The Treasure Island Hotel looks somewhat grand from the exterior and the lobby certainly looks that way. However, the room we got, 601, had some minor problems.

The in-room safe was rusting and you could see the rust clearly around the safe, It was probably safer keeping your possesions on yourself rather than using the safe.

The room key has a smartchip built in. If you tried to substitute the key at the door to keep the lights going or aircondition running with another non-smartchip key, the door fails to lock or can be opened from the outside !

The bathroom had mildew and the room smelled stale and musty, like they have not been used in a while. There was free internet access if you happen to have your own ethernet cable as none were supplied in the room. Access to the net was slow and censored. Its probably best to just check email with it rather than real surfing.

If you are one of those that keep hotel room keys as souveniers, be aware, non-return of the hotel key will set you back 50RMB..

The breakfast buffett was okay with mostly local food like dumplings, porridge and noodles. Orange juice or any fruit juice was rare however, and so were forks and knives.

The lobby souvenier shop was selling these 'Hawaiian' shirts and shorts which looked a lot more like pyjamas than anything else and it appears to be latest craze in Sanya that all couples wear them.

Overall, a simple basic hotel with no real service to speak off but its adequate for a short stay and if you do not have high expectations of a chain hotel eg. Sheraton, Hyatt etc, this hotel should suffice.

Its also a short stroll across from the beach facing the South China Seas. The beach is pretty sparse and void of any activities. In fact, it seems deserted. For a beachside, resort, its pretty sad.

And watch for the touters or hawkers across the road from the hotel, who will try to sell you everything from necklaces, seashells and trishaw rides to the city.