Hotel Hilton di Haikou

On the positive side: The hotel itself is quite great, playground and pools were appealing, several good activities for kids, restaurant and breakfast were also very good and staff very friendly (especially in restaurant) In the negative side: the location is not good, at least 8-10km from everything. No any restaurant or activities nearby, need to take a taxi for everything with at least 40min to 1h drive. One of the restaurant (noodle one) closed quite early so dinner in hotel was limited to 2 restaurants. In addition, because of weather (wind and a bit cold) beach was not suitable for us to stay and pools were closed. Good hotel for company events or short family stay (max 2 days) but not for prolonged family vacation (week)

he Hilton Haikou is a very well located hotel and probably one of the best in Haikou. On arrival there was a heavy rainfall which caused me to get quite wet walking from the taxi to the hotel entrance. I booked the room online via trip for me and my travel companion with the payment in hotel option. Online-Prepayment was not possible. On check in, given that I was very wet because of the rainshower I was quite unsatisfied with the service. First there was apparently some issue, wether I or my companion booked the room because the order of names on the booking showed my name in second place. Also my companion wasnt with me at that time because of a one day delay. In my opinion it shouldnt be a matter who booked the room since both of our names were given, regardless of the order. This issue took some extra time which is very inconvenient if you are dripping wet and just want to rest. Secondly when it comes to payment instead of the 1959 RMB, 2000 RMB were deducted from my WeChat account without any communication about the deviation. I also only realized it later when I already arrived the room and was very confused what the 41 RMB were for. Like I said it has not been communicated to me at all. Maybe a tip or was it meant as a deposit? (Even though it would appear to be a very odd deposit amount and tipping in China is not a thing) I guess from a 5 Star Hilton I could expect accuracy and clear communication when it comes to payment. Which brings me to another downside. Even though my Mandarin is sufficient enough, I was very surprised that at a Hilton of this price category none of the staff at check in nor other employees were able to speak English. So for foreigners who dont speak Chinese this would be a bit difficult. The next day I went down to reception again to ask about the 41 RMB and was offered a refund, yet the reason why it has been deducted in the first place still remains unknown to me. Another small issue appeared at breakfast when I asked one of the waitresses where the tea/ teabags is/are located. I formulated my request precisely in Chinese and the lady was just behaving awkward and walked away. I thought maybe still something would happen, but 10 minutes later still nothing. Luckily I was able to find the overseeing waitress, asked her the same question and found out that the Teabags are not openly presented at the buffet (Which is an unexpected inconvenience for a 5-Star hotel yet again, + the tea choices are very limited) My last complaint is the minibar. I have been at budget hotels before, which offered a free minibar which is refilled every day. Why are there so many things in this Hotel with a hefty price tag. This appears not welcoming given the cost of this Hotel. Especially the price-tag of minibar drinks is outrageous. For example 0.33L Tsingtao Beer 28 RMB…. Speechless. In every shop around you get 0.5L for less than half the price. Now that all my complaints about the service have been mentioned, lets move on to the many upsides of the Hilton: -Great location and rooms -Very good breakfast buffet with many choices -Even better dinner buffet (298RMB/Person) -Great panorama view -luxurious -Some of the staff still did a great job, which is why I still give a 3/5 rating, regardless of previous issues.