Breakdown of Этот отель был построен недавно, он намного лучше старого.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
старый
old
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
быть
to be
Questions & Answers about Этот отель был построен недавно, он намного лучше старого.
Why do we use построен here instead of the regular past tense построил?
Because this is the passive voice. The hotel didn't build anything; it was built. построен is the short-form past passive participle of the perfective verb построить (to build). Since отель is a masculine noun and the action happened in the past, we use the past tense helping verb был followed by the masculine short form построен.
Why is старого in the genitive case, and where is the word for "than"?
In Russian, you can make a comparison without using the word чем (than) by simply putting the thing being compared into the genitive case. Here, лучше старого means "better [than] the old [one]". If you preferred to use чем, you would use the nominative case instead: лучше, чем старый.
Why do we use намного instead of just много to say "much better"?
When you want to say "much" or "a lot" right before a comparative adjective like лучше (better) or больше (bigger), you must use the special adverbs намного or гораздо. You cannot use много in this structure.
Why is there no noun after старого? How do we translate "the old one"?