Sheraton Sanya Haitang Bay Rst — Hotel in Sanya City

My wife and I went to Sanya to relax and get away for a while before the Spring Festival rush. Almost from the beginning - this hotel was underwhelming.

There was no SPG upgrade. We stayed in the exact room we reserved and there was never any mention of an upgrade. English was a struggle for most every employee.

According to our reservation confirmation and my SPG app - we had a 'Pre Paid Rate'. I thought we had already paid for the room but it seems we actually hadn't. It was all a bit confusing on arrival. We checked with our bank once we returned home and there was no previous charge, but surely our reservation and the confirmation should not say we had to pay in advance to get a certain rate - if we actually didn't need to. This may be a corporate issue...

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the stay was that there was no room service menu available in the room. For a hotel of this level that seems very odd. We called guest services and were told that new menus were in the process of being printed. Okay, but shouldn't the old menus be available to guests until the new ones are printed? Ordering room service was like a game of cat and mouse, with my wife literally asking what they had and then being offered only three or four choices, one item at a time. Eventually we chose a hamburger and asked for cheese to be included. The young lady said there was no cheese. We asked for Coke Zero or Coke Light or Diet Coke and were told nothing like that was available. We settled on regular Coke with ice. It took almost one hour for the food to arrive (58 minutes). When it did arrive, surprise - there was cheese on the burger! The ice was mostly melted. An hour later - long after I finished my meal - my wife found a Coke Light in the mini bar fridge.

The next day we inquired at breakfast about getting a room service menu and it was explained that there was some problem with the wording on the previous menus and that the government was involved. We were told that we would have an old menu brought to the room for the remainder of our stay - but it never came. We typically order one or two meals a day through room service, but ordered just once more during our stay. The second time we were again given three or four choices and again settled on the burger and after explaining we wanted a Coke Light, also received that with no problem. It took thirty minutes the second time which is more more than acceptable. I should add that the burgers and fries - both times - were excellent.

The separate breakfast dining room for SPG Elite members was excellent and much appreciated. Breakfast was very good one morning and good the other two mornings - all three mornings I asked for an omelette with a LOT of cheese. I got a lot one morning and the other two - not.

Poolside service was a bit disappointing as well. After first having to track down the bar attendant, I ordered a Corona Beer and asked if it was cold. The young man said yes and brought me a cold beer and a mug filled with ice. He opened the bottle and poured the beer into the ice-filled mug before I could grasp what was happening. The beer was already cold and so was the mug and nobody drinks beer on ice! My wife explained very clearly. Later, when we ordered a second beer, he brought that one warm and again opened it before I knew it was warm. My wife complained and the boy said it was the last Corona they had.

We want to YUE, the Chinese restaurant, the second afternoon and asked to see the menu. There was only one young girl working there at the time and she told us repeatedly, and somewhat impatiently, that they weren't open. My wife explained, at least two times, that we only wanted to see a menu for later and then the girl directed us to the lobby where she said there was something special for Gold Members.

In the lobby after speaking with a young man named Curry, we decided to try the Hainan BBQ. We were directed to pay with WeChat in order to get a special discount and then it became obvious we were being offered some kind of separate Gold program (if we stayed an extra night). I realized that discounted rate being offered was actually less than the SPG discounted rate AND that we wouldn't be receiving SPG points for the meal. We cancelled the reservation and the poor boy had to use his own WeChat account to give us the money back.

Since we cancelled the ¥388 (x2) BBQ we tried Feast. I ordered what was (in English) "Mixed Steak". This would typically mean beef and I thought that was what I was ordering - even asking the waiter to prepare the steak medium. Instead of steak I got some lamb, chicken, bacon and a sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Later we looked more closely at the Chinese and a more accurate translation would actually be "mixed meats".

Lobby lounge deserts and snacks were VERY good on two separate occasions.

Gail @ breakfast - VERY good service

Housekeeping walked into the room with no knock on two separate occasions while we were in the room. We realized later it was probably because the door bell didn't work. The second time we asked the girl to get it fixed... but it was still not working when we checked out.

Maintenance did fix the tub drain stopper after it didn't work the first night.

There was a very strong mold and mildew smell in the room. It was bearable after airing the room each time we returned.

All of these things - if it were one or even two - would be small matters. When so many things like this happen over the course of three short days - the experience is disappointing and not what I expect from a Sheraton branded hotel and not what I expect as an SPG elite member.

All employees were courteous but few were well-trained or knowledgeable. It takes more than smiling faces and apologies to provide great customer service. Sanya is a beautiful place and more and more properties are being built to add to ever increasing choices. The competition is tough...

I sincerely hope this feedback will be useful for your team going forward. Apologies for any typos or mis-spellings as I am writing this on my phone...

The hotel building is good, room is big and many areas are well designed for relaxing. Pools are very huge and good, unforgettable beautiful sight and environment. The hotel is located in national coast area that it is far from the city. There are only 2 shuttles bus to the downtown area per day, 1 is 10:10 am and the other one is 3:10pm. The last return bus is 5:50pm. So, that's mean you need to take this bus back to hotel for dinner otherwise you need to pay over CNY100 for the taxi. The food in hotel, of course, is expensive but not so good. The problem we have met over our stay in 4 days are following: Unable to change another room. We requested the non smoking room but the front desk staff said our package is not on non smoking floor and due to the national holiday, the hotel was pretty full. The staff advised us to check the room first and said the room should be ok. But when we entered to the room, the smoke smell is strong. We had this experience before and so we asked for the purified machine. After 1 night, the smell was still very strong and we had big allergy in the next morning. We went to front desk and asked for changing the room even we can pay a little additional. The front desk staff said we can add CNY2xx to the non smoking floor but it is not face to ocean, it is face to the back construction site. We are a bit hesitated but the main concern is the smoke smell. We requested to take a look of the room first, but the front desk staff said all people are busy and no one is free to bring us to the room. After 2 hrs, we called to the front desk again and ask the process to check the non smoking room. Our Mandarin is not good, so, the front desk staff said they will check and follow. After a while, another staff come to lock our door and ask us ‘are we Japanese?’, we said nope, we are from Hong Kong and explain the details AGAIN, we just want to check the room first and we don’t mind to pay additional for the non smoking room. The staff said they will check with the front desk again. But at the end, no more follow. It is so upsetting us. We need to open the window door for day and night. The room card and the whole card envelop are no hotel name and address . There are unbelievable that we bring the room card and the envelop to the downtown but there are no hotel address and hotel tel number printed on. If you think all the details would be included on the key card and the envolop then go out to the downtown, I wish you can come back to the hotel because there are at least 2 Sheraton in Sanya and you better read and remember the full name of this SHERATON hotel where it is located in National coast. The order in noodles restaurant is messy. We ordered 1 noodle, 1 dumpling and some BBQ food. However we waited for 45 min, the noodle not arrived yet. We keep chasing but then another dumpling arrived. We said we already had the dumpling but we haven’t had the noodle. We waited another 15 min, the noodle has arrived. After tasting the noodle and dumpling, we found that the dumpling was good, so, we decided to order 1 more dumpling. But we wait for 30 min again, nothing arrived. We ask many times, and finally a waitress said “The chief said they delivered the second dumpling but we rejected and we want to order again?” It is ridiculous answer and we immediately asked for the bill and left the restaurants. What kind of service is it? The fitness club has limited open hour. If you plan to have a good exercise and plan to go fitness club frequent on the day, it is not the hotel you wish to go. When in the late even around 9:30, the fitness club i closed. I want to do some exercise but was referred to recreation room, they have few machine to located in the big front door. Every ppl can see and so strange that just like placing a running machine in a pub! Rediculous!!!! The bill in Feast buffet is dramatically horrible mistake! Since we stayed 4 days 3 nights and all the time we dine in hotel. When we are on the date to check out, we need to be very careful on the charges. There are some minor mistakes, but we also found an unbelievable mistake. We had a buffet dinner on the second date, it was about RMB580 for 2 persons and we signed the bill on the buffet night. When we checked out it was charged us RMB970. If we are hurry in time and without check the details, what’s the result will be? We said we only had buffet for 2, why it will be charged for nine hundred? We waited and stood in the front desk for 1 hr and ask them show us the bill we signed, but they said they can’t find. We decided to go to the lobby lounge for the free afternoon tea first (it is come with our package, not any compensation!). After 30 min, the staff come and said finally they found our bill, it was RMB580.

Though everything was fine at last, but it is absolutely unpleasant trip. I have to pay thousand attention on every deails. I feel I need another rest after this trip. It is hard for us to come back Sanya again. I am so regret to spend my valuable vacation time and money in this hotel and in Sanya.

Sheraton should compesate us for this...

The rooms - fresh, good size, nice Eco feel to the furnishings lots of blonde wood and glass. Bathrooms were large and clean we had both the sea view room and moved to a sea view suite. The sea view room was a good size with two double beds the suite was two rooms with a separate lounge, two toilets, two tv's a double balcony with couch and chairs. A huge king bed and chaise lounge lots of cupboards wardrobes etc. a fantastic room.

The pools were amazing each separate from the other it was like the architect had said tick what pools and features you like and they had ticked them all !!

Lagoon pools with sun beds on a shallow deck, private curtained cabanas, swinging chairs, round chairs, red chairs, orange chairs you name it was there. Children's pool, rooms with access to private lagoon pool, infinity edge lap pool, another smaller lagoon pool and a pool that was just one big jacuzzi

The restaurants were varied in offerings both western style and Asian the presentation of the desserts especially at In Azia were phenomenal.

Location - sure it's in a new part of Hainan but you have a free city shutte if you want to shop. If you want to eat away from the hotel then a taxi is your only choice but really you be getting something cheaper than the hotel but once you add the effort and cost of travel why bother?

A note with the shuttle it takes you to the duty free shop and you will need to get a taxi to get into Sanya it cost a couple of dollars we are happy to walk (from the Duty Free store to the main shopping area) but it was not walking distance - about 3-4 klms and remember its hot and the maps and street signs are a bit tricky unless you read mandarin. We asked the taxi to drop us at McDonalds there are a few small ones and one big one it is good a central spot to shop and a good base to meet at.

In town please note - no amex, visa etc cash or local Chinese credit cards only so be prepared to use an ATM or CTM to get cash out

Service was great staff friendly and trying hard to please. Charma and Serena were particulary helpful. My son had a cold and the staff arranged to take us the the hospital (a bit extreme but that's how it works) the hospital was like a five star resort shiny and new. It cost less than $5 US/AUS to see the Dr and the antibiotic's and additional traditional medicines cost about $8! Better than home. A staff member accompanied us to translate -Kroeger- it's was really above and beyond expectations.

The beach was clean, long sandy clean stretches good seats to enjoy the sun with six pool to choose from it was hard to find time to walk down there!

Huge resort, amazing outdoor seating, pools, restaurant choices plenty of photo opportunities with incredible back drops and...