Yangon adds new hotel

YANGON, MYANMAR, 22 June 2012: A northern suburb township in Yangon region has added a new hotel, Myanmar Times Online reported earlier this week.

The new hotel called Hotel 7-Mile opened, 16 June, in Mayangone Township, which is part of the Yangon region. The hotel is located just 4.5 km from Yangon International Airport and features 53 rooms targeting mid-range travellers.

Currently, Yangon is experiencing a massive room shortage due to business travel demand as international companies attempt to exploit the country’s resources after Myanmar  introduced political reforms earlier this year.

Room rates’ in Yangon have skyrocketed by as much as 300%, from around US$60 a night to as much as US$200.

Hotel 7-Mile will charge just US$50 to US$80 for foreigners. Hotel’s facilities include a meeting room that can cater up to 15 people, 24-hour electricity with standby generator and free wireless internet.

The main drawback will be the time and cost of taxi fares to travel into the city daily to conduct business calls.

Yangon has around 25,000 registered rooms, but around 10% are being used as offices, clinics or rented by long-stay expatriates, which it will take sometimes to bring these rooms back in business.

There are 1,400 rooms in the pipeline that should start to come online by next year. Most of them involve foreign investors including Rose Garden of Hong Kong (315 rooms), Shangri-la, Singapore (700+ commercial), St. Luke’s, Thailand (30 bungalows), Pearl Laguna, Thailand (100 rooms) and Centre Points Tower, Thailand (270 rooms).