The Westin Dragonara Resort, Malta

[jhm]

The Westin is located on its own small peninsula in St Julian's, a town north of the capital, Valletta. About 5-10 minutes walk away is the nightlife district of Paceville as well as, amongst others, an Intercontinetal and a Hilton.

SPG gold upgraded room







SPG platinum upgraded room









Besides the usual SPG platinum amenity at check-in, the only other freebie in the rooms was a bottle of water. Rather stingy compared to the Le Méridien St. Julians Hotel (where I also stayed but no photos) which had - in a SPG gold room - a bottle of cabernet sauvignon waiting on the table together with a glass and corkscrew.

Compared to a suite at the IC (which I had a look at), the Westin suite was much nicer save that the IC suite had a very nice large rooftop openair balcony.

The Westin's executive lounge appeared to have some hot food - incluiding satay - when I had a brief look inside.

Molton Brown toiletries in the suite.

If taking a taxi to the airport, the price is fixed but you pay slightly more if you want to add the charge to your hotel bill.

[KeithMEL]

A short review of The Westin Malta

Well I failed to take pics of my stay here as I was too drunk when I finally stumbled into my room at 0300ish from someone's suite at the IC (no naughty thoughts please ), so thankfully jhm took a few pics.

Stayed here as part of the BA board MLA do.

I got an identical room to the 2nd room in jhm's review - an Executive Suite, which was literally 2 rooms joined together. I was upgraded weeks in advance of my stay. I suspect that they conveniently upgraded me when they had to switch all reservations to reflect new rates in Euros (Malta has just ditched its old currency for Euros).

As jhm mentioned the hotel is located in St Julians, and is just around the corner from some pumping nightlife. Think Malta's version of Lan Kwai Fong. In other words - the location is perfect!

Upon arrival I was greeted by 2 different staff members who already knew who I was. I was welcomed most cordially, asked how my flight was, and generally fussed over. I was then advised that I'd been upgraded to an Executive Suite. Took my 500 points as Plat amenity. jhm on the other hand got the standard 'hi, welcome, piss off to your room' which was a little perplexing at first, but it turned out that his Plat status was not properly recorded in the system - we only realised what was happening when he asked for his Plat amenity but the check in agent responded that he's Gold in the system. So moral of the story - always make sure your status is accurately reflected in the hotel's systems.

There was a fruit platter waiting for me in my room when I got there, as well as a welcome note from the manager. There were also 2 complimentary bottles of water. The bathroom was spacious and came with a jacuzzi, and as mentioned - had Molton Brown amenities.

The only (minor) complaint i have is being woken up TWICE at 6am in the morning, once by the front desk and another time by housekeeping enquiring when I'd be checking out. My own fault for not properly organising late check out I suppose - but I'd have been more understanding if the call came at the standard check out time (11am me thinks), not 6am!

The hotel was also rather generous with extending my check out time, even beyond the standard 4pm late check out. We didn't get back from our tour of Malta till 5pm and they were more than happy to let me keep the room with no extra charge till 5.30pm.