Where do we start? First and foremost, the apartment itself looks exactly like the images; however, if you pay close attention to the images, you will notice that the entire apartment is not, in fact, fully air-conditioned (there are two ductless AC units ONLY in the bedrooms). There were a few inconsistencies with the listing that might have persuaded my sister and me to stay elsewhere.
For instance, the word “luxury” in the title made us believe we would stay in a luxurious building and apartment. The fact that the listing had no reviews at the time made us hesitant at first because 1. the price seemed high, and 2. It was a new listing. However, the host had high ratings, so we took our chances. For this reason, we have decided to write a very thorough review.
First, we asked the host to set up transportation for us: 1. The vehicle had no AC and 2. The driver was an elderly gentleman who did not speak that much English, and he asked us to put the address on our GPS (phone) because he wasn’t sure where the apartment was located. This made us very nervous as it was our first time in Malta, and we didn’t really know where we were going (we recommend using Uber instead). When we arrived at the street where the apartment is located, the driver simply dropped us off in the middle of the street and didn’t give us any indication as to the location of the building. We scrambled to find it. Finally, we located the entrance (extremely hot from the car ride and from having the hot sunshine on us, and the humidity didn’t help either). People on the street stared at us as we struggled with our luggage from one side of the road to the other.
The check-in process itself was straightforward. However, once we entered the building, it was NOT luxurious at all. It is super humid. The elevator buttons are broken, and once you push on them, there’s a weird buzzing noise coming from the back electrical room. We waited a few minutes, and the elevator doors never opened. I messaged the host, asking, “does the elevator work?” She never responded to my question.
The internet (WIFI) connection was weak in the bedrooms. It did not work in the master bedroom. We could not work in the dining room area because it was too humid.
Since the doors didn’t open and the hallways were so humid, we decided to climb the stairs to the fifth floor. As we walked through the hallways, there were holes in the wall, exposing electrical pipes and trash that had been shoved in these holes. Once we reached the fifth floor, we saw the “elevator door” boarded up with a handwritten sign that said, “fix the elevators.” I snapped a picture and sent it to the host, saying, “I guess this answers my question,” which she simply ignored AGAIN.
Once we entered the apartment, we quickly noticed there were no AC units in the living room and dining room area. There are a few fans, one of which makes a very annoying sound. I again messaged the host asking if there were ONLY AC in the rooms, but she never replied. THE APARTMENT IS NOT FULLY AIR-CONDITIONED!
More to note, there is construction going on the seventh floor with materials left on edge, making it a safety hazard; this also explains why there is so much humidity in the building. The entire fifth floor smelled like paint and construction, which irritated our throats.
Since we were so sweaty, we wanted to take a quick shower before exploring the plaza, but we couldn’t because the towels had hairs all over them, and when we checked the linen, hairs and stains as well. When we messaged the host, she tried to explain that the towels were clean, but the hairs were from her cleaning lady, and that she was not going to get rid of linen because they had small stains on them- NOT luxurious after all.
The lights in the hallways constantly powered off, and this was particularly scary on our second night when we returned late from Gozo. It was about two in the morning, and the lights from the entrance would not power on, and then the elevator was not working- again.
She is strict about using electricity, so we had to wait in our rooms to cool down. We would shower in the mornings, hoping to get some warm water, but the hot water button did not activate the water heater, so in the end, we would have to shower with ice cold water.
Overall, we feel like we overpaid for the Airbnb listing. Do we recommend this place? NO, absolutely not. Paola claims to be a SUPER HOST, but unfortunately, we did not experience this firsthand. This property SHOULD NOT BE LISTED on Airbnb- the guest’s safety should be a priority!