The Hotel Juliani in St Julian’s has just celebrated its first year of operation as one of Malta’s very few high-end boutique hotels.

“Given the ups and downs of the tourism industry over our first 12 months, we view our success as doubly positive,” said hotel general manager Malcolm Azzopardi.

Hotel Juliani brings in most of its bookings direct rather than through agents. “We have just 44 de-luxe rooms, and the kind of client we get is the sort who would go on-line and research destinations and hotels before making his or her own bookings,” he said.

“They know exactly what they are looking for in terms of atmosphere, service and décor. They know that by going though agents they will be directed to larger, tourist-type hotels and they may not necessarily want that. Our website very much reflects the nature of the hotel, and we are pleased to find that it has proved a good source of bookings.”

Coming as it does within the category of “boutique hotels”, the Hotel Juliani has proved to be something of a novel concept on the Malta market. Overlooking Spinola Bay, it was meticulously built behind the perfectly restored façade of a traditional sea-front town-house. It has built a strong reputation for its restaurants – Zest, Meze and Café Juliani – which opened ahead of the hotel proper.

The Hotel Juliani is now moving into the market for meetings and seminars, and has also begun to provide outside catering services.