Disclaimer This travel review is from a journey I took back in September 2019. Since then a lot of things have Introduction While in Hong Kong I decided to make a short trip to the chinese island of Hainan, also called the "Chinese Hawaii". Hainan allows visa free entry for most European citizens, as long as you stay only on the island. I managed to find a very good deal with the St. Regis, but also the Ritz Carlton and several other high brand hotels offered rooms for prices so cheap I couldn't quite believe it. More on that later... Arrival A thing to note for people who have never been to Sanya: Nobody speaks English. If you don't speak Chinese, don't bother going there. As a matter of fact I didn't speak Chinese and while overall it was a decent experience, I'm not planning on coming back.At the airport the visa free entry application for tourists is rather long and tiresome and a little dubious, as it involved a border agent taking a picture with their phone of you holding a declaration you signed, as well as of your passport so he could send it to the computer and enter it manually for the entry application. After some time, since the system need time to update and refresh your application status, you will then be allowed entry in to China. I've decided not to question the process.At the airport which will be deserted after the long tourist entry application the ATMs don't take foreign credit cards, nor is there a place to change currency. We got lucky as a taxi driver with a translator app approached us and we managed to communicate enough for him to drive us to our hotel and even stop at a bank for us to change currency. Check In After about an hour drive we arrived at the Hotel: It's absolutely massive. I can't begin to describe how huge it is. The hotel has well over 900 rooms, but only two restaurants and what surprised me: It seemed mostly deserted. Occasionally we could see a Chinese family and some other random guests, but mostly you don't run into anybody in the halls. At our arrival there was just the staff and maybe one guest sitting in the lobby.And finally! Somebody that spoke a few words english!The Check-In process was fast and friendly enough, a harsh contrast to the airport arrival inquisition, which may be why I remember it so positively. Room Online we had reserved an Ocean View Room, but from the room we got we could hardly see the Ocean. We complained after one night and were moved to a different room which offered a better view.Everything looks good and of high quality from far away in this hotel, but with a closer look you could see this wasn't the case. The elevator had screws missing, the wooden decor was falling apart in some places, even the carpet and the wooden floor weren't really that good in shape. And the hotel apparently was only renovated a few years ago.The same goes with the room: The room is rather large and features all the basic ammenities you would expect from a hotel room, but upon closer inspection, while still being acceptable, things just came across a bit cheap sometimes.Please don't missunderstand me: The hoThe hotel could pass as a three or even four star hotel in the US or Europe, but it just isn't convincing that it's actually a St. Regis quality wise. Dining The first evening we ate dinner at theMMing Xuan. While the food was decent, the whole ambience was Family Happy Hour at the Holiday Inn. The decor was inexistant and it's as if somebody who had never seen a restaurant was given an empty room and the task to make a restaurant out of it. Sure there are tables, chairs and some random decor standing around, but other than that the roomsBreakfast is served in the XCZ restaurant. Next surprise: There's a line to get in. Remember when I said the hotel was deserted and you hardly saw people moving around? And that the few you see are mostly staff? Well not for breakfast. I don't know where or what all these other people were doing all day long, but I certainly didn't see them anywhere in the hotel. The quality of food offered is decent, while not outstanding, mostly chinese with a few western dishes available as well. Service is available but you are epxected to serve yourself from the buffet. And my suspicions were confirmed as we were treated a little better compared to the Chinese tourists.The following days we only ate dinner in the only other restaurant ZYX which is located between the hotel and the beach in a seperate building.Another good way to eat dinner might actually be the Lobby Bar which I only discovered has a small menu with somewhat western dishes on our last day. Service We come to the only part of the hotel that is actually five star worthy, even if only barely: The Staff. While most of them don't speak English, they are very well intended. Now I'm not sure if this was because we were some western guests, but even while most of them didn't speak English they tried everything to make our stay more pleasant as well as they could. I don't think there was one evening where we didn't get a selection of deserts on the house. What to do here? Now I came here to escape Hong Kong, relax and spend some time in the sun. And this is essentially pretty much everything you could do here as a western tourist.There are a few cultural things that you could leave the hotel for and visit, however I wouldn't take the chance given the lack of communication Overall In conclusion: This Hotel is not aimed at Western Tourists. It hardly deserves the St. Regis Brand name. It's aimed at middle toChinese and Russian tourists and I'm afraid to say the overall quality is comparable to some german 3 Star Resort in Turkey or Mallorca. All of a sudden the crazy low prices I mentioned in the intro make a lot more sense. For the quality you get I'd still say the prices might still be a bit on the high side.Now this doesn't mean it's not a good hotel: Just don't expect your usual St. Regis quality and service. The staff are all very nice and they really do try to make your stay more pleasant.I wouldn't go back there for holidays as there are just much better and more pleasant options available. Now if you have to go to Sanya, I can recommend the St. Regis, as the problem with Hotels on Sanya is, that there just isn't any better option.