OCEAN HOTEL

The location was amazing, near Bassac Lane. Very clean and the staff did a great job. Included breakfast at a reasonable price.

Thank you for accommodating me, Highly recommended this hotel.

Good location, clean and comfortable room. Nice bathroom design. Most of the staff very competent and friendly. Didn't try the pool, gym or skybar.

Broken TV and refrigerator. Chinese smoking everywhere. Breakfast buffet empty when arriving at 9AM on the first day. Reception politely made me understand that none of it is their problem.

The staff were very friendly. Some of them spoke English and others could speak Chinese. Also, the rooms are huge with lots of cupboard space including hangers and drawers. Large security box worked, no problems. The rooms are spacious but darkly decorated and poorly lit. It makes it hard to work online or read. They also smell faintly of cigarette smoke and there were burns in the carpet. The bed was comfortable but only two pillows and they were too big. The light switches beside the bed were strangely configured with some having two switches for the same light. The best thing about this hotel is the location. It is so close to Bassac Lane and the center of Phnom Penh that you’ll be spoilt for choice as far as nightlife and restaurants are concerned. It is also within walking distance to Kobko Market if you need to buy medicine or nicknacks, get laundry done, visit a tailor, change money, get a haircut or have your nails done. Go to Concept Café that is a couple of houses up the road. It has nice food and drinks, as well as English books and Japanese manga. There are some good things. Scales in the room make it good for measuring luggage or watching your holiday weight gain. Toothpicks at the breakfast table score high points with me. The rooftop has some great views, definitely worth a visit with some nice photo opportunities. Other different things included a telephone in the toilet and an SOS button in the shower. The toilet flushed with a button that you push with your foot. The gym is not great. It looks good and has enough to get you by in a push, but you’ll want a proper gym membership if you’re serious about it.

The first thing you’ll notice walking into the foyer is the smell of cigarette smoke, the second thing is that this hotel caters mainly to Chinese guests. Neither of these are a bad thing (unless you’re a non-smoker) but they will affect how much you enjoy your stay. We could hear the TV from next door while lying in our bed. In fact between the air conditioning unit, the fridge and the music outside, it is quite a noisy place to stay. Breakfast was passable, a solid two or three out of five. The Khmer noodles were ok. There was a good selection dominated by Chinese food. The hotel seems to be starting a new café as well as a café supplies distribution business, so they put doughnuts and bread out and even a panna cotta station. You have to ask for coffee from the staff, and they bring it to you, which is a little annoying. They asked me twice about the breakfast and I said it was ok. They asked how they could improve it and I asked for black tea, but it never appeared over the next four days. The breakfast room/ sky bar has the same song or songs on a loop. The desk was too small to do any work and doubles as a kitchen crowding out any chance of online office space. As mentioned, the room is dark too, so I found working online difficult. This was doubly true because there were many problems with the internet connection. It would drop out and stop for a while. Everything was slow. This is a deal-breaker for me and if I had known beforehand, I would have gone somewhere else. No hooks to hang your towels. Also, the toilet set-up is difficult. Glass doors on toilets and showers make me feel uncomfortable. Having only that glass between you and the person you are sharing a room makes going to the toilet embarrassing. The sink to wash your hands is outside for all to see leaving little to the imagination and destroying any chance of romantic mystery. I honestly hate this kind of set-up and ended up going for walks so my partner could use the toilet comfortably.