My deepest apologies for a lengthy report, and I have left some things out (not because they were negative, there wasn’t anything negative to say) but otherwise no one would be able to read the report. I have also made it easier to find topic’s by bolding these at each paragraph so here we go:
Another hotel highly recommended by prominent FT member
Goldorak so I (we) had no other choice than to try it out.
Booking: Booked the hotel on accorhotels.com, again
stay 4 pay for 3 nights, but forgot to enter my A-Club number at the time of booking due to pure eager. As some of you regulars to the Accor FT forum might recall, I posted a few comments earlier on the problems with A-club and missing A-Club number entry while booking so I’ll leave that out for this time.
Had pre booked transportation from REP (Siem Reap Airport) to the Angkor Wat Sofitel directly by mail with the hotel. A return trip for 4 PAX came to USD 24 and was a bit of an experience in it self.
Airport Arrival / Transfer: When we arrived at the REP there were quite a few planes coming in at the same time so the arrivals hall was quite full. What surprised me was how few people actually had gotten their Cambodian Visas on beforehand so the queues at the Visa purchase desk were quite long. We had done this from beforehand so we just flew through without any problems. This is a small airport but looks very new and seems very efficient. Got our bags a few min later and walked out of the international arrivals to be greeted by a Sofitel representative who straight away took our bags, had us seated in a little secluded area at the exit, gave us small cold wet Jasmine soaked towels to refresh and bottles with ice cold water which was very welcoming in the unbelievable heat (38C). The Sofitel airport “host” made some phone calls – which we didn’t hear, but I guess he called the Hotel to “pre-warn” our arrival. We were asked if all went fine with the flight and if there was anything he had to sort before we left the premises. Nothing to fault so when we were ready, we were escorted a few meters to the mini bus who took us to the hotel. During the drive, the driver made sure to ask us if the temperature was ok for us (aircon temp in the car) and asked us if our flight was fine. I later learned there were two roads that lead to the hotel from the airport, one short cut through a village type road and the little longer which takes you past the main entrance to Angkor Wat which the driver took. This was amazing to actually see the entrance of this world heritage site on your way to the hotel, a very nice touch in my opinion ^
Hotel Arrival: Pulled up to the magnificent Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra golf resort and spa and was greeted by the bellboys (is this the correct name?) with smiles all over. One of our bags were very heavy and I did my best to give them a hand but this was no way allowed so we were escorted to the foyer of the hotel. Again we were greeted by a hostess who made sure we were comfortable in the sofas and got our passports. Again we got the cold jasmine soaked towels and a non alcoholic welcome drink while we were checked in. The paperwork returned and we signed the papers. Again, we were complimentary upgraded ^
Room: The room was spacious with dark wooden floors, a huge bathroom with shower and bath tub (which I still don’t understand as I’m not a bath tub person), a standard TV with 60+ channels, a fresh fruit arrangement with watermelon, bananas (the little ultra sweet ones), dragon fruit, grapes etc, stationary with our names printed on the headers as well as the envelopes
The bathroom was again filled to the brink with L’Occitane products (as you know my body no rejects anything else) loads of towels etc. Our room was facing the lake at ground level and had it's own little terrace, but the temperature made it impossible to sit outside for more than 5 min at a time :-) My brother got a 2nd floor room with a larger balcony than the other rooms, but facing the road but made no difference to them... What a fantastic experience so far (and better it gets) ^
The turndown service gave us a nice surprise every evening by a little evening gift for the both of us. These included flower bouquet for Mrs. Cupart and a jasmine flower lei for myself, box of handmade chocolates, Khmer Scarf’s (great for hot days), little bags of pepper (Cambodia is famous for pepper corns) and lastly CD's with the history of Angkor Wat. New cold water bottles placed next to the bed with a new clean glass, slippers and towel placed by the bed, clothes folded neatly etc.
We were also given a bottle of complimentary red wine which was a nice touch :-)
Pool Area: My dear friend
Goldorak did tell me that during the day it would get so hot that one would spend quite a time at the pool, but being who I am I didn’t quite think that would be the case. Was I ever so wrong. The blistering heat moved us away form the temples of Angkor to one of the most magnificent pools I’ve ever been to before (this includes the great pools of Sun City in South Africa). The water temperature was just a little lower than the air temperature and daily the water status (i.e. pH, Temp, Cl- ppm etc) was updated on a black board by the pool bar. Again, the second you made yourself comfortable on one of the sun beds a pool attendant came with a tray of the cold jasmine soaked towels and made sure everything was fine. Tears were close to burst out, but we kept them back. The pool is not blue but has a greenish tint due to the tiles used which is done very cleverly to blend the look in with the lake opposite of the covered walk way which separates the two areas. Only negative thing to put a finger on is that all your white bathing suits / trunks turned yellowish when in the water for more than 20 min (we stayed up to the wrinkly finger point of 60 min+) but came off when washed. The pool closed early at 20:00 but I guess this was not to disturb guests who had rooms facing the pool area. Still we did plunge after the hour, and the pool staff never said a word (we were very quiet) and they made sure there were towels for us when we got up ^^^^ We did talk a lot to the bar/pool staff which was great…
Eating: Breakfast was included in the rate we got, and was pretty amazing. I have never stayed at a hotel where there were dedicated fruit carvers (actually there were two people carving fresh fruit) and a bartender walking around amongst the tables serving the shaken fruit cocktail of the day (or should I say morning) which was explained in detail by the same. Again, we (and he) took our time to talk to each other which was great… There was a full selection of your standard European selection (emphasise on French bread and patisserie) as well as your full American and Asian selection. The waiting staff, AGAIN, were out of this world. They remembered us and knew where we wanted to sit and made sure we got the best suited tables and got the hot beverages we had asked for earlier. The coffee were served in Stelton stainless steel thermos (which are by far cheap) which keep the temperature perfectly. Now, Cambodian coffee is excellent and can’t be faulted so another ^ Btw, all bread is baked onsite and is FANTASTIC… We didn't have any other meals at the hotel, but went out for dinner every dinner. Madam Butterfly is highly recommendable on airport road run by a French gentleman who had come over from St Martin after 18 years ^
Getting around: When ready to go out, the bellboys will get you what ever type of transportation you require. We exclusively used tuk-tuk’s and found one particular good one (drivers name was Naari) who we used though out our stay. We had some great laughs with Naari and he took us places off the beaten track as well. We choose to pay him USD 20 for a full day (i.e. 8 hours) which I guess was a little more than the standard rate. These people doesn’t have an easy life so please don’t try and save a dollar or two.
Departing: Leaving the hotel was very difficult. The service level had been taken to a totally new level and what struck us the most was that it came natural and not with the “usual” fake smiles you get other places. Maybe this is a Cambodian thing as the rest of the world could learn a thing or two of Cambodians.
Payment: I did part pay with a couple of Vouchers. These were in EUR but changed into USD. At the time an EUR 40 voucher was worth USD 50. One interesting thing was that the receptionist said I would get the points less the voucher value (discussed earlier here), but as the points never got posted, I sent in the full paid invoice and got the full points added to my A-club account.
Verdict: Sofitel Angkor Wat has set a new standard in my opinion and I find it hard to believe that anyone can beat it in the this category. We’re going back without question ^^^