Blubay Apartments by ST Hotels

We booked through Booking.com because the photos and description promised a modern apartment in a good location with all the listed amenities. On arrival, we felt completely misled. ST Hotels runs several buildings of very different quality, and it seems like luck decides which one you get. We ended up in what may be one of their worst apartments: it was dirty, old and run-down, with an unbearably hard bed, a damaged kitchen, no coffee machine despite the listing, and a horrible pipe smell mixed with harsh chemicals that didn’t cover it. While we spent two hours at reception, other guests from different apartments complained about the same problems. They were offered a move to a better building, but there was no space for us, so we were left facing our holiday in those conditions. After I complained, we were told we’d get €870 back from the €1,000 we paid upfront, so we still lost money after that nightmare. This is unacceptable and extremely unfair. What ST Hotels advertises isn’t what guests get, and it’s shocking these misleading practices are allowed to continue. Avoid this company at all costs.

The apartment we got wasn’t the one we thought we’d booked, since the internet photos showed different apartments owned by the company. It was meant for three, but really only suited two, with an extra bed squeezed in and so little space that we could barely move. The furniture was very old and there was mold on the walls. The kitchen was tiny, with just a table and two chairs for the three of us. The freezer had no door, so the whole fridge was frozen, and the bathroom was small with a moldy shower. We’d been excited for our family holiday in Malta, but first we had to wait an hour before we got our room number. Then the lift made strange noises and felt like it might collapse when we stepped inside. We felt scammed because we expected the apartment shown in the pictures.

Getting into the apartment was frustrating: the receptionist kept us waiting while helping other guests, then walked us over. Once inside, we found both bathrooms and the kitchen dirty, with garbage still in a bedroom drawer. Neither bedroom had working AC; one unit broke and leaked a lot of water. The Wi-Fi barely worked in the bedrooms, and a soap dispenser in one bathroom was broken. None of the bathroom or bedroom doors had locks, which made us uncomfortable, and both beds were very uncomfortable. The apartment was poorly maintained, not clean, and didn’t meet expectations.

There were cockroaches in our room, but they wouldn’t move us and only gave us mosquito spray. They told Booking the insects had come in because we left the door open, but they actually appeared because the bathroom was poorly maintained. The sheets were dirty too, and the fridge smelled like dog food.