MAKK Hotel

The room itself looked nice, but the organization and customer service were incredibly terrible. We arrived a bit early, spent about 20 minutes checking in, carried our things to the room, then were kicked out five minutes later. Staff said they were confused and the room belonged to two white expats. It felt insulting and was such a shame after all their work. The beautiful bigger room downstairs smelled like poop or a toilet the whole time. I also got injured by a large nail head sticking out of a twin bed in a ground-floor room. It was painted black like the bed and hard to see. Be careful there.

We had a lot of trouble with our bus to Kampot, but someone waited for us until 1:00am, which was very thoughtful. They can arrange tours for you. Good hotel, well located, with a nice room and super nice people.

The room quality is good: my Garden View room had a large comfortable bed, comfy pillows, decent AC, and plenty of room to work on my laptop. The waterfall showers were powerful, though there was quite a bit of mold in the bathroom. The door lock took a lot of fiddling every time, so maintenance could be better. Breakfast was pretty good, served by the hotel restaurant from 7am to 10am, but that’s the only meal it offers. Tukout delivery helps since local bars and restaurants are a little beyond walking distance. The streets are dark at night. Internet is seriously patchy. The routers seem to reboot randomly, so get a 4G SIM if you need to work, though the signal can be weak too, certainly with Smart Mobile, which is normally excellent. Sometimes Wi-Fi is fast, but most of the time it’s slow or disappears. It’s basically useless for internet, despite the hotel being able to claim it’s fast. They need a new provider and replacement routers. Power cuts happen at least once a day, often many more times, though that’s a general issue wherever you stay in Kampot. It’s mostly noisy. The hotel is beside a busy junction and roundabout, with motorbike, truck, and car engines and horns going off all the time. That’s part of life in Cambodia, but there are definitely quieter hotels. As of late April, there was also a construction site right next door, hammering early in the morning. Bring earplugs until probably the end of May or mid June. It’s fine for a tourist staying a night or two, but not much else, which is fine for probably 90% of people reading this.

Booking online through Agoda was about 40% cheaper than paying the walk-in rate. The staff were great and the room was clean, but my superior double room (NY) booking came with a breakfast mix-up: at check-in they said there would be two breakfasts, then charged me $5 for the second one since I was staying alone. It’s around a 20-minute walk from the bus station. I’d recommend it if you arrive by car and have at least two people.