11363222****✅Advantages:
- Spacious rooms and new facilities. We booked a sea-view suite, and the room was generally fine. The lobby was also nice.
- Abundant breakfast with many choices. It's open until 11 am, which is friendly to late risers. The coffee is freshly ground at the bar.
- Excellent service. Calls to service from the room were answered instantly, and the pick-up service arrived quickly. Although there were some unprofessional aspects, the attitude was generally good, and responses and feedback were handled relatively promptly.
❌Disadvantages:
- Unprofessional staff. While the service attitude was indeed excellent, the procedures were simply not handled professionally enough. Check-in alone took almost 20 minutes. The entire lobby was like a marketplace; no one offered assistance or clear directions, and there was no welcome drink (they later gave us a small cup of cold tea). We just waited the whole time. In the end, I had to ask a staff member myself before they seemed to realize: ”Oh, sorry, we can check in here too.” Perhaps due to the large number of guests during the National Day holiday, the introductions were inadequate. Information about activities, facilities, breakfast location, and times was not mentioned; I had to ask them later. Luggage wasn't delivered to the room, only to the building entrance. Even the welcome fruit included in our package was forgotten; I had to ask the front desk to have it delivered.
-Extremely strong renovation smell! This was the biggest disappointment 😰 Perhaps they rushed construction to meet the National Day holiday rush after opening in July. The corridors of all three buildings we stayed in were filled with the smell of construction and dust. They shouldn't have opened in this condition.
- Inconvenient transportation. Because there are few activities within the hotel, and it's very hot, you need a shuttle bus to get anywhere. The shuttle to the pier doesn't run continuously, so you need to plan your time carefully according to the schedule. The staff are unfriendly.
- Limited activities. There's not much to do, and some activities require advance booking and extra payment. The hotel shuttle is only available for paid private island tours; there's no free island tour service like those offered by Gree or Marriott. So, you need to take the hotel shuttle bus to the pier first, then take the island sightseeing bus from the pier to tour the island. After that, you can only wait at the stop for the island sightseeing bus to take you back to the pier (although it's said to run every 10 minutes, it's actually quite random), and then take the hotel shuttle bus back from the pier.
- The sea view suite doesn't have much of a view of the sea. The room type is the Zhulangxuan Sea View Suite on the first floor of Building 3. You can see the view in my review; I don't understand why such a view is called a sea view suite. Also, the facilities in the balcony, corridor, and public areas, apart from the room itself, are extremely basic, giving a feeling of cheaply cobbled-together decoration.
In short, compared to the price of 2k+ per night, the current experience is unacceptable. If the main marketing point is a secluded vacation, then Dong'ao Island Anlu has a lot of room for improvement.
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