This hotel is located in Haitang Bay, Sanya. It was formerly the Royal Begonia, a Luxury Collection Resort, and after renovation, it reopened under the JW Marriott brand in 2019. The entire hotel has only 160 rooms; compared to the neighboring Atlantis with its 1,314 rooms, it can be described as extremely tranquil—even when fully booked, you hardly see anyone around…
There is a roughly 300-meter path from the main entrance to the lobby. If your vehicle doesn’t drive directly in, walking it yourself will take several minutes. Although the concierge provides electric cart transfers, if you’re unlucky, you might have to wait a long time. The entire lobby and corridors are open-air without air conditioning; only the front desk, situated inside a room, is air-conditioned.
After check-in, we were lucky that our room was already ready. By scanning a QR code to register, we also received a 5% discount at the Duty-Free Shop for the next day. Additionally, the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle bus to the airport, shared with the Sheraton and Westin, which also requires advance registration.
The hotel was renovated just last year. Basically, only the guest rooms feature new interiors, while the public areas still appear somewhat dated. However, the rooms are very spacious, and the air conditioning system is powerful. Most importantly, this room comes with a private pool. Although the pool offers little privacy and measures only 3m x 5m, fortunately, it is 1.2m deep, making it quite suitable for practicing swimming…
The public areas are expansive, extending all the way to the beach, which is also very uncrowded… There are plenty of pools throughout the hotel, fitting its positioning as a seaside resort. The landscaping is also excellent. Whether in the morning or at dusk, taking a stroll through the hotel’s public areas is very comfortable, and there really are very few people around.
Of course, having fewer guests also presents an issue: the hotel staffing is not very adequate. Basically, you have to wait a long time for any service requested, and calls to the service center often go unanswered. During peak hours, you may also need to queue at the front desk. We went to breakfast quite early, so it wasn’t too crowded, but the food quality was very average. We tried the hotel’s Chinese restaurant; the ambiance was decent, but the taste was just so-so. Getting a taxi out is relatively convenient, provided you ask the driver to enter the property. However, ordering food delivery is troublesome, as you have to pick it up outside the hotel gate yourself.
Overall, Sanya is a city perfectly suited for staycations, as hotels here offer everything you need—food, drinks, and the sea. Therefore, when choosing a hotel, key factors to consider include room size, dining quality, and views. This hotel has only four floors, so even a sea-view room on the fourth floor barely qualifies as a distant ocean view; thus, do not have high expectations for sea-view rooms. On the contrary, the room type with a private pool is quite fun. Located in Haitang Bay, the hotel is very convenient for visiting the Duty-Free Shop, and there are many dining options nearby. While the hardware is reasonably good, both dining and service need improvement. Given the current price, I feel the value for money is not very high.
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