff are a bit young and sometimes inexperienced but always try their hardest. We really don't have any complaints (besides the lack of coffee available outside of the breakfast buffet in the morning) and would happily return to this hotel. I'd highly recommend it for anyone looking for a...