Me and my family wished to escape Phnom Penh for the khmer new year holidays and Kirirom seemed to be a good idea, 2 hours away.
We arrived around 8:00pm at the reception of the Hotel. We were indicated to come to the front desk for check-in. No welcoming, we were just shown a bill instead by a rather unhappy receptionist. There was a miscommunication on our booking, as their reservations did not inform there would be extra bed charge for our room, as it was for 2 kids of 3y each. A matter which could have been resolved easily however the receptionist thought we were complaining, called his manager and went on to say « either you pay the full booking price now, either we do not give access to the room ». This is how we were welcomed.
We booked the standard bungalow which was rather small. No wifi in rooms, as well as no phone network (since we are in the mountain). No phone in the room, no possible way to contact reception from there. You have to walk the whole property to ask something as simple as towels (there is no towels at the Restaurant swimming pool). Absolutely no pest control has ever been done (worms, ants, bees, mosquitos you get it all) and housekeeping was inexistant during our whole stay.
The hotel is nestled on the Hillside with charming pathways and bungalow houses. It is clearly an accommodation in the nature (yes I do not mind the worms everywhere) however I chose this hotel because it was featuring online many attractions for the kids to enjoy. This is how it appeared to be: a waterfall (which doesn’t exist anymore), kayaking (which you can do in a small pond using abandoned kayaks), not maintained badminton and tennis courts, a rusty (and dangerous) playground for kids. No staffs on any of these sites either. The only facility which was available and maintained was the swimming pool, where the restaurant is. When I asked what is there to do here except the restaurant, I was told by the same receptionist arrogantly “there is an other waterfall 20km ahead”.
The breakfast was alright, if you arrive before 9:00am. Afterwards, it gets emptied pretty fast and the staffs does not refill anymore. Restaurant is alright during the day for the local dishes, western dishes is the basic take on western food you can find pretty much everywhere. They will charge you 10% VAT even if the restaurant menu does say all prices are inclusive of VAT. If you ask why, they won’t give a clear reason, and their manager will just reject your question, giving you a new bill without VAT. It’s about hospitality there for sure.
And I did not even start talking about the F&B waiter bringing you a plate of french fries that you ordered and picking up one on your plate on the way from the kitchen to you.
The manager was not here for the whole stay. Their staffs were all round unhappy to be working, except two old smiling ladies at breakfast. I believe when your hotel is fully booked, the Manager should be around and not on public holidays. We asked several times to get in touch with him, which was disallowed to us.
There is hotels everywhere in Cambodia which are getting out stronger of the COVID crisis; borders are reopening, the time is now to ensure you provide good hospitality for your guests. I never did a bad review for an hotel because I know how harmful it is. But I never felt that badly treated in an hotel before to be honest. Untrained and unprofessional staffs is ok, however this was simply arrogance.
After spending a day at the pool wondering what we could do here, I couldn’t imagine doing the same until the end of our stay (I booked 3 nights), so we checked out a day before.
Kirirom Hillside Resort is a beautiful property, however extremely poorly managed and maintained. An excuse of an Hotel where basic hospitality is not learned to their staffs and where we did not enjoy our awaited...
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