{"id":1392,"date":"2013-07-03T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelrestauranthotel.com\/blog\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2020-05-16T18:26:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T10:26:03","slug":"sofitel-phnom-penh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travelrestauranthotel.com\/blog\/sofitel-phnom-penh\/","title":{"rendered":"Sofitel, Phnom Penh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sofitel Phnom Penh claims to be a 5-star hotel, but in reality, it is more like a 4-star hotel.<\/p>\n

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I stayed in a junior suite for 2 days.\u00a0 <\/span>The shape of the room is a little odd—it is like a \u201cL\u201d with the little bit jutting out forming the study.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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There is already a bureau and a chaise lounge in the main room with another bureau and chaise lounge in the study.\u00a0 <\/span>I guess the bureau and chaise lounge in the study only come in useful if there are 2 occupants in the room.\u00a0 <\/span>The bad thing about the bureau in the study is that you can\u2019t watch TV while you do your work at the bureau.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The sleeping area\/ main room is connected to a walk-in closet\/ wash basin area.\u00a0 <\/span>There are 2 wash basins which is good.<\/p>\n

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The bathroom is tiled instead of marble.\u00a0 <\/span>It felt like it could have been classier. The tiles don\u2019t really whisper \u201c5-star\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>The entire suite has hard wood flooring.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m not sure how I feel about that, whether hard wood flooring or carpet would be classier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Some nice touches about the junior suite—<\/p>\n

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  1. There is an ipod dock.<\/li>\n
  2. Illy expresso machine in the suite<\/li>\n
  3. Many, many towels—-good!<\/li>\n
  4. Lanvin toiletries—-very French.\u00a0 <\/span>Classy.<\/li>\n
  5. The bed is extremely comfortable.\u00a0 <\/span>Sofitel has invested into creating their own bed \u201cMybed\u201d and it pays off.\u00a0 <\/span>The MyBed\u2122 mattress comes with a slatted base and offers targeted support by gently absorbing your movement throughout the night.\u00a0 <\/span>Exclusive to Sofitel, Mybed is made with a higher concentration of springs placed at common points of pressure, like shoulders, neck, and back. On top of the mattress is the plush cloud-like MyBed\u2122 featherbed (duvet).\u00a0 <\/span>The result: a firm but very soft experience.\u00a0 <\/span>You can feel the softness but you can\u2019t feel where the softness ends and the firmness begins.\u00a0 <\/span>Sofitel might have an edge over other leading hotels in this department.\u00a0 <\/span>To be frank, the experience is quite, quite enticing, almost enough to make me pick Sofitel over other 5-star brands on my next trip.\u00a0 <\/span>This bed is worth a try.<\/li>\n
  6. When you arrive at the hotel and your luggage is handled by the porters, they actually cut away the ugly airline check-in luggage tag for you.\u00a0 <\/span>LITTLE TOUCHES GO A LONG WAY.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    The breakfast selection is quite small, especially the hot food section. There are flies at the beef pastrami.\u00a0 <\/span>The lunch buffet does not look very promising either.\u00a0 <\/span>There are a lot of carb dishes —-pasta, Asian noodles, cold salads but just a couple of hot protein dishes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    The hotel management seems to be a little wonky\u2014there are 2 gyms and 2 swimming pools.\u00a0 <\/span>On top of that, there are many, many restaurants but they all don\u2019t seem to gather much business.\u00a0 <\/span>This is quite a worrying sign\u2014if the restaurants aren\u2019t making money, how much of the room rate goes into keeping these restaurants (and the extra gym and pool) alive?\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>How much of the room rate actually goes into creating value for the customer?<\/p>\n

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    There are 68 channels on the TV.\u00a0 <\/span>However, more than a handful of them are in Khmer.\u00a0 <\/span>Are there really that many Khmer (Cambodian) guests in the hotel?\u00a0 <\/span>A quick scan around the hotel would tell you no.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>As such, having that many Khmer channels doesn\u2019t really make sense and doesn\u2019t really add value to the guest. I wish the hotel would also have MTV, Asian Food Channel (AFC) and Discovery Living, all currently missing.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The hotel has tuk-tuks on hand to take you around the city.\u00a0 <\/span>However, the prices are higher than if you hail a tuk-tuk outside the hotel\u00a0 <\/span>(the hotel ground is quite large.\u00a0 <\/span>You have to walk a little to get to the gate).\u00a0 <\/span>For example, from the hotel to Sisowath Quay, the fare with the hotel\u2019s tuk-tuk is US$3.30 instead of the usual US$2.\u00a0 <\/span>From the hotel to the airport, the fare is US$8.80 instead of the usual US$6.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Ordinarily, Sofitel Phnom Penh would have been a 4-star hotel.\u00a0 <\/span>Due to the lack of competition in Phnom Penh, it reigns as one of the 5-star greats.<\/p>\n\n\r\n \r\n Booking.com<\/a>\r\n<\/ins>