Malta's Westin teaches me why boutique hotels are on the rise

My husband did a very logical thing in his effort to impress me with his Valentine's Day treat.  (Of course, still making a big deal of the day now that we've been married 18 months is enough to impress. But shhhhh, don't tell him.)

He selected an executive suite in a resort with a big brand name, at the luxury end of the corporate hotel market.  And even with a discount, the rate came in at more than £300 a night.  Wow.  Should be a safe choice, eh?

Nope.  In fact, it left us spending the whole weekend thinking this wasn't worth the money, and wondering what amazing delights we could have gotten for the same price, or less, at some undiscovered little boutique hotel had we done a bit more research.  We thought of the obscene luxury and the magnificent service at Durham's Arrowhead Inn.  The stunningly appointed little corner room with the killer views and the gourmet chef at South Africa's Birkenhead House.  Our favourite weekend retreat in the Cotswolds, Windy Ridge.  Every one offered a better night's sleep, with more luxurious appointments, for less money.  Lesson learned.

Now don't get me wrong, this was far from a bad stay.  Let's look at the positives.  The room was huge.  A kitchenette, sitting room and guest bathroom, with a bedroom with a super king bed, off that another bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.  Both rooms had sliding glass doors leading out to a patio, a bit of lawn and an inlet, with views of the sea to the right.  The decor was the standard, high end mix of camel, white and black, chrome, wood and leather that's currently the accepted international norm for posh interiors.  The lobby is massive and impressive, with 100 meters of windows overlooking a lovely pool deck, the sea, and the 19th-century-palace-turned-casino on the point.  The staff is helpful and remarkably friendly, particularly the concierges who went the extra mile for every request.  The included breakfast buffet was diverse and generous, the attached restaurant was very good (see last entry.)

But...

First off, two rotten nights of sleep.  If a hotel can't get this right, little can compensate.  The mattress was uncomfortable, the sheets of dubious thread count, the foam pillows only moderately comfortable.  Thin walls meant seeping conversations waking us up on both nights, the poor sleep made even worse by our neighbour's 4:50 am alarm on Sunday, followed by conversation so loud and long we did the old university dorm thing and banged on the wall to get them to shut up.

Down in the recreation area, the whirlpool was only lukewarm.  There were cracks in the tiles on the pool deck and patches rubbed clear of paint on the bottom of the pool.  At breakfast, the coffee was uniformly horrible.  One morning, so cold we had to send it back, another clearly over-stewed and seeping out of the cracks in my mug.  There were cracked plates in the stacks on the buffet both mornings, too.

Then there were the things that weren't necessarily wrong, just irritating.  The huge hike down characterless hallways between lobby and our room. The impersonal experience of the whole place.  The absence of an iPod dock or any music capabilities in the room.  The oddly echoing empty spaces of the unused conference facilities.

Had I been at a conference in those facilities, I would have shrugged a lot of this stuff off, distracted by business.  On my husband's cash, however, I was hyper-sensitive, and feeling drastically overcharged.  With a recent track record of boutique hotels behind me, I had a benchmark.  And a new understanding.  This is why the experienced traveler is turning his back on the big chains, and luxury boutiques are on the rise.

Chains are fine for business travel, but they won't be seeing us again soon for a special weekend.