2 BE

So with The One Hotel up and running, and running into its limitations, it was time to expand. Opposite Linga Bar and next door to The One Hotel was an empty building. And I mean empty. The old structure was demolished and a new shell built. It sat empty for a long time as it was big and the rent was considered expensive. I always dreaded that someone would come along and rent it and put in some awful business that would hurt my hotel and bar (think karaoke brothel). Finally, after more than a year looking at this empty building, I started to give thought to renting it. I knew that I could add hotel rooms on the second and third floors but was not sure what to do with the ground floor. Since I am the sole owner of Linga and The One Hotel and have financed everything myself, I wanted to continue to do that. However, I did not have the money or or concept for what to do with the ground floor. Finally, I decided that I would rent the entire building and find some partners to do the ground floor.

So, now that I decided to do a second hotel, I contact the previous design team of Ivan and Lisa and we started to come up with a new hotel. I had decided the hotel would have two rooms, one on the second floor and one on the third floor, both facing Linga Bar. I was trying to decide what to call the hotel when I realized that the Khmer word for the number 2 sounds very much like BE (more like a P sound). The One Hotel = one room and Hotel Be = 2 rooms. And, I love the Khmer symbol for 2, just look at the logo:


There was only one problem: Ivan convinced me that the space on the third floor facing towards the Old Market could make a really nice room with exterior atrium feeling and roof deck. I agreed and thus it became a three room hotel. But I loved the name so I thought, what the heck, 2 will represent my second hotel. If you look at the logo and the red part it reads 2 BE, so that is where are email address came from 2be@hotelbeangkor.com

Hotel Be became the perfect solution to the limitations of The One Hotel. It gave us the opportunity to accommodate families, three adults in one room, two or three couples traveling together etc. And, with a different price structure, it enabled us to appeal to more customers. It is not like adding a three room hotel solves all of our limitations but it certainly helps to round out our little empire in Siem Reap. How we got to the final product of Hotel Be is great story, which I will happily tell on the next post.

Limitations

As happy as we were with the finished product of The One Hotel, and the many delighted guests we hosted, our limitations were obvious. With one room it was feast or famine: 100% occupancy or 0%. Thankfully we had Linga Bar to bring in some revenue for the days that we were empty. Then, as our popularity grew, we faced another challenge: how to accommodate everyone. If a guest wanted to book a three day stay and the hotel was already booked on one of those dates, we had to work with our guests to find a way to help them. Fortunately, many of our guests realized that we were a special place, and maybe worth the extra effort of changing their plans around slightly. Other guests, who did not have flexibility in their dates, would choose to stay at another hotel on the nights we were not available and then move to our hotel.

Then there were other limitations, like a family or three adults traveling together. The One Hotel can only accommodate single travelers or couples. When I received our first request for a family (Father, Mother and 2 year old child), I thought about it and realized we could not do it. Mainly, we did not design the room in a way that would make it comfortable, but more importantly, it was not designed with the safety of a young child in mind. Also, we could not accommodate three adults because there is no room for an extra bed. We are just the perfect hideaway for singles and couples, the perfect "cocoon."

The other limitation was price. We made a beautiful five star experience and gave it an affordable price(US$250+ per night) compared to other five star hotels in Siem Reap, but with the knowledge that we offered more amenities and a much more unique experience than larger hotels can not to mention an amazing value compare to high end hotels in the US or Europe. In addition, we include more in our rate than most hotels: daily breakfast on the private roof terrace, round trip airport transfers and complimentary drinks from the minibar are always including when staying with us. Besides, with just one room it does not make a lot of sense to discount the experience and try to have some broader appeal in terms of price. But, I am happy to say we are in the process of implementing an online availability check for instant confirmations. What we will do with online availability is offer a discount for last minute bookings, in addition to year round bookings. If you want to stay within 10 days of the date of booking, and our suite is available, we will offer a special rate (currently $195+). At the present time, and we will continue to do so, I answer all reservation correspondence. More time consuming for sure but it helps to walk guests through the process and know there is someone looking after them from the beginning.

I hope the online booking helps those guests that want it but the personalized reservation process with my assistance will always be available.

How to deal with our other limitations? I will save that for next time.

Good Karma

When I was managing Shinta Mani in early 2004, Time magazine did a short article in which I was quoted as saying, "Seeing the living standard of many of the residents of Siem Reap, you naturally want to try to help." It was true then and remains so today. When we started The One Hotel two years later, I came up with a Good Karma package where, in addition to touring the temples, we would show our guests ways in which they could give back to the local community. We started a similar process before when I was at Shinta Mani and after I left they developed a wonderful program where I, my Mom, her neighbors and our guests have donated water wells, piglets, rice and planting seeds. My donation of piglets was my Christmas present to my family a couple of years ago. I went with the Shinta Mani staff to deliver the piglets. In this small village outside of Siem Reap a family may only have a thatch roof with a simple bed underneath with just a few possessions. Here you can see the proud recipients:



When compared to our sometimes excessive Christmas behavior, it was humbling to see this and at least help in some small way.

When my Mom came back to visit Siem Reap in 2007, I took her to the village where we took these photos:



Running a hotel where you interact with your guests and help them to have a satisfying stay is very rewarding. Even more rewarding is having those guests experience a unique part of Cambodia on their trip and make a lasting memory of their connection to the community. We have since added the package, named Cool Karma, to our new hotel, Hotel Be Angkor. You can read more about our community activities and corporate responsibility initiatives on our One Hotel Collection website.

Going back to the start of The One Hotel, our second guest in April 2006 was Michael Owen who was here with colleagues looking for ways that they could assist and fund local NGO's. (As a side note, Michael stayed with us for eight nights which is still the record for longest continuous stay at The One Hotel.) During that time Michael met Jon Morgan who was then working at the Angkor Children's Hospital. The hospital and staff have always been the organization I most admired in Siem Reap for the free, quality health care they provide to under-privileged Cambodians and the unassuming manner in which they do it. However, I always wondered about those people farther away from Siem Reap that may not know about the hospital or can not get there. To solve that problem, Jon came up with the idea of a Lake Clinic which he and Michael have been working on since April of 2007. The clinic will actually be on a boat on the Tonle Sap lake and will be focus on delivering basic health care to women and children of the floating villages there (approximate population 120,000). We are happy to add the Lake Clinic to the list of community organizations that we support and include in our Good Karma packages.

A Great Start

After extensive renovation of the existing building, The One Hotel opened on 12 February, 2006, for exactly ONE night. Well, we had to open that day as we were committed to a guest. Afterwards, I realized that I did not like the tiles that we used on the roof terrace. So, the only thing to do was rip it out and do something different. It was a great decision as the terrazzo we installed was a much nicer look. That delayed our acceptance of our second guest until April but best to get it right.

In retrospect I am truly amazed at the wonderful reception our hotel received. We made the Conde Nast Traveler Hot List for 2006. We had a two page spread in Travel+Leisure. Mentions in the New York Times, DestinAsian and (my favorite) Wallpaper really put us on the map. It is such an unusual idea, the thought of a one room hotel, that seemed to attract so much attention. Once we had the first few articles written about us, the media requests just kept pouring in. From Hong Kong, from Germany, from Turkey, from Brazil and even Latvia! I like to say that if I had built my first hotel and it had two or more rooms, instead of just one, we would have received 90% less press. That was why the idea of a one room hotel was so brilliant.

When we finally got open and started receiving guests in mid-2006, for the first few months I went to the airport and met every guest upon arrival. We believe that once you land here in Siem Reap, you are OUR guest and as such we meet you at the airport, take care of you during your stay and then see you off at the airport when you leave. So few hotels can really offer such service but we believe it is critical to our success. I was also interested to see what kind of guest we would attract. By the end of the year it was clear: we had THE BEST guests! Fun, intelligent, successful, well-traveled (of course) but just the nicest people. And when you have a one room hotel and a one great guest, it is a pleasure. Here is what some of our guest have had to say about us on Trip Advisor.

Then again, when you have one room and one not so nice guest, it can be a bit painful. Our staff will do, and have done, just about everything for our guests. But somethings we just did not anticipate. Like the guest who went out at 5am for sunrise at the temples and came back at 7am and wanted to know why his room had not been cleaned yet. Uh, it is 7am. It was a good lesson for us to learn because certainly if we knew they would be back by 7am we could have gotten the room ready by then, after all they were our only guests. It does make you wonder sometimes as recently we had a guest stay with us that had booked many months before. When they arrived they were surprised to learn it was a one room hotel. Huh? How could they have missed that detail? Of course they had a great time but I had a chuckle about that. I must say that I am very, very grateful for that our guests are so happy with our staff and our hotel. It validates everything about what being a hotelier is all about.

Why One?

The One Hotel really was an accident, completely unplanned. After working at Shinta Mani for about six months it was easy to Siem Reap was just beginning to take off as a tourist destination. From about 1.1 million tourist arrivals in 2004 to more than 2 million in 2007, Angkor Wat is a wonderful new destination. My original thought in 2004 was that there were more than 1 million visitors and no gay bar in the city. Being gay myself, I listened to visiting friends say, "Where can we go out?" It did not take a mathematical genius to figure out there was demand. So, with that in mind I asked a friend who had a bar on Pub Street and he knew of a place nearby that was for rent. Located on a small little alley was a nice space with two rooms opening outwards. The space was a family residence but they were ready to cash in an move out. At that time there were only three other businesses on the street but, given its location between the Old Market and Pub Street it was an ideal alternative location.

The alley back then:



But truly, I just wanted to make a fun bar, relaxed atmosphere with fantastic cocktails and a place where everyone was welcome. We achieved that beyond our wildest dreams with a huge opening night on 12 November, 2004. Actually, I did not really invite anyone as we wanted to have a nice slow start, get organized and do some training. But, word got out and we were mobbed that night. It seems everyone knew Linga Bar was opening and wanted to come and show their support. We were not ready for the crush and ran out of almost everything but it was a great start. And in our first year of business I jokingly say we were a failure as a gay bar since 60% of our customers were straight. Never did I think that Linga would be covered in the New York Times (twice!). About the name Linga, it really is a cultural reference.

Linga on a party night:



So, with Linga Bar off and running I turned my attention to what really means the most to me, running a hotel. During the first year Linga was open, the little alley we were on started to transform into the charming lane I knew it could become. We started to refer to it as "The Passage" since it did not have a name. In the middle of 2005, my friend John McDermott signed a lease for a building opposite the bar to open his second gallery. The building next to John's was also available and I thought it could be my chance to make a hotel. From the outside I thought it would be big enough to make three or four rooms, however, when I got inside I discovered the back part was an open courtyard. Even if I built it up (at considerable cost), I would have rooms with no windows. So, I looked at the existing structure and was thinking about two rooms, one on top of the other, but it seemed to small for that. Then the idea him me: One Room! Why not make one gorgeous room, provide every possible amenity (the likes of which other luxury hotels would never include, like a laptop, mobile phone, iPod etc) and due to its exclusivity you can provide unparalleled attention since you only have one guest to serve. Well, it was genius by accident but as some people say, "I would rather be lucky than good." So, that is how the idea was born. I hired the same architect that helped me with Linga Bar, Ivan Tizianel and his partner Lisa Samboros. Together, we came up with design of what was to become The One Hotel Angkor. The rest, as they say, is history but I will tell you more of our story soon.

And now, The Passage:

Why Cambodia?

The story goes like this: I was working for a large US hotel company (now called InterContinental Hotel Group) and had a successful career with them. I had been traveling to SE Asia, mainly Thailand, for a number of years and felt the desire to live outside of the US. I had tried to get overseas postings with the company but the timing was never right. On one particular holiday trip, in August of 2001, I was staying at a small hotel (not well run, not so nice) in Thailand and thought to myself, "If these people can do this surely with my experience I can do better." That is when I decided I would pursue the idea of relocating to the region. Right after that, September 11th 2001, happened. Like most other Americans, it was an event that made you look at life differently, not wanting to miss any chance in life.

By early 2003 I had sold the house, sold the Mercedes and moved to Bangkok. I landed there with no great plan and certainly not enough capital to start my own hotel. I was fortunate to get hired by my friend Andrew Jones of Sanctuary Resorts to manage their property in Phuket. While I only worked there for three months, I got much more than three months of experience and learned invaluable lessons. Funny how you can get so much out of a bad experience. After Phuket, I came back to Bangkok and did some work on a project for Sanctuary Resorts there and looked at other options. At the end of 2003 I went back to the US for a Christmas vacation. During that trip I was asked by Sanctuary to contact them when I got back to Bangkok. When I returned I was asked to go to Siem Reap, Camboida to be the General Manager of Shinta Mani. Having visited Siem Reap four years earlier with my Mom, brother and brother-in-law, I quickly said yes and arrived to start work there on 22 January, 2004. Next: Why One?

Me? In Forbes Magazine?

We have received lots of press since opening but never thought I would be written about in Forbes magazine. Very humbling to be honored with this article but I guess it was a slow news week. But I am grateful just the same.

In The Beginning

Yes I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon, late at that, but I came to the realization in talking to so many people about our little empire here in Siem Reap that this would be a great way to provide information and anecdotes from staff and guests. So, without further ado...