Faded glory. This old style hotel has spacious public areas and clean well decorated rooms with good views over the city/harbour.
Staff are warm and friendly but not always efficient. Be prepared to wait a long time and ask more than once for service.
The hotel is exceptionally well placed for the local bus service which centres on the "bus station" outside the hotel. An ideal base for seeing Valletta and Malta. We will use it again.

I've stayed at the Phoenicia a few times from 2001 to 2007. I organised a conference at the Phoenicia and they were very helpful.

Here are a few pointers if you are staying there:

1. Water in Malta is potable. I have no idea why the hotel marks the tap water as non-potable. Malta water is not always that tasty (the aquifers can be a wee bit salt in the Summer), but it's certainly completely safe to brush your teeth in and wash in, and you can drink it if you wish: the Maltese do.

2. I have seen the staff in action. As regards helpfulness, I would say that if you are polite to them, they are generally very helpful. They do not react well to being treated in a peremptory manner.

3. However, the barmen in the club bar are definitely odd - somewhat creepy in fact. The vary between standoffish and overfamiliar.

4. The broadband is very expensive. Try the internet cafe on the corner of South Street and Strait Street.

5. The lifts are a joke - they've been promising to fix them for years.

If you are expecting the level of decor and service to be the same as in an American 5* hotel, then you will be disappointed. However, for all its faults, we love the Phoenicia. It's comfy and welcoming. It's faded - but that means it's not hard and impersonal. You can see why Queen Elizabeth chooses to hang out there when she visits Malta.

I was really looking forward to my stay here, having seen it as the authors pick in Lonely Planet (I note that later editionis of the book no longer show this, with good cause). The building has seen better days but the room was adequate and I'm all for experiencing a bit of history and culture. What made the stay unbearable was the attitude of the staff. Being polite, let alone of any assistance was rare and most of them were lazy. You felt unwelcome and as though you were a terrible bother.

Unlike some others I actually found the food, once you were able to negotiate your way around the surly staff, was quite good (but it should have been too for the price). I had a very good piece of salmon from room service and I found the breakfast, particularly the cooked to order eggs was great, although having to wait for a table and being barked at by the door-wench did rather put one off one's breakfast.

5 star I don't think so, in my impoverished days as a student when I stayed in 2 and 3 star hotels I never suffered such appalling service.

Spent five nights here with my husband at the end of August. Having read all the TA reviews we decided to book the Phoenicia instead of the Corinthia Palace, as we figured staying near the Old Town would give us more options for dining out in the evening.

Yes, as previous reviewers have mentioned, the Phoenicia's decor is looking a little tired, but it's a charming old building and its location is ideal. We thought the noise of the bus station would bother us, but it wasn't a big deal as the horns only really honked during the day when we were out of our room anyway. We were on the fourth floor (try to avoid staying on the ground / first floor) with views over the Old Town and city gates. Room was on the small size but clean and bright, with good size bathroom.

As it was our wedding anniversary we arrived to find a delicious (big!) chocolate sponge cake and a hand-written note from the hotel's manager. A nice touch!

Pool is small but never really felt crowded. Lots of sun loungers. Unfortunately the pool bar closes early (4pm or 4.30pm) which was disappointing. As usual with 5* hotels the food and drink is expensive so we bought very cheap water from the small shops at the bus station every morning, and took with us to the pool.

Breakfast at the Phoenicia was standard fare; nothing to rave about, but a wide variety and good quantities. It was superb to eat breakfast on the large terrace with a lovely breeze, overlooking Sliema harbour.

We had room service for dinner one night. I suggest you avoid it! The menu is very limited and 'open to interpretation' by the chef. I ordered a rocket salad with parmesan and got a plate with two thinly sliced tomatoes on it and a small lettuce leaf. They delivered an incomplete order so we had to call several times to request the rest of our food. On checking-out they refunded the cost of the salad no problem, but considering how much the room service costs, you should expect - and get - a better experience.

Still, that was the only negative during our stay. We attended the manager's drinks (Tuesday) in the main foyer, which was fun.

The concierges are great, very helpful. They offered us towels for our boat trip, and booked the trip on our behalf. We took a day trip out to Gozo, Comino and the Blue Lagoon which was good value (including a yummy lunch). Avoid going on the big 'Captain Morgan' boats and instead take the Fernandes which is owned and managed by Captain Morgan, but a much smaller vessel and better for swimming. You'll have the option to go on a speedboat ride at the Blue Lagoon - we did (for a small additional cost) and it was FANTASTIC! They supply snorkels on the boat but I didn't see any fish.

One evening we took a bus around to Sliema for dinner. The other nights we tried restaurants within the Old Town including an authentic Maltese restaurant, but to be honest none of the food was great (or even that good) apart from a pizza in a cafe.

All-in-all a lovely few days holiday, and a great hotel.