ibis Styles ST Pauls Bay Malta

Located near restaurants, St Paul's Bay Friendly Atmosphere very helpful 👌 Rooms Cleanliness outstanding service Buffett breakfast very good value for money. Very easy to get around local bus service very good

Excellent long weekend stay. Good facilities and helpful staff. Daniella and Mehdi were especially welcoming and courteous. Decent room and breakfast.

We stayed in this hotel for seven nights, leaving in mid-October. It is a modern hotel of 10 storeys with 65 rooms, situated on a busy thoroughfare a short distance back from the shoreline of St Paul’s Bay. It has a rooftop pool with an adjacent bar and restaurant although neither of the latter two were open during our stay (which we found surprising given that the hotel was full and the weather hot). We reached the hotel from the airport by public transport there being a bus stop within five minutes’ walk of the hotel. Bugibba bus station is a short bus ride away or a 15 minute walk and this provides connections to the rest of the island. Taxis are available at the airport and there is an underground car park at the hotel. Guests with mobility problems would be unlikely to encounter any difficulties.

The public areas of the hotel are less than generous and the initial impression, when entering the hotel, is disappointing. The reception, the bar and the seating area are all in one small space immediately upon entering. In the event of any major group being in the reception area it is chaotic. Beyond the reception area are a pair of lifts and the restaurant which during our stay only served breakfast. This room is on two levels but without any natural light. As a breakfast room it is comfortable with about 38 covers in the main area. There is some seating outside the front of the hotel which, although screened by some planting, is still on a main road and therefore noisy and with fumes.

Our room was on the 9th floor overlooking the main road, this meant it had a balcony upon which we could sit comfortably. The balcony was furnished with a table and two chairs and with the doors locked did not encourage too much noise from the road. We had no sea view but the sea view rooms appear to have no accessible balconies. Our room was large but disappointing. Surfaces were hard and although the room was large that was the likely result of it having a fold-up sofa bed and therefore probably a triple. There was a work shelf with a work chair, a fridge, safe and tea and coffee making facilities, water is provided daily. The bed was not a Sweet Bed as favoured by Accor but it was very comfortable with good quality linen which was changed every three days. There was a closed wardrobe with adequate storage for a weeks’ stay. The greater disappointment was the bathroom. This was very large but only fitted with a wash-hand basin, a WC pan and a short length bath. The bath was fitted with a hand shower wand but without a high level docking unit – this meant the water was available only at waist height without considerable dexterity! There was a hairdryer in the bathroom but this was a wall-mounted hose style and therefore not particularly efficient. There were no toiletries other than soap. There was no electric shaver socket and the wash hand basin was not designed to hold water. Towels were of average quality and size. All-in-all the bathroom seemed to us to be a missed opportunity and served only to underline that the hotel was three star. We experienced very little inter-room noise, and only the most raucous of revellers and motorbikes from the outside. Wifi was good, although aircon (like so many) seemed to have a mind of its own. There were no operating instructions and we gave up.

Housekeeping was pretty good and the hotel was remarkably clean and tidy. Our room was spotless.

We only had breakfast in the hotel - during our stay there was nothing else available and there is nothing at the bar. There are a couple of vending machines in reception for snacks. Breakfast is at 7:15 and we generally found that everything worked, but in the presence of a large group the self-service system breaks down because there is not enough room.

All that said the breakfast suited us well, there was choice of hot and cold food, it was all fresh and tasty and there was a lot of choice for vegetarians – coffee was pretty good from a machine!

The hotel sits on the edge of Bugibba Square which is home to innumerable bars and restaurants within five minutes slow stroll! There is a good variety of cuisine although nothing very special. Some bars and restaurants sit next to the sea. The Esplanade houses souvenir shops, a supermarket and a variety of other traders.

Staff throughout our stay were accommodating and professional. All had excellent spoken English and whilst we experienced some difficulties - because it seemed that staff were being reorganised at the end of the summer season – we were treated very well. The hotel does have meeting rooms but we saw no evidence of these in use. What we did experience was the predominance of tour groups. These tour groups overwhelm the facilities of the hotel and if supplemented by the occasional team of tradespeople staying present an unpleasant experience.

We found the hotel expensive for what it delivered but is favourably comparable with other hotels in the area. It is well placed, it is well maintained and populated by super staff. We conclude that Malta may no longer be an economic destination. We enjoyed our stay and would recommend the hotel.