Grand Hotel Excelsior

Stayed for one night. Clearly has the grandeur of a 5-star, with some classy elements like a rose in the bathrooms, solid turn-down service and amicable staff. However there were some basic issues - no towels available at the pool, poor WiFi service and waiting five minutes at reception to even be greeted. Fine if you want to be close to Valetta, otherwise there are better options elsewhere in the nearby bays.

The hotel is beautiful, service is exceptional, food is delicious & value for money. Unfortunately top management is very poor on guest looking after & how to solve problems. Our Air-conditioning did not work properly the first night & we could hardly sleep . We were given a2 beds instead of the King size bed booked . We could hardly sleep & had a horrible night . Next morning instead of giving us a really good room & compensating for this the management tried to give us really badly located rooms saying hotel is full . Unfortunate behaviour for such a great hotel.

Good hotel however too expensive for its condition. Seems its has not been renovated for the last 20 years and I think 4* are more appropriate categorization. Staff is kind, lobby and restaurants look really good however rooms are worn out and should be renovated (they are not bad but not justifying the price of 250 EUR/night in summer period). Location is great and only couple of minutes from the center of Valletta. Pool is great, hotel has improvised beach which is wonderfull and unique for Valletta if you want a mixure between beach relaxation and city sightseeing. All in all a good hotel for the summer months but its current condition does not justify the high prices for overnight.

We spent 4 nights here in Jul26. Room was spacious with balcony. Room ***. Bed was comfy. Shower pressure was great-it was a bath/shower combo. Toilet was hit snd miss with its functionality. Sliding door to balcony needed 2 hands and our full body weight behind it to open and shut, so quite good if you had kids as they couldn’t open it. Phone didn’t work-did report it but not working for our stay. Servicing of the room was excellent-it seemed no sooner had we had a shower and zipped out then we came back to fresh towels. Outdoor Pool area was excellent but staff to place orders with were hard to locate and in general it took about 20 minutes to receive your drink order. It wasn’t overly busy but as usual in most resorts, there were never spare sunbeds. People just came down early, plonked a book or clothes on a sunbed and went off exploring for the day having ‘reserved’ their spot for the afternoon. Indoor pool was nice-a good break from the sun as outdoor pool has no shade but no drink service inside. Outdoor Poolside cocktails were 9.5eur so quite reasonable-Republic Street they are mostly $5eur. We didn’t eat at the hotel so can’t provide feedback on that. Shuttle service we only used twice-older guy was excellent (he also did our airport pickup/drop off). Younger guy was grumpy and obviously didn’t enjoy his job. But truly, if you can walk with no difficulty it’s not a long walk at all, but it is uphill. Coming back is a breeze as all downhill. We really enjoyed our stay. Location of this hotel is excellent. Can watch the yachts coming in/out; can swim in the ocean; can go exploring easy; can relax at the pools.

Mostly the place is very nice, though they seem to be in a transition period. Lots of things were closed or booked (spa was completely booked for a week, snack bar and cafe were closed, beach was closed). And they were terribly understaffed. It took a long time for our room to be ready even after the official check in time. Every request we made was like an inconvenience. Eg., We asked to buy a cake and were told to go to the cake shop. But it was never staffed. We go in and loiter for 10-15 mins, no one comes. We ask other staff and they send us to the cake shop. This happens three or four times and we never did get a cake. Just strange things like that -- mostly can chalk it all up to being understaffed. Too few employees and many of the ones there seemed too new. The elevators do what they want, so build in a few extra minutes any time you leave your room (honestly this part is quite funny - it's fun if you just go along for the ride). Very clean though, the cleaning staff do a fabulous job. And the location is excellent, a pretty 5-10 minute walk from Valetta town and Fort St Elmo, and a short 15-minute drive from the airport. Pretty grounds, well-equipped workout room, warm indoor pool.