Guest Feedback And The Challenges Of Siem Reap Infrastructure

Recently we had a couple stay at The One Hotel that I enjoyed meeting and talking with each day during their four night stay. They were quite nice and seemed to enjoy their visit. So, I was taken aback when I received a lengthy letter of complaint from them after their stay. There was some validity in their complaints of course which we have taken measures to address. And there were complaints that led me to realize that our hotel was just not the right fit for them which is understandable, as we can not possibly be all things to all people. One issue they brought up are the stairs. I do not think someone booking with us would be under the impression, after reviewing our website, that we would not have stairs leading to the room or terrace. That said, the stairs are typical in Cambodian style and steeper than normal stairs for sure. Since nearly all of our guests are fit and active this has never been brought up as an issue (except from my Mom, who does not do well on any stairs let alone ours) but can be for older guests. The One Hotel was formerly a home of a Cambodian family and when we leased the building we, myself and our architect team, never gave much consideration to changing the stairs due to the cost involved and to the loss of space that would have resulted. Therefore, our suite has two sets of stairs: one leading from the lobby to the room and the second leading from the bedroom to the private roof terrace.

Another complaint that was raised in their email and was not brought to my attention during their stay was the lacking water pressure in the room. For most of the last two months Siem Reap businesses have had to deal with either low water pressure or long periods of time without any city water supply. The city is working on the main water system that runs down Sivutha Boulevard but others say it is a lack of water supply due to capacity limits of city facilities. Either way, we have been able to do our best to solve this as it relates to our guest. As I rent three buildings in this area (the building housing Linga Bar, the building that is The One Hotel, and the building next to The One Hotel that is Hotel Be, Linga Spa and AHA restaurant)and throughout this water crisis, the building housing Hotel Be has not had any water supply from the city. We have had to manually fill the water tank from a rigged system from Linga Bar where the water is usually on most of the day. This rigged system works well enough and we let our guest know so that if for any reason there is no water, we can fill the tank in a matter of minutes from our spare tank at Linga Bar which we try to always keep full.

The One Hotel building has always had water, no interruption. But the water pressure is not what it should be. I did not know until I received this guest's email the extent that it was affecting their stay: the rainfall shower in the room did not have adequate pressure nor did the terrace shower or jacuzzi. In my many years in the hotel business I have always operated under the premise that you do your best to fix problems before they arise and react as quickly as possible to new problems. Had this guest mentioned the water pressure was not adequate, we could have reacted. Temporarily we could have manually filled the jacuzzi and provided a water bucket for use on the terrace shower. Since they brought it to our attention, we have solved the issue by adding another water tank for The One Hotel and tying it into the exisiting supply so that together they form enough water pressure to make the showers and jacuzzi work as normal. Again, the supplementary water tank has to be filled manually but we can do that in a matter of minutes. My attitude about solving problems that come up as it relates to hotel operations is: If we can put a man on the moon...then surely we can find a solution to our issues.

So, going back to the guest complaint it was disconcerting that nothing was said while the guest were here but we have taken their feedback, where relevant, constructively and have addressed it. Since I meet and talk to every guest that stays with us when I am in Siem Reap, I know that the we are hitting high marks for nearly every guest. So, when our last guest at The One Hotel checked out this past Tuesday and told me it was the nicest hotel room they had ever stayed in, it certainly brought a smile to my face and a sigh of relief. Another recent guest wrote to thank us for their great stay with the subject line of their email saying "Onederful." And yesterday I received maybe the highest compliment we have had so far. This guest stayed at Hotel Be for ten nights and enjoyed their stay so much that she told me that this is the first time she is coming back from a holiday and will be disappointed to be returning to her apartment instead of her suite at Hotel Be. Now that is a beautiful compliment!

No doubt we will continue to have our challenges trying to do business in the developing city of Siem Reap that is decades behind its regional neighbors, but we will always do our best to solve any issue that comes up as quickly and as efficiently as we can. That is half the fun of the hotel business, solving problems. The other half is having fun guests that really enjoy our hotels. Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that the Siem Reap electricity supply holds out!