Living in shanghai, we wanted break for Christmas without going far south. We decided against sanya as we've been there already. A bit unsure, we decided to go to haikou instead, and we loved it. Being part of the starwood family of hotels, the Sheraton haikou lives to the reputation its brand. Staff were courteous, and helpful. A special thank to the manager of the fusion restaurant, who has walked the extra mile and asked his chef to prepare food for our baby according to our specifications, and at no cost (the other hotel restaurants did it, but it was more complicated and we were charged for a small bowl of potato, rice, and veggie).
The peak of our stay was probably the pool. It was big, clean, and there were also "spa pools", which are small family size heated pools. In other words, we could all soak in water (including a 11 months old baby) while the air temperature was not more than 20 degrees, with occasional fresh gusts of wind.
We took a standard room, and it was all very good: spacious, rather new, comfortable.
In summary, it was a very good stay, and somehow better than the overpriced experience we had in Sanya.

Wonderful stay but 3 things should be improved.

1) Improve Internet connection
2) Speed up at the bar.
3) Implement taxi service

Good things first:
It's true what other reviewers say - this Sheraton is far away from anything, but isn't it the point with a resort?

Love the pools - they are kept very nice and clean and have all a wonderful decorations.

Other reviewers mentions problems with the language (English). Never I got into any serious problems.

Great rooms and very spacious. Sadly they have old style CRT TV. Agree with other reviews about the sea view - it can be difficult to actually get a view of the sea.

The concierge is knowledgeable both about local area but also with sights across the island.

What to be improved:
1) It was never possible to connect to wi-fi from my room using any of my 3 laptops. When moving to the lobby area or bar I never got more than 50%

2) I found the bar service extremely slow and most times I needed to make the buy directly at the bar. Also see the selection of beer and cocktails a bit too narrow.

3) Never saw taxi service from the hotel! A couple of taxis waits at the left from main entrance to hotel. Since they are not hailed to the entrance you have to be lucky if they don't overcharge with a fixed price.
Buses are available within 10 minutes distances which we used a lot and can recommended a lot.

What to be aware of:
No food within walking distance. 5 minutes by taxi (towards the city) you find a couple of overpriced sea food restaurants.

Food is expensive in the hotel. Buffet breakfast costs about 190 RMB for 2 (but it's fantastic with many choices) which makes me find both breakfast and other meals elsewhere.

The hotel has a great private beach but why on earth place a Sheraton on a beach where you are not allowed to jump into the ocean? It's perhaps mentioned on their web page but I have then missed it.

No need for pictures as pictures on their web page is quite accurate and members of Tripadvisor have been friendly to upload many pictures.

Would I stay at Sheraton Haikou again?: Perhaps.

The Sheraton in Haiku, China was outstanding. It is a huge resort about 30 minutes from Haikou and sits amongst China's messy environment. Having survived the drive to the Sheraton with a crazy driver we decided that we would not tempt fate and try and explore Hainan. So we stayed our 4 days in the resort. The pools are beautiful and kept clean, the staff (who have very limited English) are helpful,efficient and friendly and the rooms are very modern and clean. Unfortunately, the smog from China was bad and we didn't see blue skies during our stay.

A great hotel in an developing area. We loved our stay and right from the start we were wowed by the hotel, its beautiful surroundings and luxurious rooms, which lead onto the pools dotted around the grounds. A really stunning setting with charm, style and plenty of opportunity to relax and completely unwind. The restaurant was simply wonderful, a great variety of courses.