Glorious Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Kampong Thom

We’re a husband-and-wife duo in our 30s who’ve traveled to about 20 different countries, always seeking a balance of comfort, value, and memorable experiences. We provide a bit about ourselves so you know where our expectations come from. What matters to us might not matter as much to a family with kids or a retired couple looking for a more leisurely experience.

For this trip, we stayed at the Glorious Hotel & Spa in Kampong Thom, Cambodia for three nights in January 2025, booking a Landmark Room directly through their website—at least, we thought we did. Check-in was… an experience. They had no record of our reservation, despite my confirmation email. After a brief back-and-forth, they went to consult someone—presumably the manager—and were eventually able to get us a room. Since the hotel wasn’t busy, it worked out, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if they were full.

That said, first impressions of the property itself were mixed. We last visited about eight years ago, and it still looked much the same—which is both a good and bad thing. In Kampong Thom, “high-end” accommodations don’t really exist, so expectations need to be adjusted. Within that context, this hotel remains one of the better options, though it feels like it’s in need of some updates.

The room was clean and functional, with no major issues. Sleep quality was fine, noise wasn’t a problem, and the bathroom was adequate. The shower had decent pressure and was clean—nothing fancy, but nothing concerning either. The staff, as is often the case at hotels like this, was excellent. They were warm, accommodating, and genuinely courteous. One small but appreciated touch was returning to our room to find a towel folded into a shape with flower petals on the bed—a simple but thoughtful gesture that added a bit of charm.

The pool was well-maintained and enjoyable, but the biggest letdown of our stay was the on-site restaurant. We had dinner there one evening, and we were the only ones in the entire place—which isn’t necessarily a red flag, but things went downhill fast. They seated us at a pre-set table, where we quickly noticed small insects crawling inside an empty water glass and dead flies lined up along the window sills like tiny casualties of poor housekeeping. Not exactly the ambiance we were hoping for. Now, I’ve grown as a traveler and managed to put this behind me enough to enjoy the actual food (which was decent), but I can’t pretend this wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for a lot of people.

Location-wise, the hotel is central and convenient for getting around Kampong Thom, which was important for our visit with family. However, would we stay here again? Maybe. There’s another “high-end” hotel in town that we’d probably try first to compare experiences. Like many hotels in regions still growing their tourism infrastructure, the foundation is there, but the execution needs work. Right now, it’s just “OK”—not bad, not...

From the outside this looks like a great hotel and has so much promise. On entering the reception is spacious and a great carved wooden staircase. As we arrived at 3pm we felt it was fairly quiet so took advantage of the pool and had it to ourselves for another hour, before another couple turned up with their child and they were the only other guests we saw until breakfast the following morning. Having checked reviews we decided to eat out and ordered a tuk-tuk as town is just 3kms at night on a busy road. It cost $7 return more than it is worth, but you have little choice as no tuk-tuk wait outside on the off chance. The dooms themselves are fine, aircon worked ok, hot shower and bed firm and comfortable. The internet drops in and out of service fairly often which is annoying but workable.|Breakfast is not good. The coffee is a sludge. The selection if food in the serving trays was all cold, as they do not fill them with hot water or light the flames to keep it warm. We opted for omelettes which was the only hot fresh food on offer. We told our guide/rep and would stay here again. Service is poor and is down to lack of training or direction from managers, as the staff seemed eager to please but didn't understand what was required to do so when not working had their heads in their phones.|This hotel has great potential, but needs better management...

Looks beautiful and the pool is refreshing. The internet would completely drop off every couple of minutes our entire stay and the front desk's only solution was to just sit outside where the internet was good. There is limited hot water so for our four day stay, my husband got one hot shower and I never timed it right to get anything more than lukewarm. Perhaps those staying in the more expensive rooms did not have the internet and water problems we had. Our room amenity list from Agoda said all rooms came with coffee and tea maker but the staff said our room didn't and reluctantly provided a hot water kettle but no coffee or tea to go with it.The fitness area in total had a treadmill, elliptical, sit-up bench and a weight bench. At check-in, we were offered a 1/2 price discount on our breakfast if ordered ahead. On days they have a buffet, it is great, fresh fruits, rice dishes, cereals, even a cook making your eggs to order. Other days you only get a small selection from a limited menu to choose from for the same price (see picture for example of a non...