We decided to stay here for the first 5 nights of our 7 night stay in Granada because of reviews, and because of the location on the lakefront. In hindsight, the lake location should not have been a deciding factor because Lake Nicaragua is not a pretty lake and the location of the hotel is quite secluded (we were glad we weren’t walking there in the dark). Anyway, we reserved with some difficulty (their on-line system was not working properly), by e-mail back in June 2009 and finally received a confirmation from the hotel manager. I e-mailed the week before our stay just to confirm our dates again.
Your Arrival: When we arrived at the hotel, nobody there could speak English and the manager was gone until later in the afternoon. Nobody could find our reservation even though I showed them the printed confirmation. With some fractured Spanish, arranged to leave our luggage at the reception area, walk into town (about 4 blocks) and come back later. When we arrived back, the manager had not arrived and still nobody spoke English. We asked to see a room and it was not what we had asked for. We are not picky travelers, but we had been told in the e-mail that they had hot water showers and were told "no" when we looked at the room and we also had been confirmed for a queen sized bed which we were told they did not have. They still could not find our reservation, so we decided to leave. We went on to Hotel Colonial in town where we had booked the last 2 nights of our vacation, and were able to stay an extra 5 nights. Given the quality of Hotel Colonial compared to El Maltese, we were glad that things worked out the way they did. Our room at the Colonial was more expensive, but for very obvious reasons.
Other Comments:
I sent an e-mail on our return to the manager I had corresponded with telling him of our experience, and as of 3 weeks later, we have not had any response from him. Maybe chalk it up to just a bad experience, but we would not recommend El Maltese Hotel to anyone.
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