I stayed at this hotel because of a flash sale, where each night was going at less than US20, which made it the cheapest proper hotel around the vicinity. Despite reading the reviews, I think I might have gone with still too high an expectation of the hotel. Stayed there for 7 days, staff behind the front desk were always helpful and courteous. They might not know the best ways around to some of the tourist spots via public transport, but they'll check and give suggestions- at least they bothered to help. Relative in Hainan said it was a 5 star hotel in the 1990s, and I would believe so. Unfortunately time has past, facilities are old, swimming pool and gym long closed. Was quite disappointed because I was hoping to go for a swim and the pool was murky green. Dedicated wifi in the room (i.e. you don't share the wifi connection with whole level of guests), was fast enough for email checking only.
Lovely surprise that they offer up to 7 kinds of scented pillows such as lavender, chrysanthemum, tea leaves, rose, etc, upon request. Room service was inconsistent, and that's probably my biggest grudge. As the hotel was not at full occupancy, there was a particular lady who loved to come super early (before 10am) to do the daily cleaning. One morning, she even showed up at 830am! She might come in early to get her job done, the issue is, she doesn't get it done. In the afternoon, we still came back to a room where the glasses were not washed, tea bags not replenished, rubbish not completely cleared and bathroom not cleaned. That was quite annoying for me. Sure, I was awake and probably ready to leave at 930am.. but to come knocking my door at 830am for room service, seriously?! Luckily she wasn't on the same morning shift for my entire stay. bathroom came with a small bath tub, and slightly mouldy shower curtain. powerful shower with warm water, not that you'll need the warm water since hainan is so hot. shower was recently changed, and they changed the tv set on the second day we arrived too (more tv channels, better reception). so i guess the hotel is making an effort to improve the stay of the guests. they might not do a major overhaul, but small little improvements do help.
no fridge and no safe in the room, so cabinets that used to host them were empty. no laundry service too. the nearest is a 10min walk away. but room is dry so if you were to wash your own clothes and hang them in the bathroom, they'll dry by the next morning.
Convenient location would probably be the other reason why I would recommend the hotel. It is smacked in the centre of the city, there's a Bank of China right beside it, there's a few alleys across the road from either side of the hotel which sell cheap local food, shuttle bus from the domestic airport (not international terminal- i spent some 30mins trying to figure out where was the shuttle bus and nobody at the international airport could answer me. all their staff just gave a convenient reply to take the cab instead). lots of public transport from either side of the hotel as well. note: english names of the hotels nearby are nowhere indicative of their chinese names, when in doubt, always refer to the chinese names.
main entrance is not along the main road but in the alley and alley is dark, so take note of personal safety if coming back late at night alone. it wasn't unsafe, but just to be sure. but also because of this, the hotel offers a good night sleep without disturbance from the traffic.
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