Pearl Beach Resort & Spa — Hotel in Koh Rong Sanloem

Our stay at Pearl began on a high and we were left wishing it had remained on one.||A warm welcome with a fresh drink and smooth golf buggy ride to our room. The location cannot be faulted and is perfect for those looking to unwind away from it all. ||Our ocean view villa was outstanding. Set overlooking the bay with breathtaking views and a lovely patio area we enjoyed watching the sunset on each night. ||The bathroom was also designed with the view in mind, but we were unable to fully enjoy it due to the lack of hot water. The shower would run cold after 16 minutes of use and we were unable to run a warm bath. We notified reception and the issue went unresolved for the duration of our stay.||There was a decking area below our room that stretched off the boardwalk and over the water but ours and one of the others lacked loungers. We located some that appeared to have been discarded in a nearby bush off the boardwalk and dragged these into ours no issues. ||The restaurant was a major let down, with no other options nearby. Alarm bells should have been ringing when there were only a handful of other guests each night given the near-landlocked location of the hotel. ||Our first night was ‘buffet’ night. I didn’t see anyone else go near the food for over an hour. Nothing was kept hot and everything was just reheated. Plates of barely warm food pushed aside, we headed for the made-to-order pad Thai station we’d been alerted to when we were seated. No pad Thai in sight, just reheated pasta being pushed around a pan. ||The a la carte options were fresher, albeit the portions were quite small. ||Breakfast saw more guests and yet more disappointment, with no replenishment of food after it was initially put out so everything began getting cold. It was as if the hours-old food wasn’t swapped out all morning, with the only top-ups we noted being that of fruit and bread (not pastries, these ran out and never returned). The only fresh food other than the fruit was made-to-order omelettes, which were good but required a lengthy wait as they were the only hot fresh option and understandably popular as a result. ||The staff are friendly but the service was lacking and for a luxury resort left much to be desired compared to the budget hotels we stayed in in Cambodia. ||Staff will never approach guests asking if they’d like a drink, even in the overflow of the restaurant by the pool. Guests would always have to go up to the bar, with the exception of dinner when staff would enquire about drinks just once. ||I’ve been auto-prompted to write a review by Pearl on another platform. It’s come to me during a 2+ hour wait to be transferred to our next hotel. A miscommunication between the front desk and Pearl’s remote customer relations team meant our transfer request never went through. I would warn against communicating with the hotel via WhatsApp once checked in if you do choose to stay as you will end up speaking with a remote team who do not communicate with the front desk staff. |This was obviously not the front desk staff’s fault and an issue with management rather than the customer-facing team. ||Overall, a stunning location and design dampened by disappointing service which fell short of the...

This hotel is the very definition of being a little "tired". It could be a real stunner, and it has a number of good points, but it also has enough areas for improvement to bring a 4 rating down to a 3.||Our room was overall pretty good. Very large bed which was a little firm for our taste and squeaked a bit but we still slept well. Bathroom was good, shower was very good and always plenty of hot water. A/c was excellent, just as well as it's very humid. WiFi too was nearly always strong with only occasional dropout. Worst thing with the room was the sliding doors. They sometimes stuck and were a pain to get locked at times.||The location of the hotel and beach is wonderful. It is peaceful and clean. However, a number of sunbeds are worn, tatty or broken. They are not rearranged overnight and are not cleaned so next morning they still had sand over them. More investment and care needed here imo, and I did feed this back to the management. Also tiles missing from the swimming pool, too much chemical in the pool and a number of decking planks need repairing.||The restaurant is a mixed bag. Breakfast is poor. A large dome cover has to be lifted to access fruit which is heavy and was often left unreplaced and fruit left uncovered. Hot food was ok if you get there early but it isn't topped up with fresh so bacon gets tough after sitting for hours. Freshest warm food is eggs from the egg station or toast. Dinner was better, the menu is limited but we really enjoyed dishes like khmer curry and pad Thai.||Service standards were OK, some staff more attentive than others, but overall it didn't match other hotels we'd stayed in on this trip.||With a bit of investment in key areas like the beach experience, food offering and service this hotel could be 4/5 star. I'd certainly be looking at those areas before building a dining pier as is currently happening. As it is we had a generally relaxing stay but we did need to escape to Saracen Bay a few days for a change of scene. The hotel speedboat now charges $10 return trip (used to be free) but it's worth doing as the beaches and water down there are beautiful. Would we return? Probably not, there's not enough there to return for. Would we recommend it to others? If it addressed those issues mentioned then definitely yes, it's certainly a lovely island with many...

This is the place to go when after you have gotten away from it all you still need to get away just a bit more. After the ferry ride from the mainland we were greeted at the commercial dock by the boat to the Pearl. This second boat took about 10 minutes to deliver us, slightly damper, to the resort. We were warmly met by the manager of the property who provided us with a cool juice drink and cold towel, I find that a fantastic way to start a hotel stay. We were golf carted up to our villas which were spacious and clean with solid AC and a comfortable mattress. I really do recommend that you splurge a bit and get one of the cabanas with the small private deck swimming pool. The resort has everything that is needed on property, the restaurant is of good quality and we had no issues with stomach distress for our 3 night stay. While it is possible to go back to "downtown" on the shuttle boat I opted just to stay at the resort and enjoy the beach and pool. I think what I liked best about the property was at night you could faintly hear the sounds of the party scene coming from KRS but it was easy to tune out. I think I would have been pretty frustrated to have travelled so far just to have to listen to trance music until 4 am. Not judging, but not my groove. I guess that's my take away, this is a very secluded quiet slice of paradise that offers a competent and pleasant resort time. Don't...