Chateau La Vallette - Grand Harbour Suite

The location is great.

A room was a little bit smaller then I expected.

Fabulous location on St Dominic Street. Beautifully furnished spacious ensuite room. Very comfortable and quiet. Shower with excellent water pressure and hot water. Cannot recommend it enough!

Nothing!

Well, we certainly liked the way the property was presented on booking.com, which is why we chose it for our two week Christmas holiday in Malta. The location in Valletta was ideal; the price, although not cheap, was at the level of similar properties in the vicinity. However the reality fell way, way short of expectations, for the reasons given below.

The photos of the "Grand Harbour Suite" at Chateau la Vallette on booking.com misrepresented the experience entirely—this was by far the darkest room I’ve stayed in over four decades of travel. While the limitations of the location - mid-terrace on a lower floor in Valletta - were to be expected, what wasn’t disclosed is that the terrace’s light-well was largely blocked by scaffolding, leaving the single glass door between our room and the terrace nearly useless for natural light. Even on sunny days, it felt like we were inside a gloomy cellar, making it hard to even tell the time of day. We immediately messaged the property owners, shocked, but they offered no alternative. Thanks to booking.com’s no-refund policy, we realised that we were then trapped in this gloomy hole for a whole fortnight. The room was also far smaller than portrayed (wide angle lens effect) with inadequate storage (a flimsy rail and wobbly desk) for two adults. The lack of light, worsened by the scaffolding, made the space unbearably claustrophobic. This appears to be a calculated omission by Chateau la Vallette’s owners exploiting booking.com’s platform, prioritising their profits over guest satisfaction. Whilst we felt that Maltese people were honest and welcoming, the same cannot be said of our hosts in the way they misrepresented this property. We wonder whether booking.com finds this behaviour acceptable, as it certainly makes us much less likely to trust this platform ever again.

My room was very clean.

My terrace was facing the inner courtyard, which was completely covered with scaffolding, so I hardly had any daylight. The other guests were very loud.

Location

Rooms 5 is tiny without closet to put clothes. There was not even enough space to open the suitcases. There were only hangers for our coats and only 1 hanger in the bathroom for 2 people’s towels. During 4 night stay no one changed neither towels not shits, in addition no one even empty the bin with Trish from the room and the bathroom. There was no physical light in the room and during our stay there were works in the patio. As a results we were awake every day from 7.15 am.

FOR PEOPLE WITH MOBILITY IMPAIRMENT THIS FACILITY IS NOT SUITABLE! Although Chateau Valletta was spotlessly clean and the staff helpful and friendly, the building itself was on a steep incline, there were two giant steps into the building, about 20 steep steps up to the first floor (Americans - first floor and ground floor are different!) and no lift. The Tritoni Suite (I wouldn't call it a suite) was as far from the front door as possible. There is one room on the ground floor which I woiuld recommend if stairs are a problem - room No.1. The TV had Netflix and You Tube and the air con was excellent. The bed size was an American Queen/British King with a comfortable mattress. Sheets were comfy - towels were rock hard. The sofa was a disaster - uncomfortable and uneven. The shared kitchen was fine and there is a washing machine (bring your own detergent). The shower was powerful enough, there was plenty of hot water and the bathroom was spotless. The slick tiles in the bathroom, however, were lethal when wet. What a slip hazard! The "balcony" was a small interior room with an open ceiling space above and unappealing - it's not really a balcony but an open space. There were plenty of 3 point British Standard electrical outlets. The location was good. All in all, if you are physically fit, energetic, young and on a budget this place is for you. If you like comfort and a few nice frills and plan to spend any time in your room - move on and be sure to ask the next people about stairs, hills, location, etc. Valletta is a nightmare for mobility impaired poeple! After 2 nights at Chateau Valletta, we splurged on a hotel where I could drive my mobility scooter into the front door, enjoy a lift and breakfast in our room. We are in our seventies, world travelers and the frills made all the difference to us. If I were in my twenties or thirties again, Chateau Valletta would be just fine.

All booking.com properties should describe the suitability for handicapped or mobility impaired guests...especially like cities like Valletta where steep inclines, uneven and broken pavements, few ramps or cut out curbs are the norm. Many facilities have countless steps and no elevators/lifts. Suitability should be a requirement, not an option, when listing a property.

Very decent price. Plenty of space like home

Positive things: location is great. You can go on foot to any place in the city centre. The kitchen is well equipped and there are two little hables that serve as dinning area. We stayed in room 4 and it was quiet, nice and clean.

Negative aspects: The room has no natural light and smells musty. The hair dryer doesn’t work very well and there are only two small bottles of soap which is not enough for two people and four days. Suggestions: stickers to tag the food would be a big improvement to identify the food in the fridge. A short reminder of what does it mean to share the fridge would be useful too. There are guests that steal food and do not replace it.