Hotel Shwe Phyo — Hotel in Mandalay District

After a pre-booked prolonged stay at this Hotel, the following conclusions were reached:||||Positive: Staff & Management were friendly. View of Eindawya Pagoda and Sagaing Hills from the breakfast room on the roof top were good. The Room was reasonably clean. ||||Negative: Staff receive little or no training or support from management & are too few in number during the high season to do their job properly, eg room servicing, proper cleaning & maintenaince. If a problem arises, management is likely to disappear & leave the Receptionists to flounder around with an inadequate command of English whilst the Guest becomes evermore frustrated. Consequently there is a high turnover of dissatisfied staff. Additionally communication & record keeping between Reception staff is often poor, resulting in Guests thinking an arrangement has been agreed, only to find that a later Receptionist on duty either has a different record to the one agreed, or no record at all. This particularly applies to travel arrangements made from the Hotel, Laundry handed in at the front desk, previously agreed Bills for staying at the Hotel & arranging to stay a few extra hours after check-out-time, all of which should be routine stuff.||Regarding Food Hygiene: Breakfast cutlery and plates are left exposed for 24 hours to dry on a table in the open air on the roof top while lots of pigeons wander around the tables & surfaces defecating. The washing-up is obviously done in one go without changing the water, as the cutlery always had a greasy film covering it. The toilet on the breakfast roof top area is opposite the kitchen and kitchen staff using it have been observed not washing their hands in the sink provided nearby. ||||On various occasions we offered to give Management suggestions as to how they could improve their service, but these were cheerfully rebuffed, presumably on the basis that most of their guests never stayed more than a day or two, so the guest/problem would soon disappear forgetting that we are now in the age of...

A good place to see the daily busy life of locals. And not to bad to start tours to the country site.||||The name sign on top of the narrow but tall hotel building is well noticed from a distance. this is very helpful after sunset due to the partly dark streets around the hotel ( keep torch handy).||Even if you received a City Map, it would be helpful to have a GPS on your Mobile, since not all signs of the numbered streets are visible in the darkness and landmarks to remember are rare.||||By booking one of the very small rooms, it would be an advantage to take a Twin, since you can use (as single) the second bed to place your belongings. A/C is a bit of a problem, because you almost can not adjust it. ||||The hotel is situates almost in the center of a large market area for fruit, vegetables as well for all kind of goods.||But it is very difficult to find a kind of restaurant here, since the people feast on street food or local nudel soup shops.||A bike (free of charge at the hotel) is very helpful to explore the area. ||The highlight of the hotel is the location of breakfast area on the 5th floor (no elevator), since you have a great view over the city (almost better than from Mandalay Hill).||Unfortunately they won’t win a trophy with the careless presented breakfast (wet crockery and cutlery placed also for self service on a table), Continental with eggs – if you know it, you can ask how you would like them, dried out sausage pieces and two simple local (cold) dishes, some fruits. Surprisingly you get fresh milk for your coffee, if you ask.||The rest of the staff at the reception is very friendly and helpful, but they don’t speak well English, except...

This hotel was a bit hit and miss. The room was clean and breakfast was Ok but one day the room wasn’t serviced. There was no evening restaurant service or bar. Staff English is limited but all were very pleasant.||The thing you most need to decide is if this is the location you want. The hotel is situated by a huge city market in the full hustle and bustle of downtown and about an hour walk from Mandalay hill. Street food abounds but it is quite far to more Westernised restaurants. We used the restaurant in the Aurora hotel just up the street.||If you want to experience the real Myanmar, this is a great experience. If you want a little less street chaos and a more central location other good options abound, including...