Esperado Lake View Hotel

The room rates felt too high for what the hotel and its service actually offer. Food quality was poor, catering fell short, and the hospitality standards were weak. I was also unhappy with their exchange rate: they charge 4,000 MMK per USD, while other hotels are around 3,500 MMK. This stay was disappointing and didn’t feel worth the cost. Think carefully before booking.

I won’t stay here again, and the Korean guest who was with me feels the same. I spent about a month at this hotel with Korean guests while working as their Korean-speaking interpreter. There weren’t any major problems during the stay, but checkout turned into a serious issue that affected my work and could have hurt my professional reputation. One guest had to fly back to Korea early in the morning, and I needed to go inside the airport with them. I needed my ID to enter, so I returned to the hotel to get it. Staff insisted they had already handed it back to me, though I couldn’t remember receiving it. I explained this calmly several times, but they kept saying it was already returned. I could only accompany the guest as far as the outside of the airport. I remember asking at least twice for them to check again. I clearly recall seeing a staff member put my ID between some documents or a book, and I asked them to look through those materials. I only wanted them to verify in front of me whether the ID was there. I wasn’t asking to see confidential papers. They repeatedly said it wasn’t there without showing me any evidence. On my way home, the hotel called to say they had found my ID. By then I’d spent a lot on taxis and was under considerable stress. Staff had spoken as though I’d taken the ID and lost it, leaving me with unnecessary guilt and even questioning whether I’d been careless or unprofessional. I wasn’t. I’m not writing this to attack the hotel, but I believe it has some responsibility for what happened.

For one room, I had to call 13 times. Each employee passed me to a coworker instead of taking charge, and only after all that did they tell me there were no rooms left. If they’d said so at the start, I could have tried other hotels instead of going through that whole mess. This was my worst experience. It wasn’t that the room was unavailable or reception was busy with a crowd. The staff simply didn’t know how to take reservations by phone or Facebook message.

Since checking in, I’d noticed the elevator made strange noises and didn’t run smoothly. Early in the morning on 08/12/25, I was inside it on my way up to my room when it suddenly dropped about two feet, from level 3 to level 2, with a loud bang. I was trapped. The only emergency button seemed like a toy or dummy button, as it wasn’t connected to the emergency room. There was no air and no phone signal. I was suffocating and terrified. I banged on the doors and kept screaming for help. After about 10 minutes I was exhausted and felt like I was dying and might faint. Luckily, someone heard me and tried to get me out. The hotel service staff were good and offered me water. Management didn’t come to see me, contact me, reassure me, or apologize. It felt like nobody cared. Every guest, staff member, and person’s life should be properly valued. This is unacceptable for a four-star hotel, which feels like a so-called four-star place with many regulations unmet. Management should put guest safety first.