The hotel in general was a very good one, nice rooms and beautiful territory BUT there was one very big problem with the restaurant's maitre'd (master/manager of the restaurant). He was alway being very angry and abusive towards everyone!!! And nobody could take with them even a banana or yoghurt after having a meal there. Those poeple were stopped by matre'd and all there pockets were turned out just to see if you have taken a smallest bite with you!!!!!!!!!!! That was insane! This is the first time I have seen something like this. So if you decide to go to that hotel, don't be surprised when you are being asked to show your pockets!
P.S. Last year I stayed in Cactus Beach and we had no problems at all there, especially with the restaurant! I wish I had gone to that hotel again rather than this Malia Beach where everyone was treated like a thief. I payed for that banana too, for God's sake!

I stayed at Malia Beach Hotel from the 5th until the 12th of September, 2010. I must say I was quite wary of choosing the hotel because there were no English comments for this hotel on tripadvisor. In the end, however, that was exactly what ended up being the deciding factor when choosing the hotel (the rest simply had too many detailed bad ones).
I chose this hotel because of its location, first and foremost. The hotel and travel agency description said that the beach would be sandy, which it was.
Because the travel agency I went with only offered AI package for this hotel, I ended up with that for the first time ever. I've read many reviews about the negatives about AI packages and how drinks are watered down, food selection isn't good, etc. I am not a drinker myself, so I cannot comment on the wine or beer (local stuff) they had for offer during dinner and lunch, however, food was always fresh and there was plenty of it (different types of meat every day as well as fish, veggies, cakes, fresh fruit, you name it).

During the day, you could sunbathe at either one of the two pools (the one by the sea was saltwater), sunbeds, towels were free of charge, enjoy the water aerobics programme, play volleyball, tennis, squash.

The hotel was at the beach, so in order to get to the centre of Malia, you had to walk about 400 metres or so, but on your way you had plenty of bars, tourist shops to look at, so the distance wasn't long at all.

The staff was nice and polite, very helpful.

The only negatives I'd point out are perhaps that many Russian travel agencies have found the hotel to be nice as well, so most of the people staying there were Russian speakers. That probably, however, was just for the 2010 season, as most travel agencies don't organise trips to the same regions of the same country two years in a row. I noticed also Germans and Dutch there. Most English people seemed to prefer the hotels closer to the centre of Malia (further away from the beach though).

Close to the hotel, you could find watersports like parasailing, etc. If you're interested in visiting a waterpark, the largest waterpark, WaterCity, in Crete is only 20 minutes away.

I'd definitely recommend this hotel for everyone. There's enough to do even if you choose not to travel around Crete and stay at the hotel.

I'll also add a few pictures taken on the last day (8 am in the morning) of my stay.