Any hotels with negative reviews on holidays website Trip Advisor or Booking.com could be investigated by the tourism watchdog soon as it steps up its efforts to raise standards, the Times of Malta has learnt.
Malta Tourism Authority CEO Paul Bugeja told this newspaper that the authority only carried out investigations when complaints were made directly to the MTA.
However, with the increasing popularity of websites such as Trip Advisor and Booking.com, which allow users to review hotels and other accommodation, the authority could not go on ignoring such reports and was looking into updating its procedures to also include reports made online.
“While we carry out inspections at all the establishments in the first quarter of the year, we always inspect hotels again when a report comes in. However, it seems some are going straight to the websites, and so we cannot go on ignoring those,” Mr Bugeja said.
He was commenting after being contacted by this newspaper over reports about a hotel in Qawra, the Canifor Hotel and Apartments.
British tourist Peter Hammond told this newspaper he developed a chest cough and a headache while staying at the Qawra hotel in December. He said the symptoms got worse over the first few days and he even observed other guests with similar symptoms.
It seems some are going straight to the websites, and so we cannot go on ignoring those
Other guests have complained of similar issues at the hotel on Trip Advisor, sharing experiences similar to Mr Hammonds. A number of photos uploaded on the travel website also show extensive mould and mildew in some of the hotel’s rooms.
“We noticed some other guests had chesty coughs and a couple we befriended had similar symptoms,” Mr Hammond said, adding that the rooms were cold and smelled of mildew.
Mr Bugeja said that the MTA had carried out inspections at the hotel and was awaiting the results, which should be available this week.
A spokesman from the Canifor said that while not aware of mould or mildew in any of the rooms, he would not exclude it developing in some areas “as a result of last week’s rain”.
The spokesman also confirmed that the MTA had carried out an inspection at the hotel recently. He said no such complaints or bad remarks from hotel residents or local patrons had reached them.
“In any case, however, should anyone have endured such an awkward experience it is the normal custom to lodge a report to any officer of the hotel and a remedy, if any, can be found to the satisfaction of the complainants,” he said as he asked for more information on the complaint so that the matter could be investigated.
“The hotel owns two other properties besides the Canifor Hotel, with a total of about 250 rooms with a very high occupancy level all throughout the year and it would be more than helpful if your complainants give more precise information.”
The Canifor is the second hotel to come under fire recently after the MTA slapped the Blue Sea St George’s Park Hotel in St Julian’s with a two-week enforcement notice last month, following an inspection at the resort which was described as a “rundown homeless hostel” by a Scottish tourist.