English Rose

I kept coming back to the English Rose every three months for four years before COVID, when I was making visa runs from Myanmar. Alan remembered me on my third visit and greeted me before I even got inside. On a later stay, I still owed about the cost of one night at checkout, but I'd left my ATM card in the machine and only had enough baht for the long taxi ride to BKK airport, which I'd already paid a deposit for. I paid Alan in Myanmar kyat, a closed currency that's hard to exchange outside the country. There was one exchange office nearby, but my directions weren't good and he couldn't find it when businesses opened that day. Three months later, when I returned, he was still glad to see me and had kept all my kyat set aside. I paid him back in baht and gave his staff a big tip, since Alan wouldn't take the extra money I wanted to give him for the trouble. That says a lot about the owner and staff, who are wonderful. The location is great, down the street from Soi LengKhee/LK Metro and the Triangle Bar, with one of my favorite day-bars/massage places across the road. It's a good spot to get a massage or just hang out and meet other expats, since it seems to attract a nice crowd. The lobby/bar is also great for having beers with friends, and the price is hard to beat for what you get. I work in hospitality, and I know low scores can be exaggerated and unfair, and that averages can make or break a place. The English Rose deserves to succeed, so I'm willing to round my rating up a little for the staff and owner, Alan. Some things, especially the service, are worth more than five stars. If I were writing for a publication, I'd probably rate it four stars as a guesthouse. The mattresses are quite thin, with what feels like solid wood and nothing else underneath, and the place is a little dated compared with some other guesthouses, though those charge more per night. I forgot to review it until years later, when I was trying to remember the name of a bar on Google Maps and the guesthouse came up.