Alex in Malta Interview: From Hotel Desk to YouTube Business

In short

• Alex in Malta is a YouTube creator who explains life, work and travel on the island to nearly 150,000 subscribers.
• He landed in Malta on 12 April 2015 and worked at a hotel front desk, later as front office manager, until January 2025.
• His income now rests on consulting calls, an e-book, relocation help and a few selective sponsors.
• Asked to choose between a viral video and a booked call, he picks the call.

Alex in Malta gets some of his strongest results from videos with titles like “worst country for expats” and “why people regret moving here”. Yet the man behind them has stayed on the island for more than eleven years and still talks about it like a new arrival. He sat down at CastMe, our podcast studio in Malta, with Thomas Giraud to explain how honest warnings became a business.

How did Alex in Malta start his YouTube channel?

There was no strategy. In 2020, during Covid, he picked up his phone to tell people what was happening with tourism on the island. The views came, and new questions came with them: where to live, how to find work, what to expect.

So he asked himself what he would want to know if he were moving all over again. When he arrived in 2015, he says, nobody was making that kind of content. The channel grew out of that gap, one practical video at a time.

Then something he had not planned for happened. Videos about lesser-known localities such as Żejtun, Żurrieq and Gwardamanġa started reaching the people who actually live there. Maltese viewers liked hearing an outsider’s opinion of their own streets, and a local audience formed alongside the expat one.

Why did he leave Dubai for Malta?

Before Malta came four years in Dubai, from 2010 to 2014, working in marketing and on events for large clients. By his own account he was earning well and living comfortably. He is careful to say this was his experience of that time, and that the city has moved on since.

What wore him down was the circle he found himself in, where cars, shoes and clothes became a running competition. “It’s a transaction friendship. It’s not a meaningful friendship,” he says. It made him anxious and more materialistic than he wanted to be, so he left.

After about a year back in Macedonia, he drew up a shortlist of sunny islands: Malta, the Canary Islands or Cyprus. Malta won, and a hotel reception desk gave him what he says he had wanted all along, a job surrounded by people.

Should you quit your job to become a creator?

Alex’s answer is no, not until you are comfortable leaving. He kept his post while the channel grew from 2020, began to earn from collaborations in 2021, and only resigned in January 2025. For about three years, he recalls, there was no day off: hotel, home, filming, editing, repeat.

The break came when the two started to clash. He was taking consulting calls on his lunch break and sometimes cancelling them because of a shift. He refused to give the hotel less than everything, so he left. He still creates content for the company as a freelancer and meets its returning guests.

What does the Alex in Malta business actually sell?

Ask him what he sells and the answer is not the island. It is trust, spread across several offers: one-to-one consulting calls for people weighing a move, introductions to the tax consultants he uses himself, help finding a home, an e-book and an expat guide.

Sponsorships exist, but he says he turns down many brands he does not believe in. The logic explains his answer in the episode’s rapid-fire round. Virality mattered at the start, because that is how people find you. “Once they find you and they trust you, then the booked call matters more than the viral video,” he says.

The limits of his brand are clear to him too. In 2024 he tried travel videos from Thailand, and views fell from up to 20,000 on a Malta video to about 3,000. He took the hint. Three months of demonetisation did not stop him publishing either. His advice on algorithms is short: hacks expire. “The only thing that would not change is yourself and who you are.”

Is Malta full? What has changed in ten years

He gets the complaint in his comments, and he never deletes them. His reply is that Malta is not full but changing, a revolving door where people arrive and leave. He sees heavy construction in particular areas, but says that from the air much of the island remains open landscape.

For context, Malta’s National Statistics Office counted about 574,250 residents at the end of 2024, 29.4% of them foreign, as reported by MaltaToday. Rents are where he feels the shift: his first apartment cost €600 a month, and today, he says, a single room can cost €800.

Moving to Malta with no job: what to do on day one

His plan for someone landing tonight with a suitcase is blunt. Print CVs and hand them in the next morning. Spend the afternoon by the sea applying online, and if you have a degree, search for every company in your sector. Find a job first, then a room, and only then the beach clubs.

Where does Alex take people in Malta?

His pick for a first visit is the boat from Valletta to Birgu, then the marina, the square, a pastizz and a walk with the locals. For a single spot, he chooses a boat ride at the Blue Grotto. The one thing he would skip is Marsaxlokk on a Sunday.

Visit Malta lists Sunday as the market day, which helps explain the crowds. Alex says stalls are there all week and recommends going on a Friday or Saturday instead.

About the guest

Alex in Malta has published more than 600 videos about the island since the Covid period. You can follow him on YouTube and Instagram, or book a consulting call and find his guides on his website. He was interviewed by Thomas Giraud, co-founder of CastMe.

Key moments from the interview

• 01:12 The plan behind the first video (there was not one)
• 07:40 Dubai: the money, the circle, the “transaction friendship”
• 10:45 The hotel front desk that became a dream job
• 13:50 Quitting after five years, and why he still works with them
• 16:45 Should you quit your job to go all in?
• 20:03 The experiment that failed: Alex in Thailand
• 23:00 The business behind the channel
• 25:20 Why he turns sponsors down
• 30:45 The only hack that never changes
• 36:35 Booked call over viral video, and would he do it for free?
• 40:00 “Is Malta full?”
• 45:10 You land in Malta tonight with a suitcase: day one

FAQ about Alex in Malta

Who is Alex in Malta?

He is a content creator who moved to Malta in April 2015 and runs a YouTube channel about living in and visiting the island, with nearly 150,000 subscribers.

How does Alex in Malta make money?

He says his income comes from consulting calls, an e-book, YouTube monetisation and sponsorships he chooses carefully.

Does Alex in Malta still work at the hotel?

He left his front office manager role in January 2025 but still works with the company as a freelancer, creating content.

What does Alex in Malta never talk about?

Politics. He says it is the one subject he leaves out, and that anything else about the island, good or bad, is fair game.

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This episode was recorded and edited at CastMe in Sliema. Discover podcasts and videos recorded in our studio, read where to record your next episode in Malta, then book a recording session by the hour or choose our full production service.