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.