Palm Beach Bungalow Resort — Hotel in Koh Rong

Where do I even begin? This place is an absolute disaster. The Palm Beach Resort advertises like it’s some kind of tropical escape — but in reality, it’s a complete scam and tourist trap.

No WiFi despite it being listed everywhere as included. You’re completely disconnected unless you have an international data plan and good luck with that too as there is no service with LTE even.

The beach? Trash everywhere. Not the clean, picturesque coastline they show in photos — more like a dumping ground no one has maintained in months.

Food and drinks? You have no option but to eat there so they increased what the price should be by at LEAST 50%. Each meal will run you at least $15 for a coffee and an entree but again, you have no other option but to starve.

You’re trapped there. Want to go anywhere else? Good luck. It’s $30 for a taxi or $15 for a motorbike. So unless you want to spend half your trip commuting, you’re stuck eating their overpriced food and breathing in garbage beach air. Good luck trying to arrange a “taxi truck” or motorbike because the staff has no idea what is going on and doesn’t communicate with the actual drivers so if you actually get one it’s very up in the air.

Final payment was the cherry on top. Their owner has apparently ghosted the staff, and the management is scrambling. They accused me of not paying, because they couldn’t verify anything — why? Because the owner didn’t leave them access to their own systems.

And to pay? You either had to bring over $200 USD in cash (who travels like that?) or scan a broken QR code that needs WiFi… which again, doesn’t exist. For how much everything costs there, I was shocked they didn’t have a basic card reader that everywhere else on the island had. The irony is just painful at this point. They allow you to use their “hotspot” only for payment which is just comedy. I have never seen such rudeness and incompetence and I’ve from America where everything is run by incompetence 2 year olds. Somehow, their “system”, if you can even call it that, stole $60 USD from a member of our group even though on their end it said the payment declined. So she will be out that money and will definitely not be getting it back. They also somehow lost all of her expensive protein bars (costing over 10 quid) and after much back and forth gave her $5 to cover the expenses which is again, pure comedy.

To top it all off, the staff member handling payment was the rudest person I’ve ever dealt with in hospitality. No apology, no empathy — just snide remarks and passive-aggressive attitude like it was my fault they’re running a scam operation. They asked me to provide the burden of proof of payment when I already showed them the screen that confirmed the payment went through. Spent the next 20 minutes arguing with this man saying I am not paying for it again. It is your responsibility to show me if it went through or not, NOT MINE. Genuinely a full scam operation.

Additionally!!!! They have several older foreign white men “working” there if you can say that. They just loiter around all day. One of them asked if he could “pet me” and I told my tour guide thinking it was another guest, but no, he is an employee!!! I was flabbergasted.

They’re clearly cutting corners everywhere — broken amenities, rude service for final payment , and absolute chaos behind the scenes. It feels like the place is falling apart and they’re trying to squeeze every last dollar out of unsuspecting tourists before it finally goes under.

Do. Not. Go. Save yourself the stress, the money, and the regret. This place isn’t a resort — it’s a trap. Additionally there are so many other resorts for cheaper or the same price on much nicer parts of the island that have WiFi and air conditioning so I would just avoid this place and stay at one of the others. Don’t touch this place with a 10 foot pole. I do feel bad for the staff as it isn’t their fault the owner from a foreign European country doesn’t seem to care as they face the consequences of the owners complete and utter...

Stayed for 11 days in 3 different bungalow types: family, beachfront and jungle. Beachfront, no 1 and 13 were my favorite. I think some of the more negative reviews are a result, that they didn’t read the description properly in advance. If you read the hotel description and are ok with the level of comfort at palm beach you will not be disappointed!

WHAT YOU WON‘T HAVE: WiFi in rooms, warm water, ac, minibar. WHAT YOU WILL HAVE: great hospitality and a relaxed and peaceful stay, long stretched beaches, a paradise in front of your doorstep, diving, kayaking, great seafood, decent cocktails, friendly staff, a great time AND amazing Instagram photos;-)

ROOMS: If you want to to have a direct sea view, try to get „BEACHFRONT BUNGALOW“ No. 1 or 13 or ANY of the „DELUXE JUNGLE BUNGALOWS“. Note: there is also the category: „Jungle Bungalow“ (without DELUXE) they are built the same as the deluxe ones, still with ocean view but also a view at a „dead“ swimmingpool. (Owner took it over like that, huge thing, impossible to maintain) This isn’t the end of the world because right across the pool is still the ocean, you just need to focus your eyes a little more up, et voila: problem solved;-) The JUNGLE Bungalows are a bit more solid and not as open as the others.

The bungalows which are named „AT THE BEACH“ (family + standard) don’t have seaview and are from my point of view a little less comfy though very similar to the beachfront bungalows. The „6 BEDS HOUSES“ have direct seaview.

Book a snorkeling or diving trip with Craig, he is my favorite (don’t tell the others;-) the resort is a little isolated so you will have a very cozy and almost family like atmosphere BUT nothing to do outside the resort in the evening. I stayed for 11 nights and did not get bored!!! But you should know it...there won’t be a fullmoon Party close by. ;-) but you still can get wasted at the bar;-) Also, it’s an island with a 2 Hour Ferry Drive from main land, so stock up on items you might need. At the hotel and the hotel pier you will get basics like cigarettes, toiletries and snacks.

Hotel has a ferry which runs at 9:30 am from resort to Sihanoukville and at approx. 13:00 from Sihanoukville (ROYAL PIER) directly to the resort. NOTE: “Royal Pier” next to the container pier and it is in the north of Sihanoukville, you will get an email after booking with location and information about the ferry. You don’t have to book a ferry just use the one of the hotel, it costs almost the same as any other one and is operated by the hotel! So it is a smooth ride to where you want to go;-) The ferries from the main pier will NOT bring you close to palm beach.

Palm beach is a 100% recommendation. Go, relax...

A very unpleasant experience - my girlfriend and I stayed here for a couple days and we really wanted to like this place but it was so hard. We just did not enjoy ourselves at all here. The host is incredibly rude and unwelcoming to non-French/Dutch speaking people.. He would literally go around the restaurant in the morning and greet everyone and purposely avoid us. He was very cheery and friendly to French and Dutch people, but whenever we would try to strike up a conversation with him he would be very short and snappy with us. When we tried to schedule a ferry to pick us up when we were leaving he told us that he refused to call the ferry because it wasn't the official Palm Beach ferry that we were going on... however there ferry only runs once per day so it's not very accommodating One of the waitress was also incredibly rude, she avoided eye contact with us when we tried to order breakfast, and at dinner she brought us the wrong item, then REFUSED to change it because "too bad, the kitchen is closed" the place is NOT maintained... it would be so much more beautiful if the just tried a little bit... There is a pool, but it hasn't been cleaned or maintained since the war of 1812 so it's just a big mosquito breeding ground... and trust me, you will get eaten alive by mosquitoes here the right side of the beach has tons of sea urchins in the water, so you can't swim the left side of the beach has sand fleas, which bite and make you very itchy, there is also a lot of garbage on the beach the sheets and towels were dirty the wifi was down for almost the entire stay, so we weren't able to book anything a very money-driven attitude, they pretty much wouldn't do us a single thing if there wasn't a monetary incentive... I asked for some hot water to compress on my infected eye and they charged me $1 USD for HOT WATER food was BAD and overpriced, my first meal had a RUBBER BAND in it... thought I had a chewy piece of seafood in my curry, but nope, it was a rubber band Critters: we had a 1 meter long snake on our balcony, our room was covered in ants and millipedes. I know this is not the fault of the resort but it only added to the discomfort the only GOOD thing about this trip was Laurel and her excursion, you can go snorkeling in a coral reef, beer can fishing and swimming at nighttime with the bio-luminescent plankton, which was amazing

Overall, this place is DIRTY, not maintained, the staff are insanely RUDE and don't show any sort of customer service... I wanted to like this place, but my girlfriend and I were so uncomfortable staying here we almost tried to leave a day early. DON'T ignore this review. Go somewhere else that cares, maybe...