SHERATON SANYA RESORT — Hotel in Sanya City

Falling Standards – A Fading Star of Sheraton. Upon arrival at the Sheraton Sanya Yalong Bay Resort, I was impressed by the grand lobby, featuring a white grand piano and a red sport car , setting high expectations.

However, my stay quickly turned into disappointment. I associate Sheraton with luxury and excellence, reinforced by this hotel's prestigious history—having hosted Miss World in 2004 and welcomed multiple world leaders. With such a legacy, I expected a top-tier experience—but what I encountered was far from it.

From check-in, service was lacking—no assistance with luggage despite the large layout requiring a long walk to elevators. At check-out, porters were more focused on their phones than assisting departing guests, failing to help with loading suitcases into cars. Additionally, the hotel entrance was turned into a car park, creating chaos and a low-maintenance first impression.

The room was poorly maintained, with dirty carpets, broken furniture, visible stains, rusted fixtures, and outdated electrical outlets lacking USB ports. The air conditioning was confusing to use, making comfort difficult.

A bright spot was housekeeping, as the staff worked hard to keep rooms clean, with spotless linens and comfortable beds, but this couldn’t compensate for the neglected state of the hotel.

Dining was another major disappointment. The restaurant’s beautiful open-air design facing the sea was overshadowed by low food quality. Bread was stale or underbaked, cold cuts were limited, and Western and Chinese dishes were unimpressive. No dish stood out, which is shocking for a five-star resort.

Service issues continued—forks left on the floor for extended periods, improperly cleaned dishes, and even bent cutlery being set on tables—completely unacceptable for a Sheraton. Furthermore, only a few waiters and dining staff wore properly maintained uniforms, which added to the overall lack of professionalism.

The beach area, though small, was clean and well-maintained, with foot-washing stations, quality loungers, and a lifeguard present. However, swimming was heavily restricted due to strong currents, limiting the experience.

The beachside bistro, offering an open buffet in the evening with table reservations, was a nice touch, but even this could not redeem the poor dining and service failures.

Final Verdict – A Broken Promise of Luxury This hotel does not deserve the Sheraton name. It carries the brand but not the quality, failing to deliver the luxury experience expected. Lack of proper service, outdated rooms, poor maintenance, dirty carpets, and subpar dining make it feel like a broken promise.

Despite its beautiful location, this hotel needs urgent improvements in service, cleanliness, and maintenance. Until then, I cannot recommend staying here.

This is not...

The hotel is in serious need of renovation. It's outdated, old-fashioned and poorly conceived. The bedside lights cannot be reached from the bed, you have to get out of bed to turn the light on/off - which defeats the purpose entirely. There are power sockets on one side of the bed only. And what about the children tent in the room ? We don't have children so it was useless. Moreover, it was pink. It's 2021, get on board with gender neutrality! The rooms are basic, nothing to write home about. Paintings on the wall aren't pretty to look at. Furniture is basic. It's soul-less.

We were upgraded on arrival to a room with pool access, because the door lock in our original room was broken (I'll say it again: renovation work is needed). The room was still basic. Too bad they didn't think of adding sunchairs on the balcony.

The humidity smell is something else, it's quite strong in the corridor and in the rooms. They even put on a dehumidifyer in the corridor to address this problem. Maybe a carpeted floor wasn't so good an idea after all...

Then during our stay, a couple of exhibitionnists checked-in. The woman entered the swimming pool with nothing but sexy lingerie. She wasn't wearing a swimsuit, she was wearing open panties that exposed her buttocks ! She was naked in the swimming pool. And her companion followed her in the pool without a swimsuit but with his underpants. Nobody said anything.

At breakfast the next morning, we saw the same couple. The lady was wearing the same open panties, with her buttocks open and visible to everybody (she only wore a transparent robe on top of it, so we could see everything). I went to the reception, asking for the manager, a young  Chinese man presented himself as the manager, he came with me, saw the lady with his own eyes, yet he did nothing. Unacceptable ! It's a family friendly hotel (or so they say), with lots of young children around. But I guess the Sheraton has another definition of decency. When I asked for the e-mail of the hotel's director, the staff refused to give it to me.

The breakfast was good and diverse, with plenty of food to choose from. We ordered food by the pool, it was OK too. But the pinã colada cocktail wasn't well executed.

We picked this hotel for the good breakfast reviews and for its location on Yalong Bay. But the cons outweight the pros. This hotel is resting on its laurels it seems. It was our first and last time here. We...

What happened to this hotel? We return here for the fifth or sixth time in 6 years ... and we find a disaster! The question immediately arisesis: what happened to this hotel?

The level of service has deteriorated drastically, it’s more correct to say at an unacceptable level.

in the order:

-the dirty room (old dirt due to neglect) and smelly, as the corridor outside. As a result of my request on the day after the room was cleaned. Some things remain badly dirty...but at least the smell, the hairs on the floor and the dust were eliminated.

-the air conditioning that works OK. The first day they sent a technician and luckily the room temperature becomes acceptable, but a cool room is another thing (despite the thermostat is set to 17 degrees C).

signs of neglect everywhere in the room: balcony dirty, curtains half tear, bathroom with mold ...

the absence of even a single children's English-language entertainment channel in the tv room. On my request to have the tv channel setup I was told they would not be served because there were no channels like Cartoon Network or similar. then I asked for some DVDs of cartoons for children since that the room have a reader. Guess what the answer was: we don't! (Go to buy, invest few remimbi and make happy two children is not in the priority of the hotel management).

-almost zero staff in the pools and on the beach. And if anyone were present they didn’t care of making the stay of guests pleasant (e.g. beach towels are regularly sold out and the guy, instead of going to pick them up, resting lazily in the shade.Evidently in a 5 star hotel it is the responsibility of the guest to arrange own towel).

-dirty pools: a nice oily film floating on the surface and at the bottom there is everything. Again no one ever looked clean.

Asian restaurant is closed (it was so good!)

No evening activities (as it was nice to have dinner on the beach or on the lawn with the band that played and sang!).

-Concierge absolutely useless if you don't speak Mandarin

restaurant staff who barely understand ordering (indicate with your finger on the menu what you want is often not enough).

The List could be much more longer but the sad part of the story is that this hotel, which for years was our favorite at Sanya, now has become something like a three or even Two stars hotel.

Absolutely...