vl229

Hi all,

Planning a honeymoon with a stop in Siem Reap to check out the Angkor temples. I was looking at staying at Phum Baitang, which is fairly new and part of Zannier hotels. Tripadvisor reviews seem very good, I am wondering if anyone has stayed? Any thoughts?

Also we originally planned to stay three nights, but the hotel is running a pay 3 stay 4 so we will likely extend our trip to a fourth night. Is there enough to do in Siem Reap for four nights? We also don't mind just relaxing by the pool so not concerned about being bored.

Thanks!

loofa133

We stayed a month or so after opening. Really enjoyed it. Hard product is as nice as any hotel I have stayed at. We stayed in one of the pool rooms which include a nice small pool, though I note there is no privacy like your typical Aman. Food and service were quite great. Really no complaints. It is very very nice and was a very good stay.

FlyerEC

Welcome to FT !
& congratulations vl229 !!
FYI , FTers on this thread stay more at hotels like Amans or FS , & do not think much of where you were looking at for reviews

Especially since it's your honeymoon , perhaps you should consider Amansara .
Astrid K , the current GM , will take very special care as you celebrate .
Sara has unique amenities & complimentary " transfers "

Or Belmond Residence D ' Angkor ..

chinmoylad

I'll be visiting in March 2017 so if you can wait for my site visit...

quitecontrary

Indeed welcome to FT.

I don't know the hotel you're looking at but we stayed at the Park Hyatt and loved that - if it's your honeymoon you'll want time to relax as well as visiting temples, markets etc.. I also use TA and some of the posters on here also post on there.

Don't be put off by FlyerEC's comment - some on here have never stayed at an Aman

Charles Huang

For night, there is only Pub Street and not much more. However, the sea food is pretty good and decently priced and also a night market where you find lots of handmade crafts.

You can check out the episode featuring Siem Reap and hopefully find something htat interest you -

Epicura

Thank you for sharing! Your comment was the trigger why I ended up booking PhumBaitang instead of Amansara. Although I initially had made up my mind to stay 3 nights at Amansara (will be just me and the children, husband not joining us), I just couldn't justify the cost of Amansara versus other well-regarded 5 star properties. Siem Reap is in general not an expensive area for hotel stays, yet Amansara charges way over. I am well aware that AMAN typically charges higher rates than other luxurious properties (and of course there will be a difference in offerings) but the difference in rate in the case of Siem Reap is seriously off IMHO.


Please don't take this personal but perhaps you should reread your posting. Your comment is not very welcoming to a new poster inquiring about a specific property .

I fully agree with you that TA is not the place to search for good and non-biased feedback. I think that's even a common rule on this subforum. But I do find it pretty biased to immediately write a property off just because of high TA ranking, followed by the obligatory suggestion to stay at Aman (or Belmond to be exact).

If you would have taken the effort to actually have a look at the concerned property, you would have noticed that (at least) the selling proposition of PhumBaitang is more high-end than Belmond La Résidence (and the same goes for PH, Raffles, ...). From what I have seen the hard product is way nicer (hence the higher price), it's a Design Hotel property and if also offered by Scott Dunn for instance.

Sure Amansara will most likely be better. I may hope so at three times the rate.

Did you end up going? I still can cancel if necessary .

Epicura

Mind to share your dates? Mine are March 1-4

chinmoylad

I'm only going for lunch + site visit on March 12.
9-12 at Amansara, 12-14 at Belmond.

Re: Amansara's high price - by all accounts Amansara is absolutely wonderful though! Let's see... just from photos though, Phum Baitang looks absolutely incredible. I'm really liking the (photo) vibe there - will see how it compares I guess!

Epicura

I noticed in another thread that you booked Amansara + Belmond in the end. We are only there for 3 nights so didn't make sense to split and stay at 2 hotels.

I am convinced that Amansara will be absolutely wonderful and I hope that PhumBaitang will be really nice. Just find it hard to justify the price difference if the difference in quality actually pans out at wonderful versus really nice .

Will update as soon as I am there. Have a nice trip!

DSI

Amansara is totally overpriced and totally overrated with a horrible pool design. It felt very 1990's to me, and the vibe was strange, almost a little bit like I'd imagine a Scientology convention to be where people avoid eye contact.

vl229

Did not TA had such a terrible reputation! Where else can we find reviews of a new hotel if no one on Flyertalk has written about it!

Anyway... back to Phum Baitang. Similar to you, we could not justify staying at Amansara for nearly three times the cost when the hard product at Phum Baitang looked so stunning. Plus we got our Aman fix later in our trip on our visit to Amanpuri...

We absolutely loved the hard product at Phum Baitang. We stayed in one of the pool villas, and the outdoor space with the loungers and covered day bed was a wonderful place to spend four nights. So relaxing. The rooms themselves are quite big and while a bit dark, very well done. The landscaping still hasn't grown in all the way, but once the trees etc. mature, the villas will be very very private. As is you can see into some of the private pool areas, but some are worse than others. We had one closer to the entrance to the hotel and while there was the occasional tuk tuk driving up the side of the resort, we felt our villa was very private.

I don't think I would recommend the non-private pool villas. Those are not stand alone structures, but instead are paired in sets of two. Perhaps this is better for larger groups, but I enjoyed the privacy of a standalone villa. We visited the large pool one day and thought it was lovely. Not crowded and good service, although a lack of complimentary ice water, which I thought was strange.

The soft product is obviously having some growing pains. I think the staff are trying really hard, but I would say the service is not quite there yet. No major hiccups, but small things here and there that I am sure will be fixed over time. I would say the only thing that needs immediate is the food. Breakfast, while good, is a bit limited in its options and I think overly skewed to western tastes. We had dinner at the Cambodian restaurant and thought the food was mediocre at best.

All in all, I would highly recommend Phum Baitang, especially at their price point relative to say, Amansara. Should be a wonderful offering in a year or so once they hammer out the kinks. Happy to answer any specific questions.

Epicura

And I forgot to update!

I tend to agree with your opinion about the resort. The hard product was stunning and we had a great stay. In terms of service and food I think they had already improved by March 2017. The food was good to very good (BF and dinners at the Cambodian restaurant). The wine list was also very good and fairly priced IIRC (with good options from the Zanniers vineyards).

We actually liked the location, it's not too far out to get to Angkor but isolated enough from the crowds/hustle and bustle of Siem Reap.

FWIW: this is a Design Hotel but not (yet) associated with SPG. It would make a great addition.

IMHO this is most definitely a luxury property and a better choice than the Belmond or the Park Hyatt.

chinmoylad

I'm just copying and pasting my report from Phum Baitang here too.

I only did a site visit of Phum Baitang. The resort is truly lovely. However, it is really a 'resort' (vs other Siem Reap hotels, even Amansara) due to its location.

It's not the most convenient location from which to explore Angkor or head out into Siem Reap town, but the location isn't necessarily a hindrance (if you stay an extra 2 nights just to relax).

The vegetation still needs time to grow - the villas aren't the most private at the moment, but they're beautiful stilted houses with minimalist traditional interiors, some with private plunge pools in the landscaped courtyard area.

What remains to be seen is how good the service is (even on our short site visit, we had a mixed experience, but they managed to pull it back well), and F&B. The one meal we did have there was nothing to write home about though.

Re: service - so we had planned a site visit months in advance with the GM. We were dropped off by Amansara and arrived at the resort, only to be told no such meeting was in the schedule - and the GM was offsite. They frantically looked for someone to show me around. We were told that someone would come to show us around. I asked if it's okay if I take photos/videos, and was told by front desk that this is not possible (and that it requires approval) - I pointed out I had already asked for this months in advance, but was told that there was nothing they could do as it requires approval.

I was eventually shown around by Patti, who was very hospitable and wonderful. She also overruled the silly thing about not being able to take photos - seems front desk/reception isn't given much authority?

I'm no spa expert, but it looked nice.

The photos you see of the main pool are quite deceiving though - it's a decent pool, but not my kind of pool (curvy edges, which for some bizarre reason is never shown in the pics - assumed it was a straight edge pool). Very long pool though.

erik123

If looking for an excellent under-the-radar boutique property at a fraction of the cost in a great location you could consider a suite at Viroth's. Extreme attention to detail and superbly designed. No kids under 12.