Short Lets Malta Reviews 39

Minus scores not available so it has to be a 1.
We stayed at the Idyllic Penthouse Apartment in Sliema, advertised on Booking.com Airbnb and Short lets Malta, now not listed on VRBO as it no longer meets their standards although they wouldn't say why. I had the opportunity to cancel amd made the request on VRBO> I recieved a message from Franco (Grech) assuring me it was a misunderstanding and there was nothing wrong with the apartment, in the evening I also recieved a telephone call from Simon Sultana who repeated the same and told me it was still advertised on the other platforms and was totally OK.
After the assurance from the director and another manager (Simon) I didnt cancel and went ahead with the booking. Big mistake. Franco and Simon are Liars. I reported the condition of the apartment during my stay and have contacted them since, but no reply yet.
The problems in brief are poor decoration with water damage to wallpaper which is peeling, marks and dirt all over wall with splattered bugs and bug faeces.
In the kitchen the cupboards with plates glasses and mugs are infested with cockroaches. as well as lounge furniture housing a cosy place for the bugs to live, furniture is damaged stained and not to the standard of that in the photographs with rugs and other furnishings in photographs now missing, like the bedroom balcony furniture.
The spiral staircase is not fixed to the wall properly and moves during use, resulting in me falling onto the tiled floor below, I am very fortunate that I was not seriously injured, other than bruising to my foot and toes which made walking uncomfortable for a couple of days.
The patio doors dont lock.
Shower are dirty mouldy and have broken door rollers.
The beds are in a poor condition and very noisy when you move in the night. The only good thing about this apartment is the view of Valletta. They have now banned me from their page on facebook and hide peoples comments on Instagram. Personal posts with the company tagged are to follow.
They have been reported to the maltese tourist authority also to see if we can stop them fleecing hard working tourists and being a negative side to an otherwise beautiful place.
Malta and the maltese should be ashamed of you Franco Grech and Simon Sultana to name the 2 who blatently lied to me. I have many more pictures and videos but you get the idea - cant see where to add photos so check the google review!

Absolutely terrible experience with Short Lets Malta. The apartment we booked was nothing like the listing — it had mould in both bathrooms, mould in hallway walls, dirty towels, no pillow covers, a rusty and dirty kettle, and food splattered on the kitchen walls.

We tried multiple times to contact Short Lets Malta using the numbers provided, but were told they were just "message takers" and no one ever called us back. We also sent emails that went completely unanswered.

We had booked for 7 nights but left after just 1 night because the property was in such a disgusting state, and no one from the company would help. We were forced to spend an additional $3600 AUD to find alternative accommodation — on top of the $4600 AUD we had already paid.

To make matters worse, the photos in the listing were misleading — they did not match the apartment we were given, and there was no Jacuzzi, despite it being advertised.

Avoid this company at all costs. Unprofessional, unresponsive, and completely misleading.

Avoid at all costs – unsafe and unsanitary conditions

We booked this apartment (Property 10169 on Shortlets Malta) for June 13–19, 2025. Upon arrival, we were shocked by the appalling state of the property. It was completely unsanitary and unsafe, especially for our young child. Issues included:
• Mould in the shower
• Bloodstains on curtains
• Rust throughout the dishwasher
• Dried toilet paper stuck to the wall by the bed
• Bodily fluids on balcony curtains
• A cockroach on the floor
• Loose and dangerous skirting/floorboards
• Dirty rug (not the one in the listing)
• Discarded chicken bones in the foyer

The property looked nothing like the photos. I requested an inspection and refund — both were refused. This property should not be listed or rented until serious repairs and sanitation are done.

Ruined our family vacation. Do NOT work with this company. Email sent to agents after we rent the "penthouse" apartment.
"We arrived on Thursday March 13, 2025 to what we thought would be a beautiful penthouse apartment as described on your site for our family vacation with our 3 young children. Instead we entered a building that didn't require any locks, there was used sanitary napkins on the stairs, piss and shit in the entry of the building.

We get up to the apartment and walk in and find:
* towels that are ripped and used (this was resolved yesterday on 3/18, finally)
* curtains falling down and rods bent
* sliding back door to the hot tub doesn't even close properly so it's open all the time
* not enough blankets
* no handsome, no bodysoap
* 2 rolls of toiletpaper for 5 people to stay from 3/13-3/21: unless we are expected to buy our own after paying over 1k euros
* not enough dishwasher
* broken dishwasher (this was resolved after day 3 of getting a hold of maintenance)
* hot tun cover tore up
* no drying rack for clothes- maintenance found 1 for us
* no additional trash bags so we have over flowing trash
* no dish soap
* microwave that looks like it might catch on fire
* oven doesn't work

Amazing stay, everyone in the group of 9 said it was ��� Will remember it for long.

Do not trust this company
We had a filthy penthouse appt, asked to be removed within an hour of arriving, they ghosted us and deserted us, we had to book into the only hotel we could find the next day, they refused to refund us when I sent them photo evidence, they called us liars, As soon as we got home we called bank and instructed a " charge back, the bank whole heartedly supported us and took our money back of them, they bury the bad reviews. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
They lie at every twist and turn

Location, location and location, if you like me, hate driving while on holiday this is the place to stay, everything is walking distance. The apartment is also very big, so perfect for our group as we could have our own personal space. The guys at Shortlets were very nice, but Thomas was the best, he let us stay at the apartment till 5.00 which was so good, we hated the idea of having to run around with the luggage, so it is always good to ask!!

Had an awesome time in Malta, all thanks to Shortlets Malta and Philip from their team. The service was top-notch – Philip really hooked us up! He was always there to help out and didn't mind going the extra mile. Super cool guy.

The place we stayed at was spotless and comfy, felt just like home. It had everything we needed, and getting around from there was super easy. Plus, we got some great local tips from Philip which made our trip even better.

Checking in and out was smooth, no stress at all. Gotta say, these guys know how to treat their guests right. If you're heading to Malta, hit up Shortlets Malta for sure. They and Philip get a big thumbs up and five stars from me!

The villas we stayed at were excellent - they had all the amenities we needed as well as lovely perks such as the pools, hot tubs and sauna.
I am leaving a 4/5 as there were some small things which should be fixed - some of the doors weren't closing properly and the dishwasher in villa Gaia wasn't working.

Couldnt recommend Luxury Villas Malta enough. We stayed at Villa Ghea and it was everything we expected and more. The villa was clean and everything was in working order. Modern villas in a good location not too far from local shops. The booking process was easy from start to finish and Victoria the property manager was extremely helpful and lovely to speak to. Will definitely be coming back and have recommended to friends and family.

I already left a review on booking.com, but I felt the need to do another review here. The reason is that a week before my holiday I decided, to my misfortune to google Shortletsmalta and it lead me to this site. As you can imagine I was shocked and I confess that I thought about trying to cancel the reservation, however being a big group, it was not an option as I feared that it would be difficult to find something last minute at that price or size. Although Phillip, our agent, was polite and reassuring and as a matter of fact the property on booking.com had a review score of 9.4, I was still very anxious the whole week before arrival. Fortunately the Villa was stunning, much better than the photos, the heated indoor pool, the games room, really nice and super clean, even Victoria the host was really nice and she even organized a Sicily tour which really fantastic as we managed to visit Sicily on our Holiday to Malta. Now I understand that this company has many properties, so experiences are different however I wanted to post my positive experience so if someone happens, like I did, to see this site after the booking, then be reassured that if you booked Villa Ida you will love it and if you want to make it extraordinary just add the Sicily tour.

Disgusting property and francko the owner, these are scammers.paid £2000 for 5 day stay, mattresses were covered in blood and feces e t, showers didn't work and we're mouldy, jacuzzi looked like a urinal, we complained and sent pictures of conditions and had to book new accommodation as this place was not fit for purpose. We have been refused a refund and franko drech is rude and patronising , avoid at all costs

We rented Villa Goa in December 2022 for a stay from 5/27-6/16/23. The cost was over $20,000 of which 50% deposit was paid at time of booking and 50% one month before we arrived. When we arrived, we discovered that Short Let’s Malta placed us in another villa that was significantly smaller. The owner Franco Grech offered to waive our cancellation fee if we were not happy. This bait & switch tactic was used because they rented our villa to a production company filming a reality TV show. To make matters worse, we had to endure days upon days of drunk guys partying till 7 am despite house rules stating no special events. Furthermore, the villa has major long-term construction around the entire house. Our view from the pool included a large working crane destroying any views we had. I strongly recommend you avoid this villa and its company Shortletsmalta. They are scammers. They deceptively placed us in a different property with 1 less bedroom, 2 less bathrooms, 1 less ensuite, no gym, no dryer, no outdoor sofas. Owner offered to waive cancellation fee after we travelled half way around the world and were already in property. Had every opportunity to notify us in advance of these changes but wanted to rent our villa to production and preserve our 3 week rental. We stayed in villa because there were no other 5 bedroom properties available in Malta during high season. Owner’s response is as deceptive as his business practices which is why we were refunded more than $6,000 by VRBO.

Rebuttal: Your reply is laughable. You did not offer us a refund after putting us in a place that was smaller and less expensive without our approval. You did not offer a full refund, you offered to waive the cancellation fee after our group of 7 travelled from the U.S. For the record, there were no 5 bedroom villas for rent in Mellieha last minute during high season. You knew this. The only honest remark in your reply was that we were reimbursed by VRBO $6,000. VRBO is not in the business of refunding its customers significant amounts of money unless the property owner has done something wrong and clearly they were in agreement with us. So spin it anyway you wish. You are a dishonest individual. I noticed that you created a new listing for this property on VRBO so that my review will not show up. I will ensure VRBO transfers the review to the new listing. Lastly, I did not mention a refund of $6,000 from VRBO because it was recently received after 6 weeks of back and forth with them. At the time I submitted this review, I had not received any compensation. People and companies like you give vacation rental owners a bad name!

FOR ANYONE DOUBTING THE HONESTY AND ACCURACY OF MY REVIEW, JUST READ THE OTHER TRUSTPILOT REVIEWS!!!

WHY DID VRBO REFUND ME $6,000? BECAUSE YOU ATTEMPTED TO DEFRAUD US. We rented a 5 bedroom, 6 bath villa with gym in December 2022 and gave you a deposit of $10,000. When we arrived in Malta on May 28th, 2023, you placed us in a smaller, less expensive home without telling us hoping we not notice. Silly. That is called DECEPTION. Bottom line, VRBO refunded us $6,000 because of your deceptive and unscrupulous business practices. Saying that all the other negative reviews on this site are fake is laughable.

You attempt to discount all the negative reviews here on Trustpilot and ignore why VRBO refunded us $6,000 is laughable.

We rent a flat for 2 month for intership flat correct, clean, well equipped, correspond to the description. Your contact is there to help you and answer to your request asap, good experience

Great customer service, thanks to Phillip I was able to book a villa for the weekend with ease.

We booked through Marriott Homes and Villas (MHV) believing if it is associated with Marriott, it must be good. WRONG.

After booking, the following information was provided by MHV.
*ShortletsMalta (SLM) may need to contact you to confirm the booking. Do not make any further travel plans until you have been contacted.*
*SLM will be able to assist you with travel logistics and any questions about the apartment.*

*some rentals may require additional paperwork, ID verification or deposit.
SLM will let you know*

*SLM will let you know the address of the apartment and how to access.*

10 days after we booked, I still had not heard anything from SLM so I sent an email to the email address provided by MHV. That email address was incorrect and did not got through.

I went to the SLM website and sent a message through the Contact page. It's worth noting that their website has template text on its About Us page which led me to begin thinking we had been scammed. What kind of legitimate business has this type of thing on its company webpage? If not a scam, it is totally unprofessional.

Anyway, I did not receive a reply so after 3-4 days I sent another request for information through the SLM webpage. To this day I have not received a reply. I also attempted to reach them through their phone number and Whatsapp. Still no response.

We reached out to MHV to let them know we had not heard from SLM. Keep in mind, at this time we still don't know if our reservation is fully confirmed, if there is additional paperwork or id verification required or an additional security deposit required or the address of the property.

MHV was able to confirm our reservation and provide the address (but not the apartment number) but we still had not heard from SLM. MHV said they are trying to reach out to SLM and has not received a response either but they assure us that SLM will contact us three days prior to check in with additional information.

Three days prior to check in we received an email from SLM which was a request for an additional €5.60 for taxes/ fees. No other information about anything and no answer to any of our questions.

Finally, about 2 days before our trip, we hear from SLM through an email chain from MHV. Basically the email says "yeah the email address is wrong but we'll fix that" and that's it. Knowing our concerns and the number of emails going back and forth, SLM made no effort to reach out to us.

The day of our trip was the FIRST time we had direct contact with someone from SLM, Simon, who had the audacity to include in his message wording to imply that he had previously provided us with the requested information. We did not hear from him until a few hours before we were to board our plane. It wasn't until that time that he provided access to the guest portal which gave check in details. And he tried to imply that he had already sent that information. BS.

Once we checked in, there was supposed to be someone there to greet us, help us get settled and answer any questions we might have. No one was there. After being there about an hour, a young lady came by to drop off some dishes for the apartment. She was very nice but not much help though she did help get the TV working because it wasn't progrmmed when we arrived.
The apartment was freezing cold. The heaters are inadequate. We had to have all 3 going at full blast day/night just to get to a manageable level of cold. I realize that the cold is unusual for the island but, so what. A heater should work like a heater.

There is no dishwasher which means the dishes in the apartment were washed by hand. Which means they are not sanitized. 🤢

The "premium linens" are the cheapest, roughest, thinnest towels you can buy. Same for the sheets. And no face towels. Just bath towels.

The ice tray looks like it was made for a dollhouse.

The starter toiletries consist of a bottle of hand soap which suspiciously looks identical to the dish soap.

There is a hair dryer that is attached to a wall in the bedroom. Not the bathroom, but the bedroom.

One of the cupboards doesn't even have a bottom so it looks pretty but it is completely non functional. Of course we didn't need to use that cupboard but it just goes to show the shoddiness of this place.

wifi was unstable & went out multiple times.

The neighborhood is rundown and dirty. It looks to be in the worst part of town. Fortunately it is a short walk to the sea front, which is beautiful. Those are the pictures you see on the website. Not the actual apt location. We left after 4 days and sent an email to Simon to which he replied- oh I wish you had told us you weren't happy, we could have found a solution. 🤬. He knew we weren't happy a never reached out and never made any attempt to reach us proactively to resolve our issues it was just a lazy off handed reply that made us feel unvalued as customers.

Watch out for the lies in the reply below.

18th July 2023

These people are only sending long dialogue because they want us to delete our review. The reasons people make reviews is to protect future disappointment. We stand firm on our review.

12th July 2023 Our response to their allegations

• It has taken you 8 months to respond to our complaint
• It was not only Booking.com that we made a complaint to but also to the Maltese Tourist Board
• Every part of our complaint was backed up by photographic evidence and screen saver of the advertisement.
• The property we were sent to was a different property to the one we reserved with Booking.com with a totally different address
• No ‘Amazing sea view” – just washing lines in the back street apartment
• No parking
• The Penthouse apartment we booked had its own parking
• We refused to stay at this inferior property and we were fortunate enough to be able to stay one night in a 5 star hotel which was the only place available after midnight! We then had to spend the remainder of our week finding other accommodation at our expense! So why are you accusing us of only complaining in order to get a refund.
• Booking.com only refunded our money as you wouldn’t, and they refunded the money because it was clear evidence of mis-representation
• You are trying to ‘get out of the hole’ by using the excuse that we are serial complainers
• We have been with Booking.com for many years and we are classed as one of their ‘Genius’ customers
• Our complaint stands for the protection of future holiday makers
• ENOUGH SAID!

What utter lies!!!! These people have just (3 months after my review) made their comments. It should be pointed out that it was not THEM that refunded our money but after a LONG battle with Booking.com it was THEM that sent the refund!!!! That is why they have taken so long to make their comments as Booking.com would have had to get the money off them.
We URGE you...... don't have anything to do with these people - they are frauds!!!!

We booked a Luxury penthouse self catering apartment with amazing seafront views in Malta. the photos shown of the property were the reasons we booked it. The address given on the advert showed it as being on the seafront location on Google maps. However the morning of our travel we were given another address by Short lets Malta. When we arrived late at night, we found the accommodation was in a shabby back street and was no where near the seafront and the view was of the run down flat roofs surrounding us Basically the flat was a dump and far inferior to what we had paid for which was not cheap! So much so we decided not to stay. We had to find a hotel for the night at 1 am in the morning. When we phoned the emergency number given we were told that someone would contact us. This never happened. We returned the next morning to the accommodation to take photos as evidence. The clever part of the Short lets Malta scam is that they inform Booking.com that it was a ‘no show’ - ie they say we didn’t arrive, so we now can’t get our money refunded and we are unable to put a review with Booking.com.

Amazing stay and amazing company. Will definitely be back again. The villa was the best choice we could ever make ideal for all the family with kids. The pools and outdoor area are absolutely wonderful!

Would definitely be back again! We have had a wonderful stay in Sliema the view and the location are unbeatable, the apartment is large and spacious ideal for groups.