High Five Airport Hotel,Yangon: Yay or Nay?

High Five Airport Hotel 

No. 35, Thiri Kan Thar Street, North Okkalapa Township, Yangon, MM 

Check in Tuesday, February 28, 2017 (2 PM)

Check out Thursday, March 1, 2017 (noon)

Our stay 1 night, 1 room

Room  Budget Room (5th Floor, No Lift); 2 adults | Non Smoking, Double Bed

Total amount paid P1,902.76

High Five Hotel is located in Yangon's outskirts where the rest of other Airport hotels are. It’s not visible from the main road and you have to make a turn to get there but it is definitely accessible to cabs and other transportations. The hotel is located in a quiet neighborhood and is quite known to locals. From the airport it is roughly within 10-15 minutes to get there including traffic and cost us 6,000 kyats if you’re going to take an airport cab which is as usual always higher regardless of the country you go to as airport cabs charge a hefty. 

The main lobby is not as big as this is common with majority of small hotels we’ve been in Southeast Asia. We noticed as well that the front desk is right across the dining area which is quite odd in my opinion. I think they just tried to maximize whatever space they have to cater to guests’ needs although I noticed they have tons of meeting rooms in every floor which are not in use and could’ve been converted to a dining area. 

The staff at the front desk were very friendly though despite difficulty expressing themselves in English. They were very warm and accommodating and always wore a smile on their face. I even asked to break down my 10,000 kyat bill to so I could pay our cab (yes Myanmar has a 10,000 kyat note) which  the lady at the reception gladly did. We were asked to present our passports, fill out forms and in no time she handed us our key card, wifi password on a computerized small piece of paper and the bellboy carried our staff to our room. One of the bellboys btw handed us cold orange juice while we wait for our passports at the reception area plus couple of cold wet towels (I guess to wipe our hands with or I don’t know). We checked in early (around noontime although the usual check in time is at 2PM).

The hotel do not have any lift which my sister found out after we already made our reservation. It’s not the big of a deal though since we’ve been to other hotels in the past without any lift such as the one we stayed at in Hanoi last year. However, we made a big mistake in requesting for a room on the 5th floor so wtf right? The stairs were pretty steep and I mean REALLY steep plus they were also small so imagine how a huge person would walk on such small steps. The stairs have matting on them probably as cushion in case someone accidentally fall, lol.  No, seriously, I think that’s really the purpose of that plus the steps would be slippery without those rubber mattings. High Five Hotel is pretty quaint I guess that explains why they do not have a lift. The 5th floor is their highest floor and we were assigned a corner room since we requested a quiet room and I really appreciate hotels like that who listen to their guests’ requests as noted on their reservation. We booked this hotel through Hotels.com since most of the hotels in Myanmar do not have any direct website where you could book your stay thus must go to a third party booking site (Expedia, Hotels.com etc.) to make a reservation. Anyways, the bellboy told us what time the breakfast is served downstairs, etc. so I gave him 500kyat tip for bringing my luggage upstairs. I was catching my breath as soon as we reached our room. That was a good 30-40 steps though!

Amenities

We were happy with the room the we got as it was really spacious and everything that you need is their. The toiletries were complete, there’s a hair dryer, tea making facilities, flat screen TV with few channels but at least it has an English channel, soaps, toothpaste & toothbrush, a shower cap, mini fridge, in-room safe and of course they granted our request for an iron and ironing board even if we will just be staying for one night so kudos to High Five Hotel. They also have a toilet and bath equipped with pretty much everything that you need. I was just a little weirded out that the shampoo and shower gel were not stored on individual bottles but a dispenser attached to the wall like some hand wash although not the big of a deal neither. I love that they also have hand-held bidet (this is consistent with most asian hotels). The T&B was also very spacious which I was totally happy about. It does not have a bath tub which I could care less anyways but it was complete. 


The toothpaste though tasted really awful but this did not apply to this hotel alone as all hotels we’ve stayed at in Myanmar used the same brand of toothpaste so if you’re kind of finicky I would suggest you go bring your own toothpaste (which I should’ve done ‘cuz I am quite finicky when it comes to that sort of thing). I should’ve also brought my own shampoo and conditioner because the shampoo provided for by all the hotels we’ve been to in Myanmar made my hair really dry geez. Our beds were also huge because they adjoined couple of those double beds so it was good they granted one of our little request as well. 

Breakfast

I felt a little iffy with where the dining hall is situated as it was right across the front desk. Dining halls should give guests privacy because you wouldn’t like to eat where people see you right in your own homes neither right? A hotel is supposed to be your home away from home and a dining area is a private space. I could’ve cared less if I am eating in a public place like a restaurant or food chain as it is place where herds of people often eat anyways. The hotel had limited breakfast items but it was ok as it’s free anyways. We were asked upon arrival if we prefer Asian or European breakfast and we opted for Asian breakfast. We had breakfast at around 8AM (breakfast time 7-10AM I think) and they only had a cup of fried rice available and noodles. I took advantage of the only remaining cup of fried rice because my sister said she’ll eat something else, grabbed some of those small sausages, yellow watermelon, cold orange juice and that’s all for me whilst my sister had toasts with butter and jelly, an orange juice as well and we settled to our seats. We also had cereals with milk afterwards. The hotel staff at the breakfast bar was very helpful, he took the cup of fried rice out for me, poured in our juice, fixed us some spicy vegetable salads and gave us spoon and fork, Burmese hospitality at its finest. 

Some Issues
Moving on, my sister and I we’re really happy with High Five Hotel except for one minor thing and couple of major ones: 


the reflexology slippers: I understand they want comfort for their guests thus explains the reflexology slippers (the one with spikes on them), I totally appreciate the good intention and effort, however, the spikes were a little too hard on the feet so it was really uncomfortable to wear them and I’m hoping they would get rid of those someday, just saying. 

hmm..what's on the menu?

wifi access: 
My sissy and I are very internet savvy people since roaming could be very pricey in contacting your family when you’re abroad so we rely on Viber, Skype etcetera to get in touch with our family back home. The thing was, the wifi signal inside our room was really fucked up  that it would take you minutes just to upload a photo on Instagram. The only reliable app we were able to make use of was Viber because it does require high bandwidth I guess. We were so stressed out the whole time because we can’t even upload photos to Photobucket.com to back up our pictures in case something goes awry and the crappy internet access went on the entire duration of our stay. I think one way to resolve that is by simply placing separate routers to each and every floor or sort of a signal booster so it would be convenient to their guests who are mostly travelers. 

power blink: our last major concern was the frequent annoying short power outages. It’s just really weird to experience a power knock out when you’re checked in at a hotel. The short power blink is ok but a minute or so is just a little disconcerting while power back ups already exists nowadays. The short power outages happened six times or so for as far as I can remember. 

Our stay would’ve been a high five except for those things which (eventually) affected our experience/stay at the High Five Hotel. We checked out 1PM of March 1st (late check out granted by the hotel Manager) and the hotel arranged the cab for us bound to JJ Express Terminal so we could pay for our tickets for our 8PM trip to Bagan. 

Overall, I should rate High Five Hotel a 5 out of 10 (the wifi signal took so much points off and the power interruptions quite weirded us out). Nonetheless, when it comes to hospitality, a 10 out of 10, hats down. The hotel staff were very nice and I think the hotel owner even carried one of our luggages one our way out and spoke to the cab driver (who would drive us to JJ Express terminal) like a mother sending off her kids to make sure they have a safe travel ahead. I totally appreciate as well that they granted even our tiniest demands although I am fervently hoping they get these little blips addressed for a much better guests experience.