My SO and I have stayed in a wide range of hotels in China, in a wide range of places. Our suite at the Marine Garden was above average, but not quite "very good". Carpets were very stained and like other hotels we've stayed in, even very high end ones, the carpets are not vacuumed daily.

As other reviewers have noted, there are no elevators in this hotel and lots and lots of stairs, so it wouldn't be great for the elderly or disabled. There is an indoor pool, but it is not heated, as advertised. There is a guy who stands around in a gym suite occasionally and pops in and out of the area, who may presumably be acting as a life guard. You have to wear a swimming cap in order to use the pool.

We just came from the Sofitel in Hangzhou, where the concierge was just about the most helpful concierge I've ever encountered, so perhaps I judge this hotel's concierge desk unfairly. But the concierge and service in general strike me as indifferent (with the exception of one bell hop who picked us up from the port and gave us a tour of the island... very nice, talkative guy).

We stayed in the standard suite. Beds are hard, but softer than most Chinese hotels. I personally like the firmness. Pillows are fine, bathroom is clean, though the shampoo and soap provided in dispensers is pretty low grade. We've also had a hard time finding wall outlets to fit even Chinese appliances.

Be aware that mosquitoes are thick on this island. Bring insect repellent. Mosquitoes still manage to sneak into the room and I woke up this a.m. with about 20 bites on my face and arms, despite never having opened the door or window... eek.

Finally, food on this island is pretty terrible, compared to comparably priced restaurants in Shanghai and Hangzhou. Some of the small seafood restaurants are dishonest and overcharge you for seafood sold by weight, by overstating the weight of the item. Make sure you watch the item being weighed in front of you before you consent to the price! Also, there is not really much street food, which we really enjoy. The tang yuan (soup 'balls') we've had were not made with fresh seafood. Seafood 'pancakes', freshly fried in small alleys and sold to passing tour groups (which the island is thick with), were better. On the other hand, fresh fruit is plentiful and sometimes good.

This appears to be a beautiful (if maybe a bit unsympathetic to its surroundings) hotel in a beautiful location. But be warned - they charged us 4 star hotel prices to stay a few weeks ago. We went into the lobby and checked in despite the relatively high price on the strength of their brochure which showed a great indoor pool, bowling, billards, bar/club etc. The rooms are nice with lovely views (although not terribly well maintained as with many hotels in China). Upon returning in the early evening we found the hotel very dead. Firstly we tried to go swimming. Despite the 22 degrees sign on the wall it turned out that they had not been heating the pool. I don't joke when I say it was so cold my head hurt - I often swim outdoors in England! So after a 2 minute swim we had a game of snooker (bowling was unavailable) and then wanted a drink in the bar - there wasn't one (and this was barely 10pm). We went out for a walk and having surveyed the other accomodation on the island and its prices we realised we had been ripped off in quite a major way. The hotel was not even running at 2 stars let alone 4 stars. This would have been fine had they told us at check in and asked a more reasonable price (they were charging 6 times the rate of the basic accomodation available else where on the island). We complained to the Assistant Manager and asked to check out that same evening - he admitted that they had no facilities running and that they weren't heating the pool. He didn't really apologise and just keep saying he wanted to 'discuss' the rate - i.e. if we checked out there and then he wanted to charge us one night's rate. I said I was only willing to pay for the cost to them for use of the room for the hours we had been there, and a game of snooker. He offered very small discounts on the high room rate. He also kept 'advising' us not to check out, which came over as very patronising. What he meant was that it was getting late and the ferry to the mainland stopped at midnight (despite their brochure giving information that it was 24 hour) - he didn't tell us this though. He refused to cancel the guarantee they had put through on my credit card. When I asked to use a phone to phone my card company he also refused (a 4star hotel should surely be able to provide a phone to make an international call). Only when it was passed midnight (and he thought we had no where to go) and I had threatened to ring American Express and chargeback any transaction, did he agree to let us check out and cancel the amount put to my card.
Do not stay in this hotel out of season - check that the facilities you want and are paying for are available before you check in. Otherwise the rest of the staff were lovely and the hotel is in a nice position. There is also no lift and some of the corridors were is a poor state.

My wife and I spent a night in early January as part of a privately organised tour. We had a room on the second floor with a partial sea view. The view was partially marred by some construction materials in the garden below our room. The room was clean with carpets that were maintained in good condition and a bathroom with full amenities including shampoo and body soap containers. The TV had all the Chinese channels with no foreign channels like CNN or BBC although one could access CCTV 9 the English language channel. The windows were poorly constructed with aluminium materials and a flyscreen that had come loose. The airconditioning/heater for the time of the year did not seem to work and we had to keep the window partially open during the night. Public areas are well-maintained with flowers all over the hotel and the entrance was an impressive looking staircase. There appeared to be no lifts in the hotel and older people accessing the higher floors may find this to be a problem.Our group had a well-cooked Chinese dinner in the restaurant and enjoyed the local produce (lots of vegetables!). A cake was provided for a member of our group who was celebrating her birthday. Service was good and attentive in the restaurant. Service staff elsewhere in the hotel did not greet you unless you said "good day" to them in Chinese. The breakfast was above average with Chinese and western dishes and there was a good porridge selection although the coffee was not up to Western standards.(Bring your own instant coffee to China!) Access to Gulang Island is through a ferry and the hotel can meet you with a buggy for your luggage. The walk to the hotel will take in some interesting sights including the Spanish embassy with an adjoining church and a former embassy that has been transformed into a hostel.

We stayed at the Xiamen Marine Garden Hotel during the May week long holiday.

These holidays as are known as "Golden Weeks" due to the amount of money splashed around, but along with National Day and Spring Festival holidays, are extrememly busy as hundreds of millions of Chinese take holidays and flock to popular destinations, swamping the transport system on their way. We are expat Aussies living in China so we are used to the crowds.

However the Hotel being the only 4 star establishment on Gulanyu island, was a quiet haven and was everything a 4 star hotel should be, with nothing missing. We stayed in a suite, which was nice with 2 TVs, fridge, safe and bathrobes.

The rooms were very clean and well maintained as would be expected.

The pool was indoors, and hidden away in the bowels and only allowed swimming in the late afternoon and evening, so it was really only for excercise, not for lounging around.

We couldn't find the tennis court but we saw some people with racquets heading off so it must have been there somewhere within the acres of the complex.

The business centre wanted a ridiculus 1RMB per minute for web accesswhich we refused to pay although the rooms all have internet connections and I think they were putting in WIFI.

Breakfast was included and was typical fare with lots of Chinese selctions plus bacon and fried eggs for Westerners. Coffee was just Nescafe and the juice was actually orange cordial.

We didn't bother with the restuarant for other meals as the food was much more fun and cheaper outside.

Our prebooked coupons, the reception pointed out, didn't take into account that we were there during a holiday, so they added 200RMB to each days bill, and also tried to charge us the taxes and service charge that our coupon stated were already included.

We managed to avoid the taxes but still had to pay the holiday surcharge which was a sour point as I think that when you have a reservation coupon stating a certain charge, that should be honoured.

The night we arrived at the ferry terminal (Gulanyu is a small island 10 minutes by ferry from Xiamen) it was raining and as we had no idea where the hotel was we rang them to ask for a shuttle bus to pick us up, but they wanted 150RMB so we declined and a kind local on his evening walk showed us the way which turned out to be a 5 minute walk! (the 35 minute 25km taxi ride from the airport to the ferry only cost us 65RMB).

Staff at the hotel were all friendly, the air conditioning great the gardens and buildings were all well looked after so all in all it was worth the originally quoted 450RMB but not really the 750RMB we ended up paying.

Gulyanyu has no cars or bicycles only electric golf buggy style "Wally Wagons" to take people around so its very quiet and peaceful and one of the niceest places we have found in China.