| Holiday-Truth Readers Reports |
derek bird from lowestoft travelled to Sunflower with
travel republic
on a friends holiday.
There were 4 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 02 2008 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location |  | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: After reading all the reports on this hotel via the Internet We were a little undecided as there were some negative ones and it seemed so cheap.
Well we need not to have worried the hotel was just fine the staff were very friendly, rooms were cleaned every day,towels changed, breakfast(continental, you can pay a small cost for a full english)was plentiful.
Sea views you will not get! But it is in a quiet street 10mins from main bus depot and 6mins from sea.
All in all very good value for money.
Click here for more information on this hotel, resort and region
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A vd Meeren from IJmuiden Netherlands travelled to Sunflower with
OAD
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2007 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff |  | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: New hotel with a small swimmingpool on the roof.the vieuw from the roof is not so nice.
Simple breakfast,every morning the same food but ok
Dinner ok ,friendly staff.
Last morning we should have a wake up call at 4.30 and breakfast.No call at that time i went down at 4.50 and the receptionist was asleep. going up to the room and get ready to go .the wake up call was then at 5 o,clock. When we game back to the reception i was very angry to the receptionist .he told me it was because of the computer!!I told him because he was asleep.No excuses at all and no breakfast.
First and last time we go to this hotel
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john & karen from merseyside travelled to Sunflower with
airtours/mytravel
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2007 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location |  | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: We have recently returned from a holiday in Malta. We were booked into the 3* Sunflower Hotel, Qawra on a half board basis. The entire holiday was a complete disappointment.
Our holiday rep. was nowhere to be seen on arrival at the airport in Malta. We travelled to our hotel from the airport still with no rep to refer too. There was no rep. present at the hotel check-in either. As I had holidayed in the area before I did not feel it necessary to attend the welcome meeting and at the time we did not feel it was necessary to speak with our rep. Whilst at the hotel we checked the available times of our rep. and found she only visited the hotel between 4.45pm and 5.15pm on approximately 3 days a week. The rest of the time she could be contacted by telephone. When on holiday it is stifling to find one has to race back to the hotel early evening to speak to the rep when necessary. We discovered this to be inconvenient and it would have been more desirable if the rep. had staggered the times of her visits to each hotel. We realise she had other hotels to attend but surely being available at various times at each hotel would have made her more accessible to holiday makers and therefore able to offer a much better service. There was also a note at the hotel stating the rep. was on leave for several days and an emergency number had been left. Why were we not offered the non-emergency services of another rep?
Our first impression on arrival in Qawra was one of disbelief. The whole area was a vast building site. The words ‘concrete city’ came to mind. As our airport transport neared the hotel we were beginning to pity whoever would be staying in this isolated area not realising that it would be our accommodation. The road leading to the hotel was a vision of debris and derelict buildings surrounded by building work.
The brochure sells this hotel as a place for the mature visitor. In no way is this an ideal location for this type of traveller. Pavements are virtually non-existent. Where they do exist they are often badly maintained. Travel distances advertised would be more appropriate to the proverbial crow but not to a person. Daily, we had to take care at every footstep not only because of the badly serviced roads but also because of the copious dog fouling of the pavements. A mature traveller would I am sure prefer a more central location to that of the Sunflower Hotel.
On arrival at the hotel reception all guests were told how to use their room keys and then off they went. Only ourselves and one other party were left waiting. We were then told that our rooms were not ready and that we would have to wait. We accepted this without complaint and sat waiting, and waiting, with no explanation. Over 40 minutes later my wife calmly spoke to the lady on reception and said this really was not acceptable as it was now mid afternoon and we had been up since 3.30am that morning and were extremely tired. The lady on reception became very offhand and spoke to my wife in a surly manner, telling her the room would be ready in a few moments and that they were very busy and we would have to wait another 5 or 10 minutes. Eventually, the hotel manager arrived and told us we could go up to our room. There was no apology from the staff at all. We went up to our room to find that it was still occupied by 2 cleaning staff.
Hotel literature in the room stated bed linen would be changed on a weekly basis, we stayed 8 of our original 14 nights at this hotel and our bedding was not changed once. The literature also stated guests should strip their bed if they required it to be changed sooner and leave their dirty linen in a heap. Why not leave a card for guests to note they want their beds changing?
The hotel had provided 3 bins on each floor for the disposal of waste paper, glass and plastic. The hotel literature also stated guests should take their rubbish to the necessary bins and dispose of it there. We noted these bins where down the corridor from our room past approximately 6 other rooms and then around a corner. We did not pay to stay in an hotel and then have to strip our own beds and clear away our rubbish. We left any plastic/glass bottles neatly by the bin for the cleaner to remove from our room. Why not supply the cleaner with separate bags for the litter? We paid for a service, not too service!
The holiday brochure promised entertainment at the hotel. We only witnessed this on one occasion during an evening meal in the hotel restaurant when 2 men played guitar as we ate, no other form of music was played at any other time during our stay – not even background music as we dined. A television was on constantly in the bar but there was no other form of entertainment. The bar was dark and gloomy and rarely occupied, hence, no pleasing atmosphere.
The rooftop pool area was extremely small and the pool was not as clean as it could have been. The pool closed very early each evening, around 6.30pm and the bar at the pool area closed even earlier at around 5.30pm. Not much of a social scene! The views from this area were not very picturesque. It was impossible to take a photograph from the rooftop pool area without there being several cranes in any image. Views to the front of the hotel looked out on nearby building works and rubble lined streets. Views to the side revealed dereliction and wasteland. Views to the rear, which included views from our balcony, looked out on more dereliction, a field full of scrap cars – not a pretty site! scrubland stalked by stray cats (on one evening we counted 23 cats) these were encouraged to remain there by a local lady who arrived each day to feed them
It was necessary to wipe down all seats and the table before sitting out on the balcony as they were constantly covered in dust from the continual building work taking place. We even had to be careful just leaning on the balcony as that was as dirty as the balcony furniture. Some mornings we were awoken as early as 6.00am to the sound of pneumatic drills and other building site noises. We spoke to a resident of Qawra who told us it is illegal to continue with building work during the summer season, this law is obviously flouted as are other laws on the island. At no time before our holiday were we informed of building work taking place in the area.
We found the restaurant staff to be friendly and helpful. The reception staff however, in particular the lady who first spoke to us on arrival, and the manager were rude, unhelpful and lacking in customer care skills. We were not impressed with the managers way of speaking to diners or the way he ‘ordered’ people to sit for dinner.
Eventually, we felt we could no longer tolerate the circumstances we were in and telephoned MyTravel customer service helpline to request a flight home. We were offered flights to either Gatwick or Newcastle, neither of which was convenient to ourselves as we had travelled from Manchester. Had we accepted one of these flights we were told we would have to pay the cost of a charter flight. Not happy with this we requested a move to another resort, again we were told if it was possible we would have to make a further payment. Unfortunately, mid conversation our telephone card expired and we were cut off.
We immediately returned to our hotel and telephoned another MyTravel number when we spoke to a lady who was already aware of our situation as she had heard of our previous call. We were offered alternative accommodation based in Qawra at the 4* Santana Hotel (sister hotel to the Sunflower). My wife requested we view the room before we accepted it so it was arranged for us to take a look at the room later that same day. My wife agreed with the rep. that if we should accept the room we would incur no further charges and that free transport to the Santana Hotel via a shuttle bus calling at the Sunflower would be arranged for us the following morning at 9.30am. With this in mind we went to see the room at the Santana.
What a change! We were pleasantly greeted by the reception staff who were aware of our arrival. We had a look at the room and decided to accept it. That evening we paid our drinks bill at the Sunflower Hotel reception where we confirmed the arrival time of the shuttle bus for the following morning. We had wasted a whole day of our holiday attempting to resolve this matter.
The following morning after breakfast we again called at the Sunflower reception and spoke to the same receptionist who was in attendance on the day of our initial arrival. I handed in our safety deposit box key and again asked what time the shuttle bus was due. The receptionist, who was standing next to the manager at the time, looked at me blankly and exclaimed, “You are leaving?” I find it impossible to believe the receptionist was not aware of our imminent departure as a rep. had spoken to staff at the hotel regarding our move. The receptionist then told me the bus was due at 9.30am.
After standing waiting for the shuttle bus in the hot sun for over 15 minutes (it was now 9.45am) the manager came out of the hotel to shut the door and my wife politely asked him if the bus was on its way as we had been told it would arrive by 9.30am. He did not look at my wife but said he would phone and see if it was on its way, he went back into the hotel slamming the door behind him. By 10.05am (35 minutes after the bus was due) the bus had still not arrived. I went inside the hotel in time to see the manager disappear through a doorway. I asked the receptionist if the bus was on its way, she made a telephone call and then said it would arrive soon. I commented on the fact that the manager did not have the courtesy to relate to us the results of his phone call. The receptionist just shrugged her shoulders and said nothing. I went back outside to my wife and shortly afterwards the shuttle bus arrived. We were not given a questionnaire to complete by either the hotel staff or our rep.
We spoke to several guests of our dis-satisfaction with the Sunflower hotel, its staff and location and many agreed with our comments. In particular 2 young girls who wrote a lengthy complaint on a Sunflower questionnaire which they allowed us to read. They too complained of the attitude of the staff, the lack of entertainment at the hotel, having to pay Lm1.25 (£1.94) per day for a cooked breakfast even though on half board, the uncleanliness of the pool and the resort being lacking as a whole, i.e. no nightlife for the younger person. Whilst resident at the Santana we also met a family of guests from the Sunflower who had spent all day at the Santana. A lady from this family said they had been at the Santana all day as there was nothing to do at the Sunflower and it was too depressing to go back there as there was nothing to do other than sit in her room.
Our experience at the Santana was one of complete contrast. We found all of the staff to be very pleasant always ready with a smile and wanting to be of help. It was a much better atmosphere and made what was an unpleasant holiday more bearable.
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Shirley and Andy from Stirlingshire travelled to Sunflower with
Airtours
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2007 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: This is the second visit we have made to this hotel, and not disappointed seccond time round.
The hotel is small and freindly, the staff are lovely and very helpful when you want to find your way on the local buses. Room was cleaned every day and fresh towels daily. breakfast is continental, but for a small charge you can have a breakfast cooked to order.
You can also make arrangements to have dinner in the hotel as well if you choose. we did this on a couple of occasions and were both satisfied with the meals available. Location is a 10 minute walk to buggiba square were you can sit and watch the sun go down in one of the many bars.
There is not much in the way of entertainment but we went out most nights anyway. We loved the rooftop pool and bar and found the other guests to be very freindly, which helped to make our stay very enjoyable.
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Karen O'Hara from NOTTINGHAM travelled to Sunflower with
apollo
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2006 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Sunflower hotel Qawra Malta ----- This hotel was of a very high standard.
The food was varied and of excellent quality, with a varied menu throughout our weeks stay.
Our room was cleaned daily with a change of clean white towels when required.
Although the immediate area around the hotel was of derelict buildings this did not however bother us as the hotel was of such a high quality.
The hotel staff were excellent always polite.helpful and nothing was too much trouble.
The entertainment was very pleasant, on several evenings, and never interrupted your sleep.
My husband and I certainly would visit this hotel again in the near future and we highly recommend it as a base for exploring Malta.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for a wonderful, pleasant stay in your hotel.
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Robert Williams from brereton travelled to Sunflower with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 3 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2005 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: On B+B basis whick was Ok, usual continental food.
The rooms and hotel very very clean. Air con and fans in room worked well. Superior room spacious.
Pool was small, but not many people used it so it was like having your own pool.
The hotel is situated in a quite area so no THUMP/THUMP music to keep you up all night. Approx 10 min walk to Bugibba / Qawra resort. Did not notice any day/nght time entertainment in hotel other than a musician in the bar.
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K.W.Rees from Bridgend travelled to Sunflower with
Airtours/Med Hotels
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 10 2004 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: A good start with taxi waiting for us at the airport and directly to the hotel.
An excellent hotel for its rating. Good rooms, good staff, location a little out of the way but this can be an advantage.
We were on B/B basis and breakfast was a reasonable continental choice with a full English alternative for only ML2:25. Previous contributor stated that food was all self-service but when we were there dinner was either self-service buffet (very good) or full a-la-carte which of course was waiter service.
When we were told that there was a disco nearby on Sat and Sun night’s reception were only too happy to move us to a room on the quiet side of the hotel.
All in all very good value for money.
We saw no chaos in reception as stated by someone and the bar/lounge/cyber cafe was open 24hrs with nice/suitable (for us) entertainers, i.e. seventies/eighties/nineties vocalists three times a week.
My wife and I would certainly stay there again.
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David Simon from Manchester travelled to Sunflower with
First Choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2004 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: As the above review stated the pool is far too small nice for a dip, but when a few people get in there it can get very crowded. Sunbeds are in a state and are very uncomfortable when you're getting your back brown. Food by the pool is very limited especially as we don't eat meat so we found we went out most times for lunch.
Hotel was very very clean, towels changed every day and room cleaned every day.
Never ate in the hotel restaurant went out every night as again the choice was very limited.
Breakfast was ok but finishes at 9.30 which is far too early and gets very busy waiting for a piece of toast.
Also the wardrobe is tiny and when you have a girlfriend like mine with many clothes it got very difficult. 2 tiny shelves and 9 hangers for 2 people for 2 weeks is just not enough.
But these problems are very small. Staff were very friendly and we were very happy with it.
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Douglas Kerr from Oswestry travelled to Sunflower with
Chevron Holidays
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2003 |
rated the Sunflower as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: The reception gives a bad first impression - it is much too small. When a coachload of visiotrs arrives, chaos takes over. Bedrooms are fine, and of a reasonable size. The rooftop pool is pthetically small - son't expect to swim here. If, however, you want to do some rooftop sunbathing it is excellent, and you can always enjoy the view. The food, which is all self-service, us very good with a reasonable amount of variety, though the dining room can be a bit of a scrum. Again it is much too small, as is the bar area. However there is a very relaxed atmosphere about the place and the staff are friendly and helpful. At a price that won't do your bank balance much harm, the Sunfower has plenty going for it.
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