Description: After our 45 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City and a short transfer to Phnom Penh we arrived a little bit weary at our hotel, the Villa Lanka. This 48 bed-roomed boutique style hotel is well placed just out of the centre of town and after a welcome drink we were escorted to our bedroom. We walked past the small swimming pool with about a dozen sun loungers and took the lift to the second floor.
There are only six rooms on the short internal corridor and our room was at the end. The bed room was plain but very spacious. A large king-sized bed took up less than 50% of the room and with the bed head wall painted in a grass effect it looked pretty modern. Steel cuboid bedside tables with clear Perspex lights on top of them completed the modern effect. There were floating wall shelves, two modern wicker chairs and table, and a bright red cupboard housing the safe, fridge and tea and coffee making facilities. In the corner were a chunky desk (looking old style and seemingly out of place with the rest of the decor) and a comfortable modern sprung back wicker office chair. Now that, I thought, will be real comfortable while I am writing my holiday musings for IGOUGO.
The airconditioning was exceptionally good & there was a modern wall mounted digital TV above the red cupboard, & enough power points around the room to allow us to charge up all our equipment & camera batteries.
Out of sliding doors a small balcony housed two comfortable chairs and a small coffee table. It is best described as a "compact" balcony and it was hardly big enough to do anything more than sit. What else would I want to do? Well I’m not sure, so I guess it was functional and totally fit for purpose.
The large bathroom was at the back of the room and a huge sunken bath / shower dominated the room. There were ample toiletries, bath towels and robes for our purposes and, much to my wife’s delight a working hair dryer. In fairness the bathroom needed a bit of grouting to the tiles, but it was clean and utilitarian.
In our hurry to get out onto the streets of Phnom Penh we managed to lock the safe in the open position. It was rendered useless and we decided to wait until we returned from our exploration of the town before we sorted it out with the hotel reception. They sorted it quickly and efficiently and even knew my room number (we’ve stayed in so many on this holiday I have trouble remembering which number I’m in). The safe isn’t massive but it will hold our cash, passport and travel documents, my wife’s kindle and jewellery. The laptop will have to be placed at the bottom of a locked case whilst we’re out of the room.
There are a number of shortfalls in the room like the curtains had seen better days, and the towels weren’t the best I’ve ever seen, but at the end of the day I quite liked the look of the room. My wife felt that that it had no right to be referred to as "deluxe", but as we travel more I get increasingly cynical about the tags that hotels attach to their rooms (superior, deluxe, premier, four star etc.).
It had a comfortable bed and it was clean and tidy and the staff were very responsive to our needs. That all has to be a plus!
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