Venus Aparthotel

I’ve just arrived back home from a week in Malta.
I have to say after reading these reports, I was obviously expecting the worse.
I was really surprised when I arrived as the rooms were clean no sign of brown water and rooms were cleaned daily. I have to say though, I really did think the ceiling fan was going to take my head off!
The staff were very friendly and always willing to help.
I don’t think the resort is really for my age group (20) I went with my partner which probably wasn’t the brightest idea I had as the lack of sunshine on the 1st few days and boredom kicked in. (not the best of situations to be in)
The food was good although it all starts to taste the same after a while, the breakfast was great! There’s nothing better than waking up to a big fry up :-)
I have to say though the locals are really friendly. And there’s lots of activities to try, scuba diving, boat trips, water park, Popeye land. I just didn’t get to try any of them due to the weather.
So all in all its a good holiday if you have the weather and the time to do stuff and get out and about. The beach wasn’t far and there’s a McDonalds close by too.
The hotel is clean and friendly and I’d recommend it to families and older couples.

Well what can I say. I cannot believe that their where actually people who liked this accommodation. I have backpacked a lot and stayed in hostels that are 100 times better than this hotel. Even in Cambodia the hotels and food were better.
I understand that you get what you pay for and we paid £169 h/b for a week. Whoever graded this hotel a 3* - well I don’t know.
Sheets where ripped, shower didn’t even hang on wall and yes fan hung off the ceiling. I agree this must be a Malta tradition - a scary one.
When we arrived and I saw our room I thought - this is ok - we had a balcony and all seemed ok. Like I have said I have traveled and am not a snob and am always content with where I stay. However when I went down to dinner the first night - I just couldn’t believe it. I felt sick. The food was appalling - no presentation or nothing. I didn’t even feel like we where sitting in a nice restaurant. We ended up going out for dinner. You didn’t even get water with your dinner and for breakfast - well I asked for a slice of lemon for my tea - was told we don’t have lemons until the evening time.
I couldn’t sleep - felt itchy all night and that was just from one night.
So like many before us we decided to move. Our rep was helpful and the. Reception staff too. Even the housekeeping staff cleaned our room again to try and get us to stay. However when we did go to complete paperwork to upgrade it did seem like such an effort from the travel agent staff to do this. We saw other complaint letters too.
The area itself is fine as a basis - enough to do in evening although we had entertainment in our new hotel which was nice - luxury compared to this.
If I did return I too would stay in Valetta or even Gozo. We had a good holiday once we moved but the first 24 hrs I could have cried. My advice would be to do research before booking no matter how cheap.

I'm afraid our experience was at the grim end as far as the hotel was concerned, though it didn't spoil the holiday. We got the ripped sheets and blankets, not to mention the filthy bath mat. The toilet flushed, but didn't actually manage to dispose of solid waste. The fan was above head height, though the wiring didn't inspire confidence. Some of the staff were friendly, some didn't want to know.
The pool was a little murky, and not entirely free of debris. Food was largely poor and lacking in variety. Packed lunch was a passable alternative to dinner, if you could get it. Water would probably be too salty even for a decent coffee, which isn't what they provided. There was a lot of noise, not only from new arrivals but from younger revelers. The Palm Court seemed to us to be a bit better, though the staff I talked to there weren't very helpful, and the food was no better.
Qawra isn't very exciting in itself: it's a recent resort. Some of the bars and eateries are fine, but not much variety of indigenous food. But the best thing about the place is that it's fairly easy to get to anywhere else. The tour operators are reluctant to recommend the buses, but they're cheap and frequent. Timetable/maps rather scarce and very helpful! We didn't try the buses in Gozo, which are allegedly scarcer/less frequent, but the coach tour didn't make the best use of the time we spent there. Another time, we'd probably hire a car. The 90 minute ferry to Sicily seemed to take far longer, both ways, and the conditions weren't problematical, but it was a good (long!) day out.
We'll probably be back, but would aim to stay somewhere nearer Valetta. We'd hugely recommend Valetta, the 3 Cities, and most of the places thereabouts. Medina is well worth a day out or more. Mosta has an amazing church and is pretty lively. We'd go a long way to avoid returning to the Venus, even at the cheapest rate (which isn't what we paid.).

I originally booked this holiday, and then looked at this site and thought OMG! What are we going to?
Well, I have just returned from the Venus. We had a wonderful week. The rooms were clean, with maid service every day, and clean linen. The bathroom was spotless every day with no smells at all. The hotel itself was also spotless. No complaints about the rooms or the service.
The swimming pool area was cleaned every single afternoon with bleach etc. The water was cleared of anything that had flown into it, so I had NO complaints about the pool area.
The staff were all pleasant and approachable. No complaints.
The dinning room was clean and only once did I see any water on the floor after someone had spilled it, and it was cleared up straight away. I do agree that the tea and coffee are vile, BUT this is an island! The main breakfasts were always cooked properly and edible, and there was plenty of choice. The main evening meals were on a 14 day revolving menu, so there was something different every night. It was always fresh and well cooked. I always ate at the last sitting and there was always plenty left, and it was in perfect condition. The sweets were always available and enough for everyone. Therefore, NO complaints about the food!
All in all the hotel is for adults, not for teenagers. There is no on site entertainment but that is good because it means that the place is quiet, there is plenty of entertainment around every other corner. I booked another last minute holiday there for this week again for £104 HB, so I am not complaining. I am also taking my elderly mother there in September.
At the end of the day it is cheap and very cheerful. If you want 5 star luxury then book 5 star luxury hotel. If you just want a break then go for it.
Word of warning about the Palm Court sister hotel, beware! it is smelly, dirty and the dinning room is like a zoo, I would never ever stay there. We had several guests move from there to the Venus!

Well, I did read reviews before I went but for £109.00 half board thought what the hell go for it. When we got there I was quite surpassed not bad at all, ever been to Greece well that's basic this was great compared to there.
Mind if I had a choice I would opt for Venus not palm court meal time is like feeding time at the zoo, but in Venus was small just right, food was ok but for £6.00, for a change chicken chips and salad two local beers in most local pubs that all you paid, its is so cheap out there.
Forget trips via hotels make your own, local bus so cheap 40p you can travel every where, every day we went sight seeing. I really like the place people are so friendly I will go back to this hotel again.

Well where do I start?! We arrived in Malta last September and we drove to the hotel got to reception to be told they have booked us in half board instead of self catering. We told hem that is wrong as we were specific about what we booked but still we had to accept half board as there were no rooms for self catering available.
We were given the key to the room so we went to have a look. To get to the room, you had to go through the swimming pool area (which I wasn’t keen on anyway) then we got to a broken lift so we had to carry our suitcases up the stairs to very near the top floor!
When we saw the room we were pleasantly surprised. It was clean and tidy the bathroom was presented nicely and overall was what you expect for the money. The only thing missing was a fridge! I just like my milk for my coffee and he likes his butter for his Maltese bread!
The food wasn’t to our liking we would go elsewhere to eat. After a couple of days in the room, we went to our rep and asked for a transfer to a self catering apartment, we were told to come back the following morning then they may have one free.
We did just that and after a long discussion, we got what we ordered. When we got into the room I was disappointed with what I saw. The bath tub was filthy, the sink was held on with some tape to support it, the floors were dirty, the ceiling fan was way to low in our room so much that I was taken into hospital for catching my finger in it when it was in full swing. It was lucky I was wearing a ring on the finger I was told as my finger would have come clean off!
I went to the local shop and bought some cleaning products to clean the place up as the cleaners were not available we were told and to transfer to another hotel would cost us LM 100!
So I did the cleaning. When I got into bed that night, the sheets were still dirty from the people who had it before, I found toenails, hair and some sort of creamy stain on the sheets but I will stop there. You can imagine! So off I went to reception to complain and they gave me clean sheets minus a pillowcase so I put a towel over my pillow to sleep on that night. For the rest of the fortnight we stayed there but I would never go back to the Venus again. The HB rooms are nice and I would recommend them but do not go self catering in the Venus apartments!
We do go to Malta about 3 times a year as my partner is Maltese, but even he said out of all the SC apartments he has stayed in he has never seen one quite like that! It is known in Malta that the Palm Court and Venus Hotel are jointly owned and in Malta they call them Fawlty Towers!
We hope to go back to Malta sometime hopefully we will be lucky the next time round!

Sorry to say Mrs Webb, our postcard to home read 'Wish we weren't here'. I suppose we could say we got what we paid for. The hotel was noisy, most guests arrive early mornings, 3/4 am and have not heard of the word respect, and seem to be content with being heard in every corner of the hotel.
The food left a lot to be desired, nothing to write home about, that’s if you got in early otherwise one got the left overs.
The resort was quiet, except for those poor people in Palm Court who got the loud music, coaches and late party goers right outside their balconies. One thing I can say it was a place for the elders to know they can go out and feel safe, I only heard one young person using foul language and yes he was English.
It was a colourful Island with many tourist spots, the only trouble was the transport, the buses were old but nice, noisy and very bumpy, new buses now do the main routes, the trouble was most buses ran out via Valetta, the main town and do not run later that 17.30, except for a few which ran to the main resorts , so be aware, its cheap to travel. 1.50 Malta pounds gets a day pass and we managed to visit most of the island using these buses, but had to be aware of timetables, most run on the 1/2 hours-ish.
The last fault was TIME SHARES they hang around the hotels every day pestering you to go and spend what they say is 15 mins, but the reps wont let you go that quick, more often an hour, and the time share bandits get about 5.00 for their trouble, they even drive around in their cars looking for pale skinned targets, so be aware. Other wise have a great time.

I have just returned from staying at the Venus Aparthotel and to be honest I was quite dubious about booking this holiday for my husbands 50th Birthday, I should not have worried! We arrived at the hotel the reception staff were very friendly, we went to our room, this was fine, I read in the reviews about the smelly bathrooms and brown water, but no smells, and yes the water was slightly brown, but you only had to run the tap for goodness sake, room was clean, sheets & towels clean and changed every day if needed, the sheets were even changed through the week which was nice. The food was ok but even though we had half board we did eat out most nights, not because we didn’t like the food, we just like eating the local fare. The breakfast at the Venus was nice, the staff were always friendly and eager to help. The swimming pool, though small was very nice, this was cleaned every evening and topped up with water and it was very pleasant, if just rather cold, but once your in its ok. There are many places to eat, drink and listen to music, we found a nice bar on the front called All Saints they did meals and the drinks were very cheap also very friendly, another place is a bar that played Country music, no I'm not really into this kind of music, but once we went in it was great, they played all different kinds of music had live music most nights, drinks cheap and we made some good friends and had such a laugh its a must to go there. We met a couple on the plane they actually stayed at the Palm Court which is the sister hotel to the Venus, they were not impressed one bit and tried to get moved, we never did see them through the week, but on the morning we were leaving, instead of getting the coach with us they booked a taxi to take them to the airport. We did wander around to the palm court to go in the pool, well I have never seen such a sight, the pool was filthy, beer and fag butts everywhere, sun beds seen better days, as you can imagine we didn’t stay and went back to the Venus for a swim. I'm very glad we didn’t stay at the Palm Court. All in all we had a great time saw some lovely places, met some lovely people and enjoyed ourselves. So for £378 w/k h/b it was good. A number of people we met at the Venus were actually booking up to stay next may for 28 days at a cost of £412.00 per person for half board, you cant live at home for that, so it cant be that bad. The only point I would like to make is that the Venus has such a lovely lounge area next to reception, but they don’t have a bar open so you can't buy a drink. My husband enjoyed his holiday and we would go back again.

Be warned! I am most certainly not any kind of snob, and I am used to staying at basic accommodation and paying low prices. But this hotel is an insult to anyone’s intelligence. Just because the price may be low, there is absolutely no excuse for sheets and bedding with holes in them. And certainly no excuse for poorly prepared food. They must be laughing at us English mugs that pay hard earned money for what should have been up to standard accommodation and decent food.
I chose on the 1st morning to have breakfast in the Venus restaurant, and to be fair the cooked breakfast was reasonable and edible, but beware the tea and coffee made with the local water because it tastes decidedly salty, probably because 60% of the islands water is sea water which has been desalinated. Watch also the floor in the Venus restaurant which is like a skating rink (wet and greasy) and that is no exaggeration, highly dangerous!
And now for the evening meal!
The ingredients probably started off as being ok! But it is what they have done to them. If one was given some good food and told to do their best to mess it up, then this is where these hotels have succeeded big time!
The food starts off in their sister hotel across the road hours before and is brought across to there Venus to sit on some bubbling Bain maries to boil and dry up. Need I say more?
On a positive note the staff are very pleasant, but remember not to let this hotel and the resort of Qawra and Bugibba put you off Malta as this is a beautiful island with some great places to visit, and the people are fantastic. I will return but not to the Venus.
You have been warned!

I truly do not know where to start.
I have read the reviews of other critical travellers and cannot reiterate enough
I booked a week's half board; I did not expect luxury for my £239 per person (grossly over-priced in comparison to what others have paid!).
My complaint is not about the money, it is about the insult I feel that I would be expected to accept the filthy and unsafe accommodation, the stale (blood/meat) stains around the pool area that had been drying there for days; The deep distress I witnessed in others particularly the couple who had been duped into, once again, staying in the hotel because its name had changed.
Five Couples the following morning were trying to move out - I do not think it was just me do you?
It is about the insult I feel that the Hotel manager would not accept my complaint for what it was - a complaint. I was accused of lying and that the accommodation was absolutely acceptable in his eyes. I was clearly only a woman and that rendered my complaint invalid.
Did you know that it was perfectly normal in Malta for a ceiling fan to run at such an angle that it might decapitate you and ALSO it is perfectly normal for it to hang by a wire from the ceiling. When I challenged Mr Manager with this he told me I knew nothing and that 'YES this IS normal Madam'.
I did not stay one night in the Hotel. My travelling companion and I agreed that this was not an option. We found alternative accommodation down the road. This cost us an additional £180 each (we had to buy food in addition). We were offered £21 compensation as first and final payment provided we did not complain when we got home. As you can imagine we said 'no thank you'.
I cannot comment on the food because I simply did not dare try it.
I can comment on the sister hotel (Palm Court) however which 'boasts a roof top patio and pool'! You know those pools you get from the local DIY Store in a box - well check them out! This is precisely what YOU can expect should you wish to enjoy the Palm Court's amenities!