Myanmar

Back in November 2025, our Myanmar team headed to Bagan for one of our favourite (and most important) rituals: the inspection trip. The mission? Walk through both new and long-standing hotels, check standards, test the vibe and decide which properties deserve a spot in the programmes for our partner agents.

Joining the trip was Carsten, our Group Director of Operations & Products – aka the guy who ultimately decides whether a hotel makes it into our portfolio.

After one particular inspection, the team was heading out, casually passing through the lobby. Everything had gone smoothly. The rooms were good, the facilities solid, the location promising. And then Carsten said to his colleagues, in the most relaxed, everyday tone: “We can sell that hotel.”

What the receptionist heard: “We cancel that hotel!”

Cue internal panic.

 “CANCEL?” the receptionist asked.

You could almost see it happening behind the front desk: hundreds of room nights… future bookings… all evaporating in the blink of an eye. A single word had just turned a successful inspection into a full-blown hospitality horror movie.

Fortunately, the misunderstanding was cleared up in seconds. No contracts were cancelled. No room nights were lost. The hotel was, in fact, very much approved.

But for a brief, unforgettable moment, one innocent comment managed to cause maximum shock with minimum effort.

Lesson of the day? – In the travel industry, where so many different nationalities, cultures and languages come together, words matter. Accents matter. And sometimes, one tiny misunderstanding is all it takes to turn a “great partnership” into a “total meltdown” – at least for a few dramatic seconds.