Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Siem Reap, Cambodia (Executive Suite)

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Siem Reap, Cambodia is a top destination thanks to the beautiful Angkor Wat temple complex. On a recent trip, TPG Points & Miles Editor Sarah Silbert enjoyed a week-long stay at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap, one of the best points hotel options in town.

On my last trip to Siem Reap about four years ago, I stayed at the lovely and very budget-friendly Le Meridien Angkor. This Category 2 Starwood property starts at just $126 or 3,000-4,000 Starpoints per night in March, and is a short 10-minute cab or tuk-tuk ride away from the temples of Angkor Wat. For our most recent stay in Siem Reap, though, we decided to switch things up and try out the Park Hyatt Siem Reap.

Located near Pub Street, a backpacker-friendly stretch of bars selling 50-cent beers and cheap eats, the Park Hyatt was the Hotel de la Paix until its rebranding in 2013. This city is rife with affordable hotel options, but the addition of this points property is still great, especially since you get a lot for your money here.

Booking

The Park Hyatt Siem Reap is a Category 4 property, with rates from 15,000 Gold Passport points per night (or 24,000 for a confirmed suite) in late-February. If you go the cash route, standard rooms start at about $220 per night in late-February. Based on TPG's latest valuations, 15,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points are worth $270, so paying out of pocket instead of redeeming can be a better value — especially if you use a suite upgrade — unless you're traveling during a peak time with higher rates.

We booked a seven-night stay at the hotel at a rate of $255 per night and charged the stay to the Citi Prestige Card to get the fourth night free. You can even pair this benefit with the Hyatt suite upgrade, which covers stays of up to seven nights, so we decided to maximize this perk, especially since we'd already been to Siem Reap once and knew we'd enjoy a longer stay in town.

Alternatively, you could also book with the Hyatt Credit Card since its sign-up bonus gets you two free nights at the property after you spend $1,000 in the first three months. On the other hand, you might want to save those complimentary nights for a more expensive property; they'll come in handy at the Category 7 Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme or Park Hyatt Tokyo, for instance. If you do book a stay using cash, this card's still a good option, as it earns 3 Gold Passport points per dollar spent at Hyatt properties. It could also be a good option for redeeming your annual free night (a Hyatt Visa perk), which covers stays in Category 1-4 hotels.

You can also transfer points from your Chase Ultimate Rewards account to Hyatt if you have a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. Hyatt is one of seven Ultimate Rewards partners that processes points transfers instantaneously, so you shouldn't have a hold-up in booking your stay. The transfer ratio for Hyatt, as with all other Chase Ultimate Rewards partners, is 1:1.

Check-In

Due to Winter Storm Jonas canceling our original flight, our journey to Siem Reap took us through Frankfurt and Incheon, where long layovers were made somewhat bearable thanks to the Lufthansa First Class Terminal and the Asiana First Class Lounge. Our Asiana flight arrived from Seoul at about 11:30pm, and thanks to a pre-arranged transfer booked through the hotel ($35 in a VW), we arrived at the Park Hyatt at about 12am. Luckily, it's just a 20-minute drive from Siem Reap International Airport (REP) to the main area of town.

Once we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by several staff members and led to the hotel's bar area for check-in. The staff brought us our choice of water or soft drinks, and informed us that we'd been upgraded to a Park Executive Suite, which is otherwise identical to the Park Suite King that we booked, but with the addition of a private plunge pool — we were very happy to hear this, as temperatures would climb above 90 degrees during our stay.

The Room

Our room was right off the ground floor pool and just around the corner from the breakfast area, but still felt serene and private.

The plunge pool is located in a private, enclosed courtyard and the main suite is directly behind it through sliding-glass doors.

Throughout the room, there was plenty of Khmer-style art, including paintings and prints of the Angkor Wat temples. Overall, the attention to detail was great; from the tree-shaped fixture above the bed to the matching leaf pattern projected in the bedside lamp.

The Park Executive Suite is comfortably sized, if not huge, and includes a nice sitting area that can be separated from the bedroom with a sliding wooden panel door.

There's a small corridor between the bedroom and the bathroom where you'll find two large closets. Since we were on three-week-long trip to Asia and Europe, we brought along a large checked bag so the ample storage space was much appreciated.

In the main bedroom area, there's a comfy King bed and a small flat-screen TV. I appreciated the logical placement of the TV (I hate it when hotels have the screen somewhere other than directly opposite the bed) but it was a bit odd that a ceiling lamp hung directly in front of it (off to on side, but still).

We were big fans of the very spacious bathroom. With a separate walk-in shower and tub and two sinks, there was plenty of room for our respective toiletries.

If you're a mini-bar person, you'll appreciate the reasonable prices at this hotel. Angkor beer and other brews cost $4-$5 — much more expensive than what you'll pay on the street, but still on the cheap side compared to most other properties in different markets.

Other Amenities

Breakfast was included thanks to our Hyatt Diamond status and we enjoyed the variety of Khmer and Western dishes.

In addition to the a la carte menu, which offers eggs, pancakes and waffles in addition to local specialities, there's also a buffet featuring pastries, meats, salad and fruit. The selection isn't huge, but everything was tasty so I couldn't complain.

Plus, breakfast is served both indoors and outdoors in the hotel's beautiful courtyard area, which is anchored by an ancient tree. The ambience is great and there are even some suspended, swing-style seating areas, perfect for relaxing throughout the day.

We ordered room service one night and enjoyed everything we tried, including a club sandwich, a tofu dish and mashed potatoes.

Throughout our stay, the hotel staff at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap were amazing. We had the same servers nearly every day during breakfast and they made the effort to learn our names and drink preferences. Even when the hotel got busy on the last two days of our stay, staff members took the time to talk to us and were never less than amazingly friendly.

The hotel offers dinner at the same restaurant where breakfast is served and there's also live music and dancing several nights a week. Before heading to the airport on our last night, we had a light meal and some cocktails while watching the live entertainment. As always, prices were reasonable ($6 for cocktails) and the staff members were friendly.

As for pools, the hotel features two. One, just off the courtyard on the ground pool, is very shallow and almost decorative-looking — it was always crowded so I didn't get a good photo. The other, located on the first floor near the gym, is larger and more conducive to swimming than lounging around. Both are great places to relax and enjoy a cocktail.

During our stay, the hotel was running a promotion in which you could get a large bag's worth of laundry done for just $35. Since we had several weeks' of traveling ahead of us, and because we went four-wheeling and ended up with some very dirty clothes, we decided to take advantage of this. There are cheaper laundry options available outside the hotel, but considering the promotion and the convenience factor, this made the most sense for us — plus, the price would have been nearly $150 without the promotion!

Bottom Line

Thanks to the amazing staff, a beautiful room and a great location, the Park Hyatt Siem Reap is one of the best Hyatt properties I've ever stayed in, and one of the best hotel options in Siem Reap. It's not the cheapest option in a very inexpensive city, but the hotel makes for a relaxing and luxurious stay. If you can score a reasonable rate or are able to maximize credit card benefits like the Citi Prestige card's 4th Night Free, I'd definitely recommend booking a stay here for your next trip to Siem Reap.

Have you stayed at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap? Share your experience in the comments below!