Howard Johnson Resort Sanya Bay

The facilities were great. Even though the pool was a little too cold for my taste, it was great for lounging. The breakfast buffet was decent and the bar made ridiculously cheap drinks.

I could have gone my whole life without learning that ants like period blood...but honestly, bugs are just the price you pay for nice weather.

Everything was great

The only drawback is that when you pull the curtains tightly in the room, it's still light in the morning.

I booked a stay from 14 Feb for 5 nights. I need to cancel it now as a result of the Corona Virus outbreak in China. I tried to contact the hotel several times, through the agent I booked, through email. No answer at all. How can this be a 5 star hotel? I'd give 0 star if I could.

We were on family vacation, and checked in to Howard Johnson hotel for a 5 days vacation. We were looking forward to this stay at what we though were a 5star resort, but it ended up terrible because of all the faults with this hotel. They brag about being a 5-star hotel, but they do not even reach up to a 3-star hotel in European measure. The hotel is dirty, old, and tragic, and we also spotted other guests to spit directly on the floor inside the hotel! The hotel say on their webpage that there is a indoor swimming pool, beauty parlour, and many facilities. First of all - the indoor pool is NOT in use! Pool is emptied, and the room looks like it is being used as storage room insted. And beauty parlour... did not see that anywhere either. One of the outside pools is also closed, with no other explanation. There is not enough sunbeds around the other pool either. And the towels looks dirty and old. The pool bar is one of the saddest pool bars I have ever seen.. just a few soda boxes, and a few icecreams in the freezer. I tried to buy water, but that was very difficult. They only had a few bottles left, and I couldn’t buy as many bottles as I wanted. And payment was also tricky. I tried to charge this to my room, but they didn’t understand what I was saying. A total lack of english speaking personnell. It doesn’t seem like they are used to people buying anything from the pool bar...?? Why do they have a bar then?? We tried to be positive and give this hotel a chance.. but we ended up more and more disappointed for each hour went by. Breakfast is a total chaos. It is noisy and people everywhere, and the buffet is not good at all. No international buffet, only chinese. Several times we found hair in the food. And some people grab the food with their hands instead of using utencils, and also cough and sneeze directly at the food. People were also hoarding food (especially the fruit) so it was empty almost all the time. They didn’t manage to fill up the buffet fast enough. And - we were craving for a nice cup of black coffee for breakfast... the first day they only had a coffee machine with nescaffe instant coffee with milk and sugar. Not my kind of coffee! The next day they had ordinary filter coffee, but this was not the best I’ve tasted either. One evening we wanted to try the restaurant at the hotel. They gave us a plastic menu, with writings on it saying - «NO!» behind almost everything on the menu! The only thing they had was hamburger, one spaghetti dish, and one sandwich. Not at all what we wanted from a restaurant at a 5 star hotel. Our daughter ended up with food poisoning, not a fun thing to get on what should have been a nice vacation. We started to eat at other restaurants nearby insted, and one of our favourites ended up being at Pullman hotel. The service there was fantastic, and they had good english speaking personnell! We just regret that we didn’t book hotel there instead of this aweful Howard Johnson resort. The beach that belongs to this resort is also aweful! Dirty and full of poeple trying to sell you fruit etc ALL THE TIME! The area around is also ugly, looks like a construction site. And we were full of bites (flees from fhe sand...?) after beeing at the beach. We also spotted several dead fish where we were swimming.. and if you have kids - be aware of people filming and taking pictures of your kids! Also under water.. I am usually not this picky when I stay at hotels, and I have never posted a review like this before. But this hotel was such a huge disappointment that I really really would not recommend this to anyone! The first sight of the hotel looks promising - with idyllic pool area and gardens. The room is large, and ok. But looks old and is not clean. Like I said before - this is NOT a 5 star hotel. They have a long way to go to get to that level. I hope the hotel takes this review seriously, and that they will do what it takes to earn the status as a 5 star resort.

Clean and cozy rooms, friendly staff, nice and neat poolside and private beach, a lot lot of trees and flowers around, great variety of meals for breakfast. Minus: very few people speak English or Russian.