Seaview Hotel Malta — Hotel in Saint Paul's Bay

So, I have a bit of mixed feelings with my stay at Seaview Hotel. My partner and I went to Malta for 6 nights. Overall, we were looking for a sea view, with a beach walking distance, a decent luxurious hotel and quiet atmosphere (hence why we chose adults only).

To simplify:

PROS: Very clean, luxurious hotel, and good size rooms (beautiful bathrobes too!)

Staff was very helpful and kind. Specially the cleaning staff and reception!

Nice facilities, clean facilities

Amazing breakfast selection!

CONS: Even though we were in front of the sea. The views were awful. Very dirty streets and very noisy. There was building work around the area, and we had building noise from 5 AM (drilling non-stop). We actually did not get good sleep at all because of the construction noise throughout our stay!

Now, I am unsure if it’s how the hotel is build or if it was the guests. But we could hear slamming doors regularly, which wasn’t great in the night, people were not respectful sometimes (noise wise).

The pillows and mattress were not actually comfortable for a FOUR star hotel, and the worst part was that our snacks and food got spoiled in the fridge because it did not keep the items cold properly (the fridge was working fine but it was not working as it should).

Full body towel were not provided in the bathroom (for when I had to shower). They only provide with pool towels.

Now this is a bit of a gray area. So, the hotel provides with SPA services. However, it seems they are another company working with the hotel. So I guess it’s not directly involved with the hotel. But the Spa service was awful, I tried to ring twice to book a massage, no answer. I went in person to book with them, no one was there and I witnessed other hotel guests looking for the spa staff as it seems their appointments were running an hour late because of the spa staff.

Holiday reps. So we had a holiday rep allocated to us which was a nice thought as it was a licensed tourist service. However, there’s another tourist agency in the hotel, that was doggy because of the stuff she was promising, and when our holiday rep arrived she seemed to have conflicts with the other tourism agency (this made us feel uncomfortable, as we are only looking for a reliable tourist guide agency). I feel like the hotel needs to decide what best for the guests and not their pockets.

Now, the facilities were nice. However, again, for a 4 star hotel sometimes it’s not an about the facilities that the hotel provides. But the size of the hotel overall felt very cramped. Let me explain, the indoor pool was in level -2 next to the car park! We were literally like in a basement, there was too much chlorine and little ventilation. Due to the small space, there were no windows.

Sometimes you are better offering a good pool size and removing the car park. Than cramping everything!

Car park is run on a first come first serve. This a 4 star hotel, and parking should be available for all guests. This did not bring me a peace of mind as Malta is a small island with little parking, hence why I needed a hotel with parking.

Lastly, my partner and I found difficult to find a place or lounge to wind down. Despite for the “lounge” to be in level 1. This was the restaurant/bar/and lounge altogether. Again, the cramped space. Because everything was all on the same floor altogether, we felt we did not have the space to wind down in an actual lounge. It also felt like we had to keep buying drinks (because we were also in the bar area) as there weren’t separate areas, all wanted to do was to read or have a chat or watch a movie on my phone in the lounge.

Lastly, even staff were really nice. I personally, found a little bit pushy about asking if I wanted more drinks and stuff. I felt like a couldn’t relax because people kept asking me if I was okay.

Also, the first night. I had a staff worker knocked on our door to repair something in the room. I had to refuse his entry, as I was having dinner with my partner in our room. This should have been checked...

First of all let me say, that mistakes happen and I am very understanding and always open for compromise. Anyways, my partner and I had a very unpleasant stay at the Seaview Hotel Malta that resulted in us taking a refund after 2 out of 7 planned nights.

Initially we booked a “Deluxe Panoramic Seaview Suite” in January for a stay at the end of March.

When we checked in, we were asked to already pay everything upfront, which is fine. Afterwards we were brought to our room, which appeared to be just a standard room with sea view. I pointed it out immediately to the girl who showed us the room and she told us to come to the reception the next morning to fix the issue.

So I went to the reception the next morning and I had to explain the situation again. The staff did not seem to understand properly what I meant but told me that in the afternoon we would get the correct suite because it wasn’t cleaned and available yet. Generally the communication was tricky at times, since not all of the staff members speak English properly.

In the afternoon we returned and I had to explain the whole situation once again. After a while we were brought into another standard room with higher ceilings, still not a suite though. We were tired, so I did not start a discussion about it right away. Later I decided to go to the reception and ask for the proper suite again though. For the first time I met a staff member who was actually friendly, helpful and who tried to resolve the issue. She was very understanding and apologized for her colleagues lack of hospitality.

She showed me three available rooms, but all of them would’ve been downgrades of what we initially booked. So I had to decline. She offered that we could get refunded for the difference between standard room and suite, which I accepted. Anyways, she offered to try to figure out a better solution for us. So we went to have drinks and about 20min later she approached us with the good news that she upgraded us for the suite with hot tub for the next day. Also she got us a bottle of wine to our room.

We were very excited, so the next day I went to the reception, asked for a confirmation and was told that we should pack our things and the staff will bring our luggage to the suite when it’s ready. That would’ve been good service, if it would’ve turned out like this…

We returned from a trip in the late afternoon and were immediately greeted by someone who introduced himself as the assistant manager. He told us that we will not receive an upgrade and that we can either accept another room (5th floor, normal suite) or get refunded and can leave the hotel. We were shocked about the level of unprofessionalism. If this solution would’ve been presented to us from the start, it would’ve been totally acceptable but the hotel tried to put us into standards rooms twice while charging full price. Therefore we were not up for any further compromise anymore. We decided to leave.

When we returned the keys, the assistant manager asked us not to leave any negative review on social media… I am leaving an objective one.

Generally the hotel is in an ok condition, but I was surprised to learn that it is brand new. It is somewhat dirty in some areas and seems to not be properly maintained. There were disgusting spots on the head of our bed and a dead fly was greeting us on the carpet in the second room that was apparently just “cleaned”. The bar is extremely loud in the afternoon and evening and the indoor pool and spa area is somewhat basic. The walls are not soundproof at all. You can hear your neighbors loud and clear.

As initially mentioned, problems happen and can be fixed. But I was forced to approach the hotel staff proactively, instead of them being honest about the problem and offering us a solution. Many people would not feel comfortable to be so confrontational and I assume that the hotel staff hopes that people just won’t complain.Very unprofessional and very shady business practices.

We will not come back and will also tell our friends not...

I chose this hotel because it was a smaller 4 star adult only hotel. I had a side Seaview room 614. It had the best balcony and a good view being on the 6th floor. I wouldn't want to be on a lower floor because of the noise from traffic but also being on the corner and higher up meant that you didn't directly face another building and restaurant. I suggest you choose a Seaview room floor 6 and above. You definitely don't want to face the sides or back of the building because your view will be anything but Seaview. I would say what was most disappointing was that from 7-12pm midnight BRIGHT balcony lights went on and you can't dim them or turn them off. The whole hotel is lit up like a bright Christmas tree where all the balconies are on show. The other hotels along the strip have no lights or very dim lights which would make you want to sit on the balcony, enjoy the view and sea breeze. We didn't want to sit on our balcony when the lights were on and I couldn't see many other people enjoying their balcony either. The other major thing was the sunbeds at the pool being dirty and squashed together so that there was no space between them. It looks like you are on holiday with the whole pool area. I needed shade but at certain times of the day there is none as no umbrellas and other times you can't get under the canopy. So we just had a swim before breakfast and then left our hotel all day until the evening to get ready to go out again. We might have 1 hour if we were lucky to sit on our balcony while getting ready to go out before the lights went on. You just don't expect to have to pay to go everywhere else to sit on a sunbed, use an umbrella out of your hotel for 2 weeks. Our bedroom stunk of Sewage when we arrived but the maintenance man came and put something down the toilet which helped. Also the Steam Room stunk of Urine and was unbearable to stay in. We tried that on our last night. It was decorated well but again the lights are too bright so it doesn't feel relaxing or luxurious. On a whole the hotel is decorated well but the lighting would make such a difference. The sunset bar would be more inviting with low lights. Also the menu said happy hour cocktails but when we asked about them, we were told that there's no happy hour. It is an old menu. The staff are friendly and helpful and tried to make our stay better but they couldn't change the things that mattered the most. When I asked for fresh milk for my tea in my room, I was told by reception at 11pm to walk to the shop . I was brought some milk when another guest made a comment. There really should be water replenished daily as you shouldn't drink the tap water, especially if you need to take medication everyday in your room. Also more variety of fresh fruit at breakfast. It would be great to have a choice of a fresh omelette for breakfast too as everything is buffet. The location of the is good. Thank you to all the staff for making our holiday better by being friendly and helpful.If it wasn't for the staff , we would have wanted to change hotels on the 2nd day and mainly because of the balcony and pool area. Luckily we lived there before so we were out everyday exploring and meeting friends which made our...