Kempinski San Lawrenz Hotel

We have recently returned from a 12 night stay at the Kempinski - family of 4 with two teenagers 16 & 17. We all had a great time and would highly recommend. We deliberated for ages on whether to stay on mainland Malta or Gozo, but decided in the end to base ourselves on Gozo and do a few day trips to Malta. We were so glad we decided this. Gozo is a beautiful island with so much to do and the Kempinski was the perfect base - would recommend hiring a car for flexibility, but ubers are also readily available. The hotel is lovely - very peaceful and tranquil, large pool areas with plenty of loungers available at any time of day and excellent pool bar service. There is also a lovely indoor pool which opens at 7am and was great for an early swim before breakfast. We didn't eat much in the restaurants as we tended to eat out around the island for dinner, but the breakfast each morning was fantastic - very wide range of items and a choice of eating on the large terrace or inside.
There is also a small supermarket and craft village within walking distance to the hotel for picking up snacks, light lunches etc and also much nicer souvenirs than you get in the seaside shops. Rooms are great, very comfortable with all amenities - we had a pool view room, I was worried this might be a bit noisy but it wasn't at all. The only slight downside for me is that the hotel is inland so no beach/sea view - but we knew this before we booked and it was far outweighed by the other advantages of this hotel over others we looked at. There is also a daily shuttle bus to nearby Ramla Bay (the main sandy beach on Gozo) and Victoria in the centre - and there are plenty of other beautiful bays around the island to visit. The Kempinski staff are great - always helpful with any queries we had. Overall I would highly recommend this hotel - although it is large it is very peaceful and tranquil with great service and every detail seems to have been thought of. Would also highly recommend Gozo as a place to stay and the ferry back to Malta is very quick/easy/inexpensive for visits to Malta.

Our experience at Kempinski San Lawrenz was extremely disappointing—not because of the quality of the hotel itself, but because of the way its so-called “pet-friendly” policy was presented and enforced. Let me make it absolutely clear that the hotel facilities, food, staff, upkeep and cleanliness are premium and worthy of a genuine five-star experience, and the breakfast was excellent. We have no complaints regarding the food or general hotel standards. Our only minor suggestion regarding the room is that the pillows were far too soft for our preference; we requested two firm pillows each, but unfortunately received only one each. Nevertheless, this is a very minor issue and certainly not the reason for our poor rating. The reason is entirely related to travelling with our Maltese toy breed, who is not simply a pet to us but part of our family. Before booking, I specifically contacted the hotel to ask about bringing our dog and was assured that the hotel was pet friendly. We accepted the additional pet charge to cover cleaning, which we fully understood and had no issue with. What we did have a serious problem with was discovering only after arrival what “pet friendly” actually meant. At no point before booking were we clearly informed that the breakfast buffet was located on a lower floor, separated by a flight of stairs from the Baldakkin Terrace, which is apparently the only area where pets are permitted. The pet policy we were required to sign stated that the only area where pets are allowed is the Baldakkin Terrace, but nowhere did it explicitly explain that this meant a pet owner could not access the breakfast buffet with their pet and therefore could not serve themselves. On our first morning, we were directed to the Baldakkin Terrace, where we were sitting outside in the sun with no dining table or cutlery prepared, while the buffet was a flight of stairs away. The manager told us there was nothing he could do other than personally bring the food upstairs for me. While I appreciate his attempt to assist, this is not what I consider a five-star pet-friendly breakfast experience. I do not want a staff member to fill my plate for me; I want to enjoy the buffet, choose what I want and return to my table as often as necessary. Instead, I was effectively deprived of the buffet experience simply because I had my dog with me. I fully understand that hotels have rules and legitimate hygiene considerations, but what I cannot accept is being told before booking that the hotel is pet friendly, paying the additional pet fee and signing a pet policy, only to discover that the practical reality is that my dog is essentially confined to the room or a specific terrace from which I cannot properly access the facilities I have paid to enjoy. Had this restriction been clearly explained before booking, I would not have booked this hotel with my pet. There is also a very simple solution: if the hotel genuinely wants to be pet friendly, a few tables could be designated on the lower terrace for guests travelling with pets, away from the main dining area, with pets safely kept in carriers or pushchairs. Our own dog is perfectly comfortable sleeping in her carrier or pushchair while we eat. This would satisfy hygiene requirements while allowing pet owners to enjoy a normal and dignified breakfast experience. Instead, the current arrangement effectively says: you may bring your pet, pay the additional fee and stay at the hotel, but your access to the hotel experience will be significantly restricted. That is not what most people would reasonably understand by “pet friendly.” The checkout situation was equally disappointing. Before booking, we were specifically told that after checking out at 11:00am we could continue using the hotel facilities, so we planned to remain and enjoy the pool, taking turns to stay with our dog. However, because the terrace was extremely hot and the sun was scorching, my daughter briefly remained in the lobby/reception area with our dog to protect her from the heat. A member of staff then approached her and instructed her to leave the lobby and return to the terrace. Despite being told that we could use the facilities after checkout, there was apparently nowhere within the hotel where my daughter could sit with our dog without exposing her to the heat. We eventually had no choice but to leave and go to Arkadia, where there was air conditioning and, ironically, our dog was perfectly welcome. This is the fundamental issue: you cannot market a hotel as pet friendly, charge a pet fee and accept a booking on that basis, only to impose restrictions that fundamentally prevent guests from enjoying the hotel experience with their pet without clearly explaining those restrictions before booking. Had I been told from the beginning that pets were restricted to the room and Baldakkin Terrace, and that the breakfast buffet was on another level and inaccessible with the pet—meaning that someone travelling alone with their pet could not serve themselves—I would have made a completely different booking decision. That is information I needed before paying for the stay, not after arriving. Our dog is part of our family, and we brought her because we wanted to enjoy our holiday together, not to leave her confined in a room while we enjoyed the hotel facilities. Therefore, despite the excellent accommodation, food, cleanliness, staff and general quality of the hotel, I cannot honestly describe Kempinski San Lawrenz as pet friendly based on our experience. In fact, I consider the term “pet friendly” misleading because the practical restrictions imposed on pet owners are far greater than what we were led to believe before booking. This is why the hotel receives a poor rating from me. The five-star standards of the property itself are not the issue; the failure to properly communicate the pet restrictions before booking, followed by the unnecessarily restrictive treatment of guests travelling with pets, is the issue. We will certainly not be returning to Kempinski San Lawrenz with our pet, and I strongly recommend that the hotel reconsider how it communicates and implements its pet policy. If you genuinely wish to call yourselves “pet friendly”, then the experience needs to be pet friendly in practice—not merely in the booking description.

We are regular guests at the Kempinski Hotel mainly using The Spa where the staff are very courteous. We have always found the lobby to be well staffed, with a professional and courteous team. Unfortunately, our recent experience at the main pool was in stark contrast to this and was extremely disappointing. We decided to spend some time at the pool and to have lunch at the Pool Bar which is the main restaurant by the pool. From the outset, the level of service was remarkably poor. The pool itself had a number of bugs floating on the surface along with an unclean feel to it, which was hardly the standard one would expect from a hotel of this calibre. The staff, who appeared to be predominantly students undertaking internships, seemed to have received very little training and showed remarkably little interest in providing service. No towels were brought to our sunbeds, and nobody came to take our order. We eventually had to find a member of staff ourselves, only to be told that they were not permitted to take the order and that someone else would attend to us. Once again, nobody came. We eventually managed to order some drinks, but these did not arrive. We were once again obliged to find someone and ask what had happened to our order. The entire experience felt less like being served at a five-star hotel and more like being left in the hands of a group of inexperienced disgruntled students who had neither been adequately trained nor appeared particularly interested in assisting guests. Sadly, even when service was eventually provided, it was not accompanied by the warmth or courtesy one would expect. Having endured the expensive drinks and the lack of service, we moved to a table at the restaurant beside the main pool – The Pool Bar. Despite this being the height of the busy season, the restaurant was surprisingly quiet. The menu is expensive and very limited. We both ordered a Chicken Caesar Salad from what was, frankly an uninspiring menu. After an extraordinarily long wait, the salads finally arrived. The chicken was so dry and overcooked that it was virtually inedible. Even worse were the so-called “bacon bits”, which were nothing of the sort and consisted pretty well entirely lumps of pure fat not even crisped up. I have photographs to substantiate this. By this stage, we had already spent approximately two and a half hours trying to obtain a simple lunch. I made an effort to eat the food (not the bacon bits), but eventually had to give up. I can honestly say that this was one of the worst lunches I have ever been served, and shocking for a hotel which should be providing exceptional standards of food and service. We eventually asked to speak to the restaurant manager. A manager did come to our table and was polite. I explained that my complaint was not about obtaining a reduction in the bill — although the prices were certainly high — but about having been served food that was simply inedible and experiencing an unacceptable standard of service. The cost of the food was subsequently removed from our bill, and we were offered an alternative meal, but by that point we had no desire to eat anything further and simply wanted to leave. This was a deeply disappointing experience. The standards we experienced at the pool restaurant fell a very long way short of what we would expect from a hotel of this reputation. Sadly, based on our experience, we could not recommend the Pool Bar either for its food or its service. If I were you I wouldn’t go.