Le Méridien Angkor — Hotel in Siem Reap

My husband, young adult daughter and I had the privilege of staying for 5 nights in January 2017 at Le Meridien Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap. As expected, the property was lovely, the room was very comfortable, the pool was great and the food was delicious. What made our stay remarkable, however, was the caliber of hotel staff members we encountered. I must apologize in advance for not remembering the names of the people who made our stay so special.

Our stay at Le Meridien Angkor was not anticipated. We had made different arrangements for our stay in Cambodia which turned out to be unacceptable. Our late evening arrival in Siem Reap made it difficult to find other housing options since everything around us was closed, we were on an isolated dirt road and we had no access to Wi-Fi. Our son, via cellphone from the US, suggested Le Meridien Angkor because I am an SPG member. Our daughter was then able to find a link via her cell phone to a central phone number for SPG hotels. We spoke with a very kind and helpful woman who contacted the front desk of Le Meridien Angkor for us and organized our stay. The lady even gave the Front Desk Staff my cell phone number to arrange pickup. Although the Hotel’s Driver had difficulty finding us (we had been given an incorrect address by the property manager of the unacceptable accommodations), he persisted until he found 3 exhausted people with suitcases waving to him at midnight on a deserted dirt road along the river in Siem Reap. The Driver brought us to the hotel, where the Night Manager courteously and efficiently checked us into our very comfortable room. From that moment, our stay in Cambodia became wonderful.

Again, I apologize for not remembering the names of the many people who made our stay so special. In addition to the fabulous Night staff who rescued us, we encountered many wonderful people at Le Meridien Angkor. The lovely and helpful Concierge arranged for an official Guide and private car with Driver to take us on tours during 2 days of our stay. The Guide was very knowledgeable about Cambodian history and the Driver was careful and courteous (the A/C was nice after walking around in the sun for hours!). The restaurant’s Hostess was friendly and welcoming to us every day. The wait staff were attentive and helpful. Even the hotel’s Food Manager took the time to inquire about our level of satisfaction with the wide array of food options available for our meals. The food was wonderful, leading us to take all of our meals at Le Meridien restaurants during our 5 day stay.

We found Le Meridien to be a very family friendly hotel, even for families comprised of parents and their young adult children. The pool was one of the nicest I have ever been in. It was warm, spacious and lovely, making it difficult to want get out at all…

If we are ever fortunate enough to return to Siem Reap, we would absolutely stay at Le Meridien Angkor again...

As I recall, this is my 4th visit to Siem Reap and this property over the years. I found the staff excellent and attentive and the SPG recognition very good. In addition, the room was clean and up to Starwood standards. It's good to have an SPG property in the Siem Reap area. Cambodia and the Angkor area is always nice to visit.

I do believe the in-room dining experience needs significant improvement as follows:

(1) Make the in-room dining menu larger with photos of the dishes and complete details of each dish available.

Currently, the in-house dining menu is a small placard with tiny fonts which is hard to read and the in-room dining menu is basically designed to be "stuffed" into a small pocket place on the bed with other hotel and room information. I found the menu nearly impossible to read without reading glasses (which I did not bring with me) and because the menu is so small, in general, the menu is more like a "puzzle" with tiny fonts than a room service menu.

(2) Change the in-room dining menu to insure you are serving rice with most every dish.

This is Asia and rice is the staple of the Asian diet. I was told that the fish and other menu items are for foreigners (a "western style" menu) so that is why they do not serve rice with those dishes, generally. However, this is not the correct approach in my view. This is Asia and rice needs to be served with the main courses for in-room dining. In the West, potatoes are served with these dishes, so it really makes little common sense to serve fish with little to no vegetables, no rice, etc. This was very strange because we are in Asia. If we were in New York City the fish would be served with "something". Also, I think best to put the "sauce on the side" in general, but that's another story.

Perhaps if the in-room dining menu was full-sized with pictures of each dish in color, then we would not need to decode each menu item as if we were trying to put together a "how do we enjoy eating" puzzle? I'm not sure, but the current tiny, cryptic in-room dining menu is very unsatisfactory and needs to be revisited and redesigned for guest comfort and ease of use.

(3) The staff should set up the food when it is delivered to the room.

In our case, the staff person just came to the room and set the tray on the table and did not set up the table, did not remove the plastic, did not do anything at all but drop off a covered tray of food. This is not acceptable in-room dining service at a Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin or other higher end SPG brand.

We thought the staff was excellent and the room upgrade was very nice and much appreciated. The SPG Platinum recognition was also well done. Everyone was kind and warm and we enjoyed our stay very much, except for the in-room dining experience.

Thank you for...

I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for the service and care my family received at Le Meridien Angkor from 12 Jun to 16 Jun 2016. I took my wife and little boy on our 11th wedding anniversary, and I wanted it to be perfect. Most of staff did not disappoint us. Staff from Angkor Royal Cafe consistently excellent customer service and they deserve all the well earned praise. Particularly they are Sotha, Sokhemrei, Linda and Sony. Especially Sotha as he went the extra mile on the service to invite us for complimentary buffet dinner due to my son's lunch meal was accidentally discarded. We were not expecting to have such a pleasant surprise experience, but we did. Excellent and impeccable customer service that we had received. Well done, Sotha.

Not to forget intern Erica & Kihyun from Angkor Royal Cafe too. Their willingness to serve, demonstrate a genuine concern, desire to provide excellent service and high passion for customer service that we received, particularly my little boy like them very much!!! Chum and Sokorng from Naga Bar are the another excellent team that provide an unparallel of customer services. They extremely efficient,polite and helpful to ensure we are well taken care of so to enjoy the evening cocktails. Tomomi from Front desk is polite and friendly. We were delighted when he told us our room has upgraded to suit. However, probably due to an oversight, I was charged US $500 on the spot to my credit card as he unaware my room fees was already fully paid. From his explanation, this US $500 also serve as deposit but I told him that this amount was too big as deposit. We didn't encountered such huge deposit to be paid in other SPG properties in the past. We requested the transaction to be void but to not avail. Experience Manager Sania explained to us that this issue will be rectify on the next business day and only charge the minimal amount of US $50 per day, and will update us the outcome. Unfortunately, we didn't heard any news since then. Damn...did you know you have a super damn good Housekeepers in your Le Meridien Angkor??? They came thrice a day to clean room. WOW....they are fantastic and undoubtedly, they are unsung HEROES behind every hotel's success. One of the most important department in your hotel is typically the most overlooked. They had made the most positive difference in our travel experience. Please please do honoring your unsung heroes. Same goes to the team members who constantly keep the surrounding hotel nice and clean!!! Also, would like to thanks friendly staff Som from Concierge counter that he patiently helps us to arrange an educational trip to Silk Farm. Thanks for excellent and yummy foods be it breakfast, lunch or dinner!!! And we would like to say this is the best SPG hotel we ever...