Baitong Hotel & Resort Phnom Penh — Hotel in Khan Boeng Keng Kang

We've been Baitong regulars the last few years, but not sure if we'll be coming back after our stay this time. After smelling smoke in our room at check-in and requesting to change rooms, they only offered to spray lemongrass scent to cover the smell. Turns out the smoke was coming from an electrical issue in the ac vent and at 9:30pm when our children were in bed, sparks (and then flames) issued from the vent. Running out with our two young children and grabbing the key card to kill the power, our room was suddenly full of smoke. After a good bit of arguing, the staff finally agreed to move us to a new room. They promised it was the same style as our current room (with a sofa bed as originslly requestef) and said it was bigger and nicer. It was actually a much smaller room with no sofa, but was a free "upgrade" because it has a private pool (not so ideal for our family wih pre school aged children). They said that was the only other room available in the entire hotel, but that we could move back to our original room because they found the problem with the electrical and fixed it (don't worry about the smoke smell-we can spray scent)... We decided to stay in the new room. From then on our 3 night stay was less dramatic, but we definitely didn't love the room-a lot more noise from slamming doors (and staff maintenance room right next door), as well as some mildew/mold smell in the room (maybe because of the pool?) Causing our 4 year old's mold allergies to flare up pretty badly while in the room. So all in all, an unfortunate stay. It'll take some convincing to return.

But here's what we do love about Baitong: Swimming pools (plural)! Green oasis in the middle of the city Location-close to independence monument Gym is High quality and they have a bodia massage center on site. Most of the staff are kind and helpful, but it was definitely hard convincing them of the severity of the issue with the electrical fire... I believe they could have...

This was by far the worst of all our accommodation in Cambodia and I am really shocked by the deceptively positive reviews. ||The rooms are noisy, we had a dark room on the first floor and were disturbed at night and early morning by noises from upstairs and the corridor. Pools are unheated and extremely cold so we could not use them. ||Breakfast is terrible with flies landing on uncovered buffet food. We were given a voucher for a free meal but we didn’t use it because the food standard is low. ||When our flight was delayed we asked for late check out and this was denied, despite the hotel having rooms available. We were told we could pay the full nightly rate. In the end we agreed to pay $65 to extend until 6pm. It was only $90 for the nightly rate on agoda (inc taxes etc). ||We vacated the hotel between 10am to 2 pm. The room we have been given for the extension is on the ground floor and it’s a disgrace- it smells overwhelming of garlic and foul odor. We checked it this morning and it was not the case. It’s got an outdoor jacuzzi which is absolutely freezing cold and cannot be heated. There are flies on the windowsill and a dehumidifier- perhaps a damp issue? I don’t know, but they should be ashamed for selling us this room. The hotel has put a candle in the room to mask the smell but it’s truly awful. We will use it to shower only. ||The original room on the first floor did not have an odor issue. Both rooms had mosquitoes inside. ||Spa treatments are good and I found the very soft beds comfy. The gentleman working at the hotel entrance are very friendly. That’s the only positive I can think to note. ||I cannot wait to leave- I really...

Room: Superior Pool View Double||Positive:|Facilities 5* - 2 pools - one shady 'forest' pool with call for food service;|Spa - we had an excellent massage;|Rooftop Lantern bar serving food, snacks, etc. but only open from 5:30pm onwards. We had one meal there and it was fine.|Significant breakfast with wide range of choice including cooked to order;|Room was large, washbasin in section of room, great shower (but no bath). |Nice balcony in theory overlooking forest pool but any view obscured by the plants! |Big safe and bonus of several free sockets that accepted UK, European and US plugs so need for adapters;|Baitong cafe a good place to plug in and catch up on emails, etc;|Service - generally excellent from every member of staff.||Need for improvement|Staff seemed unable to keep up with demand when it got busy. No plates or cups available for at least 10 minutes! Coffee machine caused queues. Coffee and Tea on hot plates luke warm.|There were a lot of light switches in the bedroom and it took time to work out which switches worked which lights. There was one lighting the hanging rail that took us time to find. Would be useful to label the switches|No instructions for TV - very difficult to work out how to use it.|Baitong cafe limited offering - just about OK for a croissant or cake||Would we stay there again?|Yes!||Note that the area around the hotel has little or no pavements (sidewalks) so walking anywhere requires walking in road and navigating parked bikes and cars and uneven paving. We managed to walk to a restaurant we'd previously identified at dusk but decided it was much safer to take a tuk-tuk back to the hotel...