Hotel Diplomat Reviews

This hotel is a four star but does not warrant a four star.Breakfasts were very good no problems with this.Evening meals were poor on at least 4 nights.Vegetables were terrible sprouts one night couldn't cut them.Potatoes were rubbery one night mixed with scrambled egg next night were curried also with scrambled egg in them.Sweets not too bad but pastry very thick on some sweets.Most of the staff were friendly in the hotel.The fitness centre was very small so was the sauna.

Initially the hotel looks good, reception area is very nice. But then noticed as I was goinmg to my room how shabby and worn the carpet in the corridoe was. The same carpet was in my room, but not so shabby. The furniture in the room needed to be moved and the carpet vacuumed thoroughly, as there was a lot of dust in between the wall and the wardrobe, dressing table etc. The curtains and bedspread looked fairly new. The rest of the room was clean, bedlinen and towels extremely white. No complimentary toiletries, I thought this unusual for a 4* hotel. There was a sealed plastic bag containing sachets of coffee, sugar, sweetener, creamer and tea-bags (3 of each) and a small bottle of still water. Similar packages could be purchased, but I drink unsweetened tea, so what was I supposed to do with all the coffee, sugar and sweetener. again I thought this unusual for a 4* hotel. Items like these are usually replenished.

My 2 week holiday was booked for half board. Breakfast was OK, quite acceptable. But the evening meal was very disappointing. The soup was very bland most of the time, and no fresh veg was on offer, it was frozen or tinned. Sprouts were still frozen in the centre. The potatoes were the same every meal, diced and deepfat fried, sometimes with what looked like scrambled egg mixed in, and then the next night the same but this time with curry powder added. On the whole the veg served was disgusting for a 4* hotel, and the meat and fish dishes were not much better.

The staff were very polite, friendly and helpful, although there was 1 who was very miserable and sour faced.

The reading room was ";The Pub"; or bar after 6 o'clock, hence on a morning the atmosphere was horrible, stinking of stale smoke and the room needed airing.

The fitness centre was a small room with 3 exercise machines, a tread mill, a bike and a step machine.

One of the three lifts we did not use as there was an awful smell in it which seemed to come from the bottom of the lift shaft. A member of staff told me it had been cleaned out, the smell was due to the rain water at the bottom of the shaft.

The small pool was on the roof, 8th floor and was closed for maintenance. There was also a small area for sun beds, but this was very small for the number of rooms at the hotel.

There was a problem with bookings. Two members of our party, each having a twin room of there own were asked if they minded sharing, as two twin rooms were required, and they were put in a suite on the 8th floor. This suite was a twin room with bathroom, a lounge area with sofa bed, kitchen area and shower room. A couple how arrived later in the week were put in the apartment next door, they were very disappointed as they had paid extra for room with a sea view. The day before we were due to leave I was talking to a man in the reception area, he had arrived the night before, had paid extra for a sea view, was staying for 7 weeks and had to be taken to another hotel for the night as there was no room available for him. At 12 o'clock that day he was still waiting to be allocated a room.

The hotel Diplomat was nothing like a four star hotel, even when it was new it would not rate three stars. My opinion was that they were penny pinching on everything.E.G.
First and most important the air conditioning did not work, it just blew the hot air in the room around and the temperatures were in the mid thirties. Sleeping was impossible and after complaining over and over (and we were not the only ones) we were given a fan which helped a bit, but having foolishly paid extra for a seaview room where the sun shone in all day, we had to keep the room in the dark because the sun baked the room and we had no way of cooling it again.

We made the great mistake of going half board, the food was basic at best and very bland served in the hotel basement which had a distinct musty smell. On one occasion, the cooking oil in the kitchen must have caught fire and the whole dining area was filled with smoke while we sat and ate our tea, it would have been funny if it had'nt have been us sitting there.

No four star hotel worth its salt would have plastic shower curtains (which collapsed into three parts when pulled) around a bath which had loose fitments and tiles with mouldy grout.
I have nothing good to say about this hotel and I would advise everyone to avoid it at all costs.
The resort has loads of cafe's and bars so there's plenty to see and do (St Julians bay is the place to be at night)
and Malta in general is a good place to visit if you like plenty of sunshine and a pub on every corner.

This hotel is advertised as a four star, it most definitley is not. In Britain this hotel would struggle to get a three star rating.

When we first arrived we were given room 205 which was a fair size, clean and comfortable. We were happy with this room, unfortunately the rest of the hotel was a major let down.

The restaurant had a musty smell, probably because it was nothing more than a subterranean basement with no natural light or ventilation. We were there on a BandB basis, we did not try the food in the evening as the breakfasts were hardly awe inspiring.

The pool was very small as was the sunbathing area, I would guess there were no more than 20 sunbeds to accommodate 113 rooms.The so-called Pub was a small room, with more machines than customers, at the back of the hotel. The three lifts were very small and constantly breaking down.

We went to Gozo for three nights where we stayed in The Calypso Hotel at Marselforn, a wonderful experience after The Diplomat. On our return to The Diplomat we were put into room 310, one of the smallest in the hotel. I turned on the bath tap and the room got soaked in water from a hole in the wall where the shower head should have been. We then dicovered broken springs poking through one of the mattresses, this room was not worthy of a two star rating.

I will point out that the staff were very friendly and helpful, they just did not have a decent hotel to work with. I will never stay in another Howard Johnson hotel.