Hello Cambodia Boutique — Hotel in Siem Reap

DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL!!!

We had booked this hotel back in November for the 2nd of January, the day after the booking we decided to cancel this booking and book for different days as there was a change in plans and we didn’t want to pay booking.coms cancellation fee, keep in mind this second time was booked directly from their website and like I said well in advance, and we had recived a confirmation email from the hotel aswell

Fast forward to yesterday the day of our check in, our bus was delayed so we messaged the hotel to let them know that we would be a little delayed but we were still coming, a lady with amazing English called us back to let us know that this was no problem at all as the reception was 24hours,

We arrived at 12am, we were met at the reception by a nice man, when we showed him our booking number he pulls out a printed out copy of our cancellation we did back in November but like I said well had booked again the day after and had a lady from the hotel call us that day, after this guy going on and on about our canceled booking we decided to try and get ahold of the lady we spoke to on the phone, the phone didn’t ring inside the reception which was another red flag

The lady on the phone spoke to the man on the phone and then to us, she told is that the man was taking us to the other hello Cambodia and ensured us that it was much nicer, so we hoped in his tok tok to the hotel, when we arrived at this other hotel it was not hello Cambodia it was okay boutique, there were people sleeping on the floor of the reception which was off putting

We gave the lady a call and again it did not ring inside the reception, we told her that this was not the right hotel and for us to be taking to the correct spot, she told the man where to go, the man drove us around the corner to the front of the same hotel

Yes we were very tried and had just come from a 15 hour bus drive but we are not stupid, the man made us look at the room which was a massive downgrade from the other hotel, it was now 1am and we neeeed sleep so we decided to sleep there for the night

We have had to put chairs up to doors for safety due to faulty locks, the bed is as hard as a rock, there are not enough charging ports and a...

BEWARE OF OVERBOOKING 오버부킹 조심하세요! 여인숙보다 못한 숙소로 보내졌습니다!

The hotel almost ruined our entire experience in Cambodia. We flew in in the evening and we had the free airport pick-up service by the hotel, which was all smooth and fine.

It was when we were half-way through the check-in process where things got bad - we arrived at the hotel at around 9pm. We had our passports copied and staff asked us if we'd like to book an Angkor Wat tour with them. We said we had a private guide and this must have put them off. The staff suddenly said that they are overbooked so there was no room available for us! They asked us to stay at their sister hotel instead, I was reluctant to do so but we said we'll go have a look at the place first (it was a downgrade from 4star to 3star to begin with).

So the tuk-tuk took us to the sister hotel and we had a room shown to us - it was definitely not comparable to the room that we had booked originally. Room was small, cramped with 3 beds, bathroom was small and didn't look very hygienic, no amenities whatsoever. We said no to the room and was offered another room. It was basically the same room but a little bigger. We said no again and asked the staff to call Hello Cambodia Boutique. I talked to HCB briefly over the phone and the staff said he will get back to us but we didn't hear back for the next 2 hours or so. Staff at sister hotel said the phone line wasn't working and told us that we should just stay at their villa for the night and we can discuss discounts in the morning. She offered to show us another room, best type at their villa - if so, why not show us the best room from the beginning?

We asked to be taken back to HCB as we wanted to complain directly. It took at least 30 min to have tuk-tuk to take us back and when we got there past 11pm, they had a room for us! They said they had to cancel another booking to accommodate us - which meant that we were denied a room when nobody had checked in yet!

It looks like overbooking is quite common in Cambodia especially during peak...

I think that this hotel got hit hard by Covid and hasn't quite recovered, which I completely appreciate. However, they are still advertising services and facilities that they no longer provide. There was no restaurant, no spa and the TVs in the rooms did not work. We paid £17 a night here and had less facilities than the £6 a night hostel we're were in previously. We had booked this hotel so we could have a more up market experience and not have to leave the accommodation much. However this was not the case. We asked for some money off to compensate for the missing facilities but they said no, we ended up agreeing on a free airport transfer, which would have been $5. There was a real language barrier in most conversations which made it difficult. My boyfriend and I were put on the ground floor, and our bedroom had a weird door out into an alleyway that backed onto a building site. There was a keyhole on the outside of the door so we had to prop a chair up onto the handle to feel safe. Overall it just felt a bit disappointing and not what we felt we'd paid for. I feel bad as it's clearly family run and was hit hard by Covid. But they are advertising numerous services that they no longer provide. They had posters for the restaurant, spa, happy hour etc all around reception which I feel they should take down. They also had a sign saying they accepted card but asked us to go to an ATM and pay in cash. Not to moan even more but the laundry service was also double if not more than the prices of everywhere else...