Xishuangbanna Painama Yicheng Sunshine International Hotel

The best thing about the hotel is location and a swimming pool. Plenty of cafes and shops around, you can easily rent a bike just opposite the hotel. A big swimming pool is a huge plus. The disadvantage is that hotel is a bit old and things like old carpet, thin walls can spoil the impression. Despite the flaws, we extended our stay,as the location was perfect.

TLDR: skip it. Find a better hotel further away. Day 1: I would like to start off by saying that I am not a snob. I’m not an elitist or a very entitled person. That being said, when we checked into the Xishuangbanna Painama Yicheng Sunshine International Hotel we were dramatically disappointed. For the price that we paid we should have had a better experience. The first red flag was when they had no idea how to check in a foreigner and they were frantically checking all of my documents and photographing everything with their cell phones. When we got to the room we noticed no fridge, no comfy chair (the photos from the hotel implied the room had a comfy chair and a fridge), old, smells strongly of cigarette smoke. Oh and just discovered the Wifi doesn’t work. (Turns out that was my fault. There is a switch beside the bed that controls the wifi, how crazy of me to have not remembered the “wifi switch” because that’s a thing that apparently exists in 2022. #Covid Day 2: The room is cold. That’s awesome! That’s almost enough to save the horrid reviews that I’m leaving… almost but not quite. Cleaner just left and did a “job” it’s not dirty but by no means clean. Still trash in the floor and an unknown piece of mango on the floor. Issue with that is we don’t remember eating mango. We went to have breakfast and learned that they stop breakfast at 9:30 because like all hotels you go to on vacation to relax, you should set an alarm to make it in time to eat your noodles and cold meat buns. We arrived at 9:20 and all we had was cold noodles and grins from the staff who wanted to practice their English by shouting HELLO as loud as they could in my face. But still… that cold A/C is lovely. Bathroom is moldy and gross and one of those weird Chinese bathrooms that let you go to the toilet and see through to the bed area so you can never break eye contact with your significant other during your morning “contemplation.” But still… that cold cold A/C. Will keep you posted for day 3. Day 3: Woke up extra early to see if the breakfast had improved… mmm nope. Instead of cold “food” we got slightly warmer “food” all of which was left open outside for an unknown time. My suggestion here is to avoid the hotel breakfast. Don’t pay extra. There are loads of other restaurants in the area and all the major fast food places deliver. Unless rice noodles are your thing. Cleaner did a much better job today. The room actually looks a lot cleaner. Also realized that they have only given us 1 tiny roll of toilet paper for the past 3 days. (For 2 people) when did I discover this? In my most inopportune moment of contemplation. This was corrected when the cleaner came today. Found a weird bug on the desk. Smashed it with my laptop. Going to try the pool later tonight, we’ll see how that goes. Update. The pool was disgusting. Murky water and full of leaves and other trash. We only swam long enough to realize how dirty it was. The 20 little kids screaming at us and gawking must be an added bonus. Summation: No…. Don’t stay here. Take your investment and go to a better hotel a bit further from the night market. It’s not worth it. 1 night and your fine at the night market, no good shopping. It’s all factory made stuff and people trying to sell you “authentic” Dai food and milk tea from instant. Stay further out and enjoy the nature. Also, good luck getting a taxi or didi anywhere in the area. We did stay at peak time. If off season then it would be significantly cheaper and therefore a better deal for a budget conscious traveler.

A very good price for this hotel considering the location and access to a proper gym and pool.

The room upgrade overlooking the temple was such a nice surprise! Location is perfect, you are in the area where everything is going on and was very nice to walk around the neighbourhood. Beautiful view from the 7th floor restaurant. Amazing gym, the pool is nice but they had these kids swimming classes and wasn’t relaxing to be honest. Breakfast, not great and would suggest not even including it in the room price but the facilities and location made it worth it! Would stay here again for the same room view for sure!

Ideal location next to attracions. Comfortable and convenient, unless you want to avoid Chinese breakfast