bhrubin

As previously mentioned, we stayed in Jan 2014 at the Strand in its Strand Suite. This was just a very short while after GHM ended its management of the property. Yet the Strand Suite was spectacular--enormous top floor suite with huge windows and lots of natural light, well appointed with traditional decor and furnishings of good quality, an extremely comfortable bed, 2 baths, a wonderful master bath, amazing air con (to my immense surprise and relief), and great F&B. We had wonderful service. But I don't remember any pool deck at all. The Strand Hotel's location was right in the middle of town, and there was a wonderful local market just around the corner from the hotel. We had tea service at the Strand and were quite pleased, too.

The Strand Suite was just a bit more expensive than the junior at the Governor's Residence at the time. IIRC it was like US$800/night or so and the Governor's Residence junior suite was about US$700/night or so.

We had a wonderful lunch at the Governor's Residence and toured the property. It is a wonderful beautiful retreat-feeling property outside the center of town...but the hard product of the junior suite left much to be desired in comparison with what we had at the Strand. The junior suite was quite dark and the decor was bland and unremarkable to our surprise. It also was quite easy to see into the rooms from the pathways (it seems most if not all the junior suites were on the ground level). Otherwise, the service was wonderful and warm.

We were thrilled to have chosen the Strand Suite over the Governor's Residence at the time.

Isochronous

I actually had an excellent burger at Sofaer & Co and would have cost under US$10 too.

Aventine

I had great souffle pancakes there for brunch.
The burger at Sharky's was horrible. I think that place is really overrated and don't understand why expats rave about it.

Scifience

I'd add the Pullman to your list—had a wonderful stay there a couple months back, and would put in the "luxury but not LF worthy" bucket. Rooms are very large and modern and the pool is excellent.
The Yangon Excelsior is also quite nice and has a bit of a boutique feel, as well as an excellent breakfast.

Agree on Sharky's being overrated. I really don't see the appeal.

Passportinonehand

We loved our stay at The Strand last year, but found the butler service horrible.
The room keys weigh a ton, so they insist you leave them to the butler whenever you go out of your room. The problem is, half the times we wanted to go back to our room, our butler was nowhere to be seen, as there's only one butler per floor. So most of the time we had to wait (sometimes up to 10 minutes) before our butler was back from whatever he/she was doing in another suite.

Since then, I'm not too excited anymore when a hotel we stay at has butler service.

Aventine

Our Rosewood Bangkok butler was fabulous and had some good St. Regis ones too. It's the Strand and their stupid key policy more than the butlers themselves. This is one hotel that should have gone to RF keys. Belmond is another.

bhrubin

We just left our key with the front desk--problem solved. It was always ready for us when we returned.

Passportinonehand

Don't get us wrong, we've had some amazing butlers as well. St Regis Maldives comes to mind, as well as Raffles in the Maldives (they just know how to do hospitality in the Maldives I guess).
But the butler service in the Strand was just non-existent to us, except for the great coffees we had every morning...

Aventine

Normally, most of us only consider a few Shangri-la hotels worthy in this forum, like Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, etc. I think Sule Shangrila has its uses for a business traveler who wants a comfy King sized bed, no fussy water pressure issues in a 100 year old residence and a big screen tv to relax with after work. I had to change rooms at Belmond to use my Fire stick because the Sony tvs were too antiquated.

The Horizon Club is a nice place to grab a light meal and drinks (if you don't want to go out in the rain).


A true King size bed. Belmond beds seem to be Queen sized or the mosquito net makes it seem smaller.

I recommend the Deluxe suite on a higher floor than the Executive one. You forego a bit of living room space but the Deluxe suites get more natural light being in the middle of the hotel.

F&B

Breakfast

It can be done via room service or at Sule cafe on the Lobby floor. A decent selection but not the best in town by a longshot. They try to do everything from Indian to Japanese food.

Summer Palace is considered the best Chinese restaurant in Yangon. Excellent southern Chinese dishes and diligent service.

Sule cafe leaves a lot to be desired for other meals besides breakfast. I would rather eat in the mall than there.

Service

They moved a full sized fridge into our suite so I could store some foodstuffs. They also offered to have a TOTO washlet installed from one suite to another.

Pool
Abysmal.

Aventine

Lotte Hotel Yangon is basically a big convention center style hotel with 343 rooms and Shwedagon Pagoda views (tiny ones) and Inya lake views (not much there to see). A huge lobby, open spaces and 2 floors of function rooms. They do host a lot of events.

It was built to Korean hotel standards and this is a good thing in a country like Myanmar.

Aventine

The hotel is open now but have only gone for meals so far. The service isn't there yet and prices are quite exorbitant for Yangon.

Disappointed that they force afternoon tea guests to choose hot tea or coffee and to stick to one ONLY. You have to order iced separately? That's ridiculous at any luxury hotel. Period. The lounge manager seemed to think this was fine and not out of the ordinary.

Their sister hotel Rosewood Bangkok lets guests choose any iced, non-alcoholic beverages that they want. We never tested if it was free-flowing but I'm sure they wouldn't deny you another drink or two.

They also substituted afternoon tea items different from their menu and claimed update/printer problems. I guess some Burmese guests won't notice or don't know any better.

Taste?

Very mediocre. The savory items all tasted stale and the sweets weren't anything memorable. The Strand does a Burmese set and Western set and sets the standard for afternoon tea in this city. They don't force you to choose a drink stream and stick with it.

Aventine

This was a birthday staycation for my wife and all my deepest fears were again realized about the Strand Yangon. It really is a cheap facade hiding behind a long storied history. They accept feedback but don't really do anything about it.

A very disappointing stay because they know us but didn't decorate or really try hard for my wife's birthday. They scattered some rose petals after I complained on the mattress during evening turndown.



Roses died to become this mess.



Deluxe Suite

Tastefully decorated in a modern style.
I love the tall ceilings but the pillows were too soft and flimsy. This suite and the base suite are more like junior suites because there's no partition between bedroom and living area. I ended up working on the floor of the closet and entrance since I needed to make calls while my partner slept.

Road noise was a major problem for suite 102. You would hear honking and freight trucks all times of the day. This is a hotel that light sleepers should use earplugs or get a room away from Strand Road.

The bathroom - what were they thinking?








Almost 120 years old and all the problems that come with a cheaply done renovation. The Deluxe suite bathrooms are an eyesore and it is clear the owners thought they could save money on this part of the suites. The water filtering or piping was a huge problem here. No one wants yellow, murky bathwater and it continued to flow out dirty water. A room change to a regular suite also produced murky water and we just decided to stay put for the night.



This shower booth looks like it belongs to a house outside and not in a $300 luxury hotel. One cold faucet knob wouldn't turn and the right sink clogged and wouldn't drain.




I wouldn't recommend this hotel as long as they continue to have these vintage bathrooms. Maybe the Strand suite has a nicer one?

Service

It's very highly polished at the ground level. They've been working there for years and know their roles to a T. Everyone from the Strand Cafe to the bell staff. It's the lack of empathy and service recovery from upper management that is abysmal. The suite had serious problems and they just gave cursory apologies through the Guest relations manager.

F&B

This is probably Yangon's only pure a la carte breakfast option and probably has the highest quality and variety. Most others do only buffets of varying quality. Belmond has a la carte options in addition to their buffet but sometimes they make you feel that they would prefer you just eat their buffet items. Strand brought everything we wanted and nothing was charged to the final bill. Probably the best part of the stay was breakfast.

The Strand restaurant (open for dinner) is very much French since the Executive chef is from Provence.

offerendum

The bathroom looks indeed terrible and ugly.

Aventine

I would rather have the Carlyle glassed tub than this hideous leftover from the 70s.

Aventine

Not a chain that would be remotely associated with the Luxury Forum but they did very well for my wife's birthday. We expected this kind of decoration from the Strand and didn't get anything like this.

They aren't a true luxury 5 star brand but they can do some nice things for guests.

Melia's room decorations.


VS

The Strand's birthday decorations.