The Myat Mingalar Hotel

Petit déjeuner très insuffisant. Piscine non fonctionnelle. Logement décrépi.

This is the weirdest hotel I have ever been in. First of all, when we arrived, there was a metal detector (that didn't work). The staff were taking selfies and although there must have been well over 30 employees, we seemed to be the only ones there. We checked in and were told we were upgraded to suites, which in retrospect was the least we should've gotten. We were four people travelling, so we were given two suites, but only one keycard. They just didn't have another working keycard for the other door, so whenever we needed something we would have to call the staff, who came when they had the time (and they seemed to be especially busy with doing nothing).
This hotel was built not more than ten years ago, yet they seem to just not know how to take care of it. It's been breathtakingly beautiful once upon a time, but the grass isn't cut, and the lake is overgrown. I tried to walk out on the small porch in the back facing the lake, but the planks were so black rotten I almost fell through. Ants everywhere. Paint was falling off on the outside, and both inside the suite and in the big reception cobwebs were living their best life in the ceilings. But the suite in itself? Gorgeous. Worn, but really nice. The bed and bath were clean. We could accept this, we thought. Until we woke up and they had forgotten we were there, and there was a conference in the breakfast area. I was given toast. A once beautiful hotel with an excess of employees and no guests.

BUILDINGS: I prefer this simpler, wooden and marble material with almost Minimalist decor and simple layout; this makes it look brighter, more spacious and cohesive (compared to the rooms at Myat Taw Win, which seemed cluttered in interior design, e.g., heavy drapes that were hard to move and got stuck at times and incongruent furniture pieces).. In addition, the landscaping of lilypad lake at entrance, sidewalks dotted with frangipani and a pool with a lot full of possibly banana-trees make me smile. 1 issue they're currently working on, indefinitely, is that keycards did not work during my 3 days so there was no way of truly locking the room. Luckily, the grounds and staff felt safe, and my 1 luggage locks and has no real valuables. I'm not sure how long ago was their soft/grand opening.

SERVICE: all staff that I encountered were gentle or smiley, especially the singy cafeteria girl felt very good-natured.

SYSTEM: Check-in was simple with a juice greeting. Booked through third-party online and emailed copy of receipt. Check-out was even simpler : I was basically done checking-out. She didn't know I had a tab to pay. I informed her that I'd ordered dinner once and wanted to pay. She rummaged through a few bunches of signed receipts for a quic moment. Doesn't seem truly organized yet, or perhaps purchase tabs are still quite manual, and she busily did not have time to sort through. Either that, or this employee wasn't yet properly familiarized with a computer system.