Located in Hainan's pristine Yalong Bay, the Sheraton Sanya Resort (Xilaideng Dujia Jiudian) is a five-star beachfront resort overlooking white sands and swaying palm trees. Set amidst lagoons and lush tropical gardens, the Sheraton offers a mix of ancient Chinese and Western styles. This Sanya hotel features a range of guestrooms, including suites and villas which offer views of the beach, lagoons, gardens and the nearby 18-hole Yalong Bay Golf Club. All rooms are equipped with high-speed Internet access, satellite TVs, in-room safes, mini-bars and IDD telephones.The hotel houses a large ballroom and 12 meeting spaces equipped with high-speed Internet access, video conferencing facilities and audio-visual equipment.Three restaurants are also located on-site and serve Asian, Chinese and Western cuisine. Three bars and a lobby lounge can also be found on the premises.This hotel also features five swimming pools, a fitness center, sauna, a tennis court, massage facilities and a recreation center offering a selection of water sport facilities, including banana boat rides, boat rentals, kayaks, scuba diving, snorkeling, para-sailing, water skiing, wave runners and wind surfing.
"The hotel in general is a very nice hotel, amazing facilities but unfortunately there are a few items which made our perception of the experience on the down side:
1. Air conditioning in the gym is very weak (especially if compared tot he rest of the indoor facilities) and it makes any workout much harder than it would be with a well conditioned room. I have asked the personnel, but they told me that the AC was at the lowest possible temperature already
2. Although more than 50% of the customers are foreigners, more than 90% of the staff members speak no or very very little English, making the communication very hard, and only “possible” through a translator
3. Prices for anything not included in the room price are extremely higher compared to Chinese standard prices. For example, a canned beer is sold for 30RMB while in a normal shop (even a few hundred meters away) the same beer costs 12RMB.
Same goes for meals at the hotel restaurants. A dinner that outside would cost 30RMB, easily costs 250RMB (almost 10 times more), for no evident explainable reason, except that prices are pumped up to Europe/Russia/US standard prices.
4. We went to a buffet (price 398RMB for one person or 698 for 2 people) which opens at 18.00 and closes at 21.30. At 20.00 one type of wine which I liked was already finished, and at 20.40 the dessert part was almost completely switched off and staff ready to clean and head home.
Besides that, the white wine was kept outside ice (temperature 33°C), even if I asked several times to keep it fresh, nothing was actually done.
5. The hotel makes Stand Up Paddle boards available to use in the swimming pool, but not in the sea… I know, I was shocked too
6. A doughnut-shaped lifesaver was available on the beach, however the lifeguard advised me that the price to use it was 35RMB for one hour. The same floating device costs on Taobao (Chinese Amazon) between 11.7 and 37RMB (depending on size). They ask for 35RMB for 1 hour, that’s a total rip off!!
7. The sea water is in general very pleasant. One day we experience a bad current which brought a lot of plastic and trash from the sea. All the hotel staff on the beach could not be bothered with cleaning the trash from the water and/or from the shore. I personally took out 3 or 4 plastic bags and left them outside the water, but none of the staff members seemed to care about it.
8. Breakfast if very good and plenty of very good food and drinks are available. There is always some space available and it never feels crowded.
In general the hotel facilities are very beautiful, very clean and most of the staff members were very kind. However I would discourage people from going to this hotel at the current level of service provided and, most of all, for the prices of anything extra you want to do or buy in the hotel."