Gillieru Harbour Hotel

1 reader found this review helpful

When we arrived in Malta for our first ever package holiday, we had trepidation. As we meandered through to our destination, this trepidation heightened. We were dropping off other holidaymakers at their hotels, and thought 'what have we done'? We were last on the coach and when we saw the Gillieru the sweating stopped. It ended up that we had chosen a gem. The staff were excellent and greeted returning guests as if they were family. The food was beyond our expectation, prepared by the chefs in the attached restaurant. My wife, who is a vegetarian, appeared to be singled out for special treatment, and had an excellent varied diet. The room was a little tired, but acceptable and clean, unfortunately there were problems with the air conditioning. The swimming pool came as a shock, the water is recycled from the sea and tasted unexpectantly salty. All in all we can recommend this hotel to anyone who does not think that they are getting the same star system that is used in UK. We would use this hotel without hesitation on returning to Malta.

1 reader found this review helpful

Very old fashioned, could have been in the 1970's as I don't think it has been updated since then. Food very basic and a care home menu (lots of sprouts and boiled potatoes, plastic flowers on the tables). Not a place for singles, very dull, no music, entertainment, internet access or tea/coffee facilities, probably best left to couples of a certain age, or used as somewhere to sleep and nothing else.

2 readers found this review helpful

If you can be guaranteed a room facing the sea and don't mind a rather basic hotel then this is worth considering. Our first night in a small, hot room overlooking the road was truly awful with noise from the traffic and customers partying in the cafes across the road making sleep very difficult.
It's situation however is pleasant with sea views on three sides and good areas in which to sit and relax.St. Paul's Bay is quiet and there are shops not too far away which is fortunate because the eating facilities in the hotel are limited. Breakfasts are spartan with slices of plastic cheesed and similar cooked meats being the main feature.They will do you a very good full English for Euros 4.70 if you feel like paying extra.We didn't try the restaurant but were told that the food served there was " alright" We did eat well however in the restaurant attached to the hotel although the advertised pizzeria was never opened during our stay.
Other points you may wish to consider are these : the lighting both in the rooms and in the public spaces was far too dim to read in and there are no facilities anywhere to get make a hot drink. Tap water was salty and therefore undrinkable which meant lugging heavy bottled water from the shops.
To sum up, the hotel is in need of some imaginative regeneration and, although it was run efficiently, a few more smiling faces in the staff would not come amiss.We went at the end of September and perhaps they were suffering from end of season fatigue.

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3 readers found this review helpful

I am writing this review from my room in the Hotel (507). We booked two rooms (for my mother and I). We arrived at 12:30 at night, full of expectation, and where immediately disappointed. There are NO drinks facilities in the room. We where unable to get any refreshment upon our arrival. The only thing the receptionist could offer us was bottled water which we where charged for. I ended up buying a kettle, tea bags and coffee to make my own drinks. Additionally, when I requested a key for the room safe we where charged a fee (not a deposit) of 12 Euros for each key. The standards of the room are best described as shabby. The walls have bad repairs, the bath rooms have black on the tiles and rusty fittings. The hairdryer in my room was broken, the hose was ripped and did not feed air through. The pillows where lumpy and in need of replacement. As for the supposed 'cable TV'.. forget it.. only two news channels and one film channel. The voices where also out of sync with the picture. AS for the air conditioning... it did not work... I was here in Oct when temperature was only about 25 degrees and I suffered from the heat. All those other reviewers who where here at the height of the season have my deepest sympathies.. they must have cooked. THe showers are a joke as well. They are so low down on the wall that unless you are under 4ft tall you need to crouch or kneel in the bath.
Generally the staff where polite until the fifth day we where there. We had handed our keys in at reception (in the drop box). Upon our return we asked for the key and the receptionist could not find the key to my mothers room. We stated we had put the key in the drop box but the receptionist started insisting that the key would be there if that was the case. So we went back to our rooms and turned everything out looking for the key and panicking over this key. After half an hour of this, a member of staff came to the room and presented us with the key; the receptionist had found it after all. I was so annoyed at this that I went to complain to the receptionist as she had insisted that we must have the key and basically implied WE had lost it. Upon complaining she got stroppey and was in no way apologetic. She was totally unconcerned that she had effectively accused us of loosing the key. Had we been able to afford the cancellation fee and find another hotel we would have left the Hotel there and then.
As with the other reviews, the continental breakfast is sad,lacking and a joke. The meat is basically 'spam' and the cheese is plastic. The cereal is cheap and nasty and the breads where barley adequate. If you want a cooked breakfast you have to pay for it. The bar is lacking and if you go the the restaurant you will pay over three euros for a pint. A great place to go to is 'Nibbles' which is run by a great bloke called Dave and you will get a pint for 1.45 plus he does Sunday Dinners every weekend, all day breakfast and it is clean, quite and well run. Across the road is a great little eatery run by Silvio who is extremely polite and gives a good service and value for money and the food is great.
The only good point for this hotel is the location (right on the sea front) and the views. Also you are in a quite part of town. If you want Internet... forget it... their Wi-Fi in the foyer did not work properly (it kept dropping out) I only managed to get on the Internet as I found an unsecured network in my room. The pay phone in the foyer did not work. You have to buy a phone card (5 Euros) from the Lotto shop next to the dentist on the high street to use the phone 'outside' the hotel by the Church - 'pathetic'
My only advice is Don't bother.. Travelodge back in England do a better job than this.

2 readers found this review helpful

this was firt visitfor my wife and self to malta, when booking with thomas cook we booked half bourd requesting sea view room, on arrival at hotel we were given a back room looking onto street. when i enquired about it i was told on availability, and it just happend they had one but it cost us 140 euro extra, going down to breakfast if we wanted an english breakfast it cost another 4-70eura per person a day,the evening meal was ok but if you wanted a drink of water you had to pay for it from the bar it was the same if you wanted coffee or tea after your meal I must say the hotel and staff you could not fault in particular MARY ROSE at reception who could not help us enough in booking trips and giving us directions in getting about

3 readers found this review helpful

Just back from Malta and have to say it was one of the best ever holidays I had. The hotel was by no means the cleanest I stayed in but was sufficient to our needs and the rooms were attended to every day and clean towels aplenty. Wish we had known about the pool towels and would have left our towels at home. Breakfast was always a pleasant experience and Josephine was a character and looked after everyone. The continental selection was great and you can for a few euros have a cooked breakfast and had the poached egg on toast a couple of times and was yum and only 1.70 euro. The pool bar baby prawn salad was fab and had that nearly every day. Prices were fine..............I think because we went to a 5star in Turkey last year and water there was 5euro the gilleru was a steal.
My only bugbear was the lifts....they have a mind of their own and break down almost every day. On the whole though this for what I paid which was £1500 for myself the hubby and our 9yr old for 2wks on a b&b basis including insurance was a fab holiday and would go back to Malta and would consider the Gilleru because of its location...quiet away from buggiba and had a city view looking at the church.
Going back next May minus our child as we loved it.
Sandra

2 readers found this review helpful

We have just come back after 2 weeks at this hotel and we could not have asked for a better time. The staff are brilliant, especially in the restaurant, reception is helpful and the rtaurent managers were very friendly, especially Charles. A special mention for Josephine, and the people who kept our rooms clean. If you have not tried this hotel it is well worth a visit. OK some people might think its not up to scratch, but if you want 5 star, book the Hilton and don,t winge. Vale for money, fabulous views, wonderful people. Malta has it all. This was my third visit 2 to this hotel and it won't be my last.

3 readers found this review helpful

This is a fantastic hotel. The staff work very hard and will do anything to ensure a pleasant stay. We had a sea view and 'what a view'! It was out of this world. We had two balconies and fantastic views from both. Everything was spotlessly clean and one day, we left a do not disturb sign on the door and when we opened the door, clean towels were left for us in a large polythene bag. The service could not be faulted. Mary Rose was so helpful and also Josephine. Lovely staff, didn't get the name of any others. The pool area was great with plenty of sunbeds. The only reason that I didn't give the hotel a score of 10 was because there was no entertainment at all, our radio didn't work and the only channel we could sometimes get on (in English) was sky news.
The bus fares were really cheap but the taxis were so expensive. I suppose they try it on with all newcomers but even though we are quite seasoned travellers, we fell for it and paid up. Another serious bugbear (and it was terrible) was the amount of timeshare touts, all with the different spiel for the same thing. 'To get money out of holidaymakers' It went towards spoiling the holiday for us, that and the fact that everywhere closed quite early. The place was so quiet everywhere we went and we were told that Malta had lost a lot of trade, probably through the 'credit crunch'.

2 readers found this review helpful

Back again due to a family bereavement(long story).
Did not expect to be back again here. Certainly not in the heat of July. I went with the family regulars this time around. This meant a seaview guaranteed(even though we didn't pay for it) and working air conditioning 24/7. Did this make for a better time of it? Erm no.
I first posted on here back in 2001. Then the Gillieru Harbour Hotel was good. But several visits since then have seen a decline. The state of the pillows this time around was truly gross. Blood stains and other nasties, an empty mini bar (apart from one day), the plug broke, towels were not clean everyday and the tv either had a silent sky news or no tv at all.
The food in decline still. Clearly cutting corners. If chicken is on the menu as a main then you know it will be chicken soup for starters. Lamb on the menu as a main, well you can guess. If you like octopus and cauliflower soup you will be in for a treat. It didn't get much better than that. The powdered mash potato is worth remembering too.
Apart from a couple of days when some athletes were there, the hotel was far from fully booked and the quietest I've seen it.
It was also interesting to see first hand my relatives who know Charlie etc and the difference in how the hotel staff behave towards them. Myself and others on here have met with a frosty reception from the same staff. It was laughable that the hotel staff were falling over themselves to help my relatives. I could see though that to other non regulars they were as frosty to them as a cornetto.
Unfortunately the Gillieru Harbour Hotel has fallen into the trap of initially cutting costs to make more money but then *issing first timers off and regulars resulting in less take up the following year. Year on year it has had an effect. What we are left with is a hotel in decay.
In a couple of years I fully expect to see the Gillieru Harbour Hotel on one of those holiday horror shows. It's a shame though. The Gillieru Harbour Hotel is in a fantastic location, but as long as the owner thinks of his wallet instead of the up keep of the hotel it won't get better.
The Gillieru Harbour Hotel is a shadow of the hotel I first visited in 2001. Even my relatives who have been going for 15 years were disappointed. Sorry Gillieru Harbour Hotel time to shut up shop, give it a makeover and start again.

4 readers found this review helpful

My husband and I have just returned from one week at the gillieru harbour hotel for my birthday. I had been before last year but thought i would give it one more go.Unfortunately the hotel is living on past glories and relying on its position to bring people back. I had e-mailed the hotel before we left England to arrange a bottle of champagne in room. Nothing had been sorted and when I spoke to reception next day they said that they had replied to e-mail but nothing sitting waiting for me when I returned
That aside although curtains appear to have been changed still same ex army grey thin sheets that don't fit beds[I spent every night sleeping on mattress]The towels were not much better although they were white. Bath mat only there for first day.Pool towels must have been left by guests .They were odd washed out and threadbare.I was ashamed to be seen with them.
The air conditioning is feeble.What more can I say, Everyone was asking for change of room but same a/c.We were not leaving until 5.30 and had asked to extend time in room form day one.Kept being fobbed off until very last minute when the answer was no.Big rush to pack and put cases in luggage room. Did say they would give us courtesy room to get changed but this turned out to be cramped shower room no a/c tiny for 2 adults and cases.
I cannot comment on food as we did not bother having breakfast at hotel.Anywhere one has to pay for english breakfast in this day and age is to be avoided.Much better offers in cafes all over malta.
Rooms are tired looking,need a complete overhaul.Being on the harbour is no substitute for poor management and substandard linen,etc.
Pool is nice but needs a good clean round the edges.People writing their names in the grease!Bar is basic.Never saw anyone in it.No entertainment at all.My mother had a saying"all fur coat and no knickers" meaning someone pretending to be someone they are not and that explains the gillieru to a t.Lovely from the outside but don't be fooled by the 4 stars on the wall.
Just a word about the gillieru fish restaurant which claims to be the best in Malta.It may have been once but not anymore.We took 2 Maltese friends out on my birthday and were dismayed to have to wait over an hour for our order to be taken.Poor service and although food looked ok it was the one night I was bad all night and another lady who had her birthday there ended up not paying because the food was frozen or not cooked thoroughly and she was also ill.
We have been to Malta 5 times now and would not consider going back now.Things are changing in Malta and not for the better.The empathy for the British seems to have gone for good.All in all we had a good holiday but that is because we made it so in spite of everything.