James Brown Review of InterContinental Malta
Intercontinental Malta
Intercontinental Malta
We've had a succession of problems both minor and major during our stay at the Intercontinental Malta, but before I get to though you must also note that this hotel is going through a major four storey extension on the roof which is noisy, if you get unlucky with room placement you will have the music of construction during your stay.
We have a degree of sympathy on this front, hard for the staff to do a lot about this, however we had a series of other major problems which began on our arrival,to summarise in chronological order
1) On arrival our room was not ready at check in time (1500), we were escorted by reception staff to wait in the bar, we were each given an odd coke like soft drink (nothing else) and we sat there for an hour before another visit to reception produced a room key. Manager overheard insisting 'no alcohol!' to our escort as we were dropped off in the bar for our one hour wait.
2) Room in a completely unacceptable state of repair for a hotel of this standard. Very very strong smell of water damage/damp, the local ants however quite liked it apparently! Even enough to nest and run an ant superhighway in the side skirting board. The mouldy smell was strong enough to make us want to depart immediately, hard to rest here.
3) After complaint, they used a dehumidifier which improved things somewhat, was still pretty bad though so we asked to move. Informed hotel too busy but they would move us on the third day of our stay to new accom, an upgrade. Invited to pack our bags as we left that morning so on our return we would be already moved into new digs.
4) Random phone call to the room next morning 0630 approx for two rings. Unknown reason, didn't get to it in time but enough to wake us up.
5) Returned to the hotel after our day out, found our kit had not been moved. But we got our room after a short delay and explaining the problem again, and it was much improved, no damp, no ants, much nicer view (previous room had a huge crane in the window, see photos).
6) Fire alarm on first night in our new room, 0230hrs approx. Very loud piercing shriek, probably woke most of the hotel as well as us. Panicked maintenance man arrived after a few minutes and pulled the alarm apart, turning it off. No explanation for this event given, all we can surmise is its a technical fault perhaps related to all the ongoing construction, its possible the damp/water damage is related to this also but this is speculation.
7) Fire alarm again on Monday morning, only one short blast, approx 0845hrs. (Possible this was a weekly test, but why 0845?) Suffice to say on our first four nights we didn't get a lot of uninterrupted sleep.
8) Monday AM customer service kicks in, asked if our new room was okay to which we replied in the affirmative. Invited to go for a customer service interview, this has yet to take place as when I approached the hotel for this face to face the person has been unavailable, our stay is now coming to an end so we presume that is that.
Overall it must be said its been nowhere near a five star experience here, very disappointing. While the hotel clearly has staff on the books whom are trying and responding to complaints we really cant look past the fundamental issues we've experienced. We aren't common complainers but on this occasion it really was bad enough to do so. We would recommend looking hard at the numerous alternatives for five star options in Malta before booking the Intercontinental.
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