Guest User
January 31, 2024
I really wanted to love this hotel, but several things made the experience pretty unenjoyable. I appreciate that the hotel is located in China, but it is in a major international tourist destination and advertises itself as the premium destination in Sanya, and it was very clear upon arrival and throughout the stay that the hotel is aimed to cater for Chinese-speakers. This, combined with a range of other issues means that I would not recommend this hotel, especially not to non-Chinese speakers, 2/5.
I booked this hotel to get away for a few days, be on a mountain side with a beautiful view over the nearby towns and beaches. However, due to the size of the area, all transport within the resort is done by small buses which drive around on the roads, so if you want to go anywhere, you must budget 15-30 minutes for waiting and transport. It means that the serenity is broken around 7 am when the buses start driving up and down the mountain side. The buses mostly drive in first gear, and a very loud whining from them can be heard constantly.
Upon arrival, there were four staff at the main desk, only two of which seemed busy, but the other two just kind of stared for a while, which is common for Europeans to experience in China, but ideally not at a five star resort. Eventually, I was able to check in, but the information given was all in Chinese. This is obviously fair, since the resort is in China, but the site is huge and there are many important details, so it would have been nice to get some kind of booklet or even a small video in English to help make sense of the place.
When checking in, I was asked to pay a deposit of 8000 RMB, which was more than what I paid for the booking itself (around 6800 RMB). This amount of money could have broken the budget of a holiday and the fact that it was not loudly advertised when booking felt like a rip off. Naively, I thought that it would somehow be used to pay for things in the resort, but I was still asked to pay for dinner after eating at the (very tasty but a bit pricey) Thai restaurant on site.
The villa was a 15-minute bus ride from reception and was very nice, with a large outdoor bathtub, bed covered in a mosquito net, and a lovely balcony. Unfortunately, the view was obscured by trees and bushes, but it did feel very private. The facilities in the villa were fine, but the shower drain was clogged, and it was not fixed when I asked for it to be fixed on the first day.
Breakfast was an easy walk from the villa and delicious with an amazing view, which was a very nice experience.
The facilities were a mixed bag, the gym was very basic but with an amazing view. The outdoor pools were not heated , but there was a nicely heated indoor pool. There is a beer bar on top of the mountain with a good selection and amazing view, but quite high prices. This bar is supposed to close at 22 each night, but it was closed when I tried to go at 20:30 on the first night. All these facilities are about 20 minutes minibus drive plus 5-10 minutes waiting from the villa/breakfast area.
The resort hosts the Bobo cute animal petting zoo, which unfortunately borders on animal abuse. There are meercats and other social animals in tiny glass cages, which were clearly trying to escape and seemed highly stressed. There were birds that seemed to have collars implanted in their chests. There was a baby pig living in a tiny glass pen. There was an alpaca with a spray-painted coat that looked like a giraffe, which guests were allowed to pull around by a collar around its neck. There was a tiny dog at the entrance of the "zoo" which was shivering and very non-responsive when touched. All in all, this "zoo" left a very bad taste in my mouth and I do not want to come back.
When checking out, only about 1200 RMB was returned from my deposit. Despite having paid for the stay on Trip, the hotel still deducted the cost of the stay from my deposit, and I had to contact them myself to get the full deposit back.