Shanyu Haikangyang Hotel (Wenchang Gaolongwan Branch)

I was generally satisfied with my stay here. Location: It is very close to the beach and is nearby some shops and restaurants. Amenities: the cookware and tableware looked new and in good condition. They delivered a different breakfast to my room every morning. I liked the variety they included in the breakfast (every day they included some type of noodle dish, porridge, milk, and little portions of meat, veg and buns). It was a very filling meal! The only missing amenity that I would have liked was a washing machine in the kitchen or balcony, but it was okay for my short stay. Cleanliness: I was satisfied with the cleanliness of my room and it's facilities. It was basically spotless. My cleanliness issue was the pool. I'm assuming because I stayed in the winter, the hotel staff were not expecting guests to want to use the pool and therefore hadn't cleaned it in a while. The tiles were dirty and there were leaves, dead bugs, and other types of dirt in the pool. I tried to ignore it and enjoy my swim but I had to get out soon after cause I felt too uncomfortable to continue. It was very disappointing. This leads me to my next issue... Service: I appreciate the receptionists manner and patience with the language barrier. They always had a positive attitude and a smile on their face. I marked them down however because of the pool incident. I asked if I could use the pool. They said I could but recommended I don't because the water is cold. I responded by saying that's not a problem for me. This is because I was used to that as I had previously swam in Sanya before arriving in Wenchang, so I was expecting cold water. I also specifically booked this hotel for the swimming pool (this app said it was open all year round). Finally, they then let me access the pool (only for me to find out how dirty it was). In hindsight, they were trying to save face. Instead of admitting the pool is dirty they used the excuse of the water being cold to persuade me not to swim (which failed). Maybe for guests from other cultures this tactic would have worked. However, I would have appreciated the honesty instead. Also, because this app says the pool is open all year round, I would recommend that gets removed as I discovered that's clearly not the case. Had this incident not happened, I would have given them full marks for service. To sum up, I am overall happy with my stay here. I will give this hotel a pass for the dirty pool since it is wintertime and I'm assuming the staff were not expecting guests to want to use it and we're therefore not prepared. I would hope the pool is cleaner in the summertime at least. If so, I would gladly come again during that season to make full use of it. If not, I would unfortunately have to stay somewhere else as having access to a high quality pool is what I look when booking hotels in a tropical location like Wenchang.