We stayed at
Raffles Hotel Le Royal in mid April 2009. The room was booked online
on the Raffles website and it was 165 USD plus taxes.
The
transport to the hotel in taxi was 9 USD and it took us about 15-20
minutes. The city was quite quiet as we arrived on New Years day (the
Buddhist New Year that is) so there was not that much traffic. The
façade of the hotel was standing out comparing to the surroundings as it
looked well kept compared to some of the buildings around. The lobby
area oozes of elegance and tradition and the hotel staff quickly led us
to a sofa and asked us to sit down while they prepared the paperwork. We
got a welcome drink and soon the papers were ready and we were led to
room 307 on the third floor.
When
entering the room we saw that the room was in line with the interior of
the lobby. It was an old classic room with dark wooden floor and a huge
carpet in the middle of the room. After staying at many modern hotels I
have to admit that the hotel room was a bit of a disappointment. I guess
I’m just used to the modern style! The room itself has a bed that was
pretty comfortable, a couple of small tables, a couple of chairs and
central furniture that contained a couple of wardrobes, the safe, the
mini bar and a medium size CRT TV (with a good selection of channels).
The walls were in light yellow and the curtains were light green. The
room was facing one of the pools. A nice feature was the high ceiling
which made the room feel a bit cooler.
The
bathroom was tiled in white and had a classical bathtub, a sink stand in
the same style and a nice shower corner with a glass door. The sink was
cracked by the way and it was leaking underneath. The amenities featured
a nice series of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel and there was also
a scrub to be used to rub of some of the dust after a long day of
sightseeing in Phnom Penh. Apart from that there was a shower cap, a
dental set etc.
The
robes provided in the room were a bit of a joke for me. I’m not that fat
or big but the robe was just tiny and maybe designed for a petite
Cambodian body? It was also a bit strange that we only got one pair of
slippers even if they noticed that we were a couple living in the room.
While we are on the subjects of things that were not that great…the
lighting in the room was not great. There should at least have been a
proper reading light. The air con was adjustable in low/medium/high but
even at low it was way too noisy and I would have liked to see a notch
below low. It is also strange to see that a upmarket hotel like this did
not have an iron and ironing board in the room as standard.
You
can get internet (both WiFi and cable) at the hotel and it was 10 USD
for 3 hours of active use. The good thing was that it was for active use
(hence you could be one hour online one day and continue using it the
next day) but the process of getting access was a bit strange. I had to
call the business center and they had to come to the room with the user
name and password. As always I would like to urge the hotel to set up
free internet for the guests as it is a great tool for travelers. The
pool was nice enough and it is quite an oasis compared to the streets of
Phnom Penh. The changing room was not that great as it was a tiny room
with only a couple of shower rooms to change in.
Breakfast
was very nice and featured all the stuff you expect from a hotel
breakfast in my opinion. Bread, cereal, bacon, eggs, French toast,
fruits etc. They even made up a special boost energy cocktail consisting
of celery, cucumber, beetroot, oranges and carrots. The homemade orange
marmalade was also outstanding and I would have loved to bring home a
jar of that :-)
Be aware that the hotel is located a bit outside
the center of town. It is only about a 5 minute walk from Wat Phnom so
it was easy to walk if we wanted to. But when it is 35 degrees you get
sweaty pretty fast so most of the time we did use a tuk-tuk to get
around and we paid 3 dollars to get to e.g. the Royal Palace and it took
only 5-10 minutes.
Conclusion
I
have mixed feelings about Raffles Hotel Le Royal. It is easy to see that
it is a hotel with soul and tradition and they have kept the style in
both the lobbies and the room. But coming straight from the new
Le
Meridien hotel in Siem Reap it was a bit of a “shock” to stay at an
old fashioned hotel again. At the Meridien we got a few small things
(such as marshmallows every night, fruit etc) that showed that the hotel
went the extra mile for us – at Raffles Hotel Le Royal I didn’t feel
that we got any extra attention. The location of the hotel is not
optimal either as most of the activities takes place nearer to the Royal
Palace and Sisowath Quay we had to take tuk-tuk every time we wanted to
go out to eat or go sightseeing. So if I come to Phnom Penh in the
future I will probably look for a hotel more centrally located.
|