Cambodia - Hotel

I have arrived safe and sound at home the bag for my trip to Cambodia. Since there's so much to tell about the trip I figured I'd break it up into pieces. Today's blog post about the hotel. I booked the hotel on agoda.com. since it is 90 degrees in Cambodia right now I knew that air conditioning was an absolute must for my hotel stay. I was able to limit search based on that parameter. I then decided on neighborhoods based on reading various post on the Lonely Planet message board for Cambodia. Someone mentioned a couple of streets that were good for hotels and when I found one in my price range on one of those streets I booked it. the street was 208. The hotel was https://www.facebook.com/Villa-Chaktok-568942863289480/ Villa Chaktok. the price ranged from $20-30 a night, with most nights being $23.

 That amount seems super cheap to Americans but you can get a dorm bed and Cambodia for as low as $5. I could have paid a lot more and got my own private pool and other amenities. However I decided to go middle of the road. I had the comfort I wanted with a price I could afford.

The air conditioning was awesome and I was able to control it by remote control. I had a small refrigerator in the room which had a mini-bar. There was a flat screen rejection attached to the wall. There was an armoire in the room that has robes and slippers. I had a king size bed. The Wi-Fi was awesome. When I first arrived to the hotel they treated me like a queen. They helped me get my luggage from the cab and gave me a nice cold drink.

They carried my luggage upstairs to my room for me.

All very luxurious, especially by Cambodian standards.

Here are the down sides: they did not clean her room while I was there. This meant that they didn't empty the trash. Considering that you don't throw toilet paper in the toilet and have to put it in a trash can that makes for some pretty nasty trash. They would never be in the room without me being there. I don't know if this is a cultural thing or just their practice. I know that if I would have asked them to change the trash they would have done so quickly. Any time I called reception they were there within two minutes time. However I didn't feel comfortable asking them to do that.

When I went to add a night they tried to overcharge me for my room. I finally just looked it up on agoda myself and showed them the price it was a going for on that website and that's how I got my room for $23 for the rest of the time. One of the nights that I booked on agoda (before I arrived) was $20 and another one was $30 since it was a weekend night. So when I wanted to add more they wanted to charge me $30 a night. I was ready to walk away. or just book through agoda and have then pay the commission.

They don't have a pool. there are many hotels in Phnom Penh which have a pool. It is seen as an essential given the heat in the area. This is a brand new hotel, though, and according to the manager, there are plans to add a pool, along with a sky bar. There are pictures of the sky bar on their facebook page, which show that it is almost finished.

The staff was not knowledgeable about tourist information. They we're willing to google anything to find the info, but they we're not familiar with basic things, like boat rides on the Mekong River or how to get to Siem Reap.

All in all, I was very happy with my stay there. the air conditioning worked perfectly, the Wi-Fi was good and the place was clean.