INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL CALI

My visit to Cali was brief. I arrived late in the evening and I went straight into the Intercontinental, which was managed by Estelar Hoteles. Nevertheless, I could still use my Intercontinental Priority Club card.

I got there and there wasn’t anyone at reception, so staff was only for me so checking in was really fast. The girl behind the counter was really helpful and indicated everything very well.
I got a floor on the 5th floor. As soon as I got in the room, I noticed the noise of a fan… and taking into consideration I had a terrible headache, I decided to go back to reception and get a nother room. I was also given another on the 5th floor, 529, and the noise was still there, but much more attenuated. It seemed that isolation was much better in this room.

The room was fairly big, but rather old fashioned. I guess Intercontinental had opened it, and for some reason, did not get the expected results, so… it was handed over to local group Estelar, who had done little renovation.

The bed was comfortable… and pillows were also available.

The living room area, as you can see from the picture, was also old fashioned. Wireless Internet was free of charge, but believe me, it was like a torture. Extremely slow that took you away from it… The Flat screen was a much relaxed option… Mainly, Colombian TV channels.

The bathroom is wide and so is the bath. Toiletries are still Intercontinental branded, but the philosophy is Estelar, that is, to pay for toothbrush, shaving kit… which I think is a bit mean.
As for the breakfast, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the fact, I had to ask what everything was and of course, I had to try it… and it was delicious, specially the typical arepa with melted cheese and the cheesy breads… Fruit was exceptional and so was the yogurt. There was a type of scrambled eggs with corn, with ham and some other I cannot remember, and specially, the typically dressed cook that was behind the counter who was ever so kind, informative and… got me to try everything…

It seems to be the best hotel in Cali... It may look like a modern hotel from outside... but it is clearly a very poor 5-star hotel and clearly under the Intercontinental standard.

Checking out was also easy.

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL CALI
AVENIDA COLOMBIA #2-72,
P.O. BOX 7457
CALI
COLOMBIA
Front Desk: +57-2-8823225
Fax: +57-2-8939494

INTERCONTINENTAL MALTA

From the outside, it looked like a nice hotel. Little I expected of what it was waiting for me. On arrival, we found the hotel was under refurbishment, at least, the reception. As we arrived pretty early, around 13.00 the rooms were not ready and we were kindly sent to the lounge to wait. Eventually, we were given our keys.

My room was ok, but my colleagues found theirs smelly and noisy. Apparently, there were city works going on outside, that made the stay in the room impossible. But this is not a comfortable hotel. It has the rooms and consequently, the lifts, on the other side of the huge building, so you spend your stay walking... (Ok, a little exaggeration there... but it is true I wondered why there was no entry from the other road).

The cleanliness was ok, but rather tight-fisted. Normally, when you use the soap, you get a replacement, either leaving the used one where it was or putting it back to its place. Over here, they didn't even bother. It is one of those little details without relevance, but... it does not give a nice image.

In my room, the toilet flush had a leak; fortunately, it was from the tank into the toilet... not afterwards. But it meant that my clothes got wet as I was pushing the flush... It was a matter of learning how to do it properly. Breakfast... lots of things... but little appealing. The juice out of a brick and tasteless. The pineapple was brown and the rest in syrup. Thank god I found rye bread. The omelet was nice, but not the rest of the hot meals. Cheese was nice, but the cakes were mostly hard. The chocolate for the cakes was horrendous and the crepes hard. Yogurt, so, so. Coffee... disgusting, and if you wanted espresso, you had to pay for it. I really hate this mean charge, especially in a 5-star hotel.

Internet with conditions... "Please check if your room has full signal or not"... Do you tell me they don't know? What kind of management is in the hotel that doesn't know the hotel that well? In my room, there was full signal, but the wifi didn't work. I complained and the solution was to use the broadband. Difference was that whereas the wifi 24 hour scheme was for 24 hour usage, broadband, was for 24 hour from first use. So in the end, I decided to go for broadband, but the cable didn't go either. The girl behind the phone told me to plug the grey cable... Which gray cable? I only have black cables. So she told me initially there was no cable, then the cable appeared... and the guy who came to my room to give me the cable told me that the black ones, "don't tend to work"... So why are they there? At the same time, I complained about the air-conditioned. I was scorching hot, and the guy told me that he thought the aircon didn't work, so he called his colleague... who confirmed it. So he suggested opening the window.

Noise started again at 7am. Luckily, I had to wake up at that time, so this was not a problem for me, but... had I wanted to rest, I would be extremely annoyed. At check out, they wanted to charge for me for wifi and broadband... Explanations were needed and in the end, I only had to pay for broadband. Price for it was exorbitant: 19 euro. Day light robbery. It is amazing how some hotels offer it for free, and others make so much money rather than giving a service to the customers. It tells a lot about the hotel policy.

INTERCONTINENTAL MALTA
ST GEORGES BAY
ST. JULIANS, STJ 3310
MALTA
Reservations: 900 983 177
Hotel Reception: 356-21-377600
Fax: 356-21-372222
Email: malta@intercontinental.com.mt