Boddhi Tree Del Gusto

This place is marketed as a boutique guesthouse. I guess you can say it is. With its heavily French influenced architecture and furnishings, it does feel unlike the streets surrounding it. So I guess you can say it is like a sanctuary. From the outside it looks like any other house in Phnom Penh. But once you step through the gates you are in an oasis (for lack of a better word). There are plants everywhere and lounges within the immaculately swept terrace area.

It is one of the cheaper guesthouses in Phnom Penh, however you do pay for it in location. It is pretty far from the riverside and the rest of the city where all the night-life is. It is close to S21 though. It is not in a touristy location which can be a good or bad thing depending on you. However the restaurants around that area are authentic Cambodian and we had one of our best meals there.

The room itself was spotless and a dream. With high ceilings and dark wooden floors, and 2 chairs to relax in. The bed was also really comfortable. There is no ensuite in our room, however the shared bathroom was sufficient. There is also fast free wifi there, which is always appreciated as the internet in Cambodia can be unreliable at times. There was no door as such in our room. Only a shutter with a lock. So as stated in another review, you can hear people outside and they can hear you as well. So its not for the shy.

The only gripe (and its a pretty big gripe) we have is that we were told that our booking was given to another couple who wanted to extend their stay. We were told that we would need to pay more for an upgraded room (with aircon). The room we were shown was not the upgraded room (as it only had a fan like we originally wanted), and obviously they just wanted more money. What is the point in making reservations if you are not going to honour it. Anyway after some negotiation they decided to offer us our room for the price that was advertised. How generous of them. Cheeky buggers. Not sure how many times they have tried this on others, but I don't think we were alone.

A very traditional guesthouse, for all that it poses as 'boutique': take your shoes off downstairs, don't smoke in the rooms, and with the exception of one room, share a bathroom. The walls are paper-thin; you can hear your neighbour breathing. The food is all right, in an odd, vaguely healthful, nowhere sort of way, and the service friendly. But it's a long way from the centre, and the whole atmosphere suggests you're staying on sufferance at someone's house and mustn't upset the host. That leaves the wifi access in the rooms as the sole remaining attraction, and since you're not given a desk it's worth squat. It would all be fine at a third of the price, in the sort of cheap and cheerful communal thingy some backpackers like, but not if you're shelling out 30-40 dollars a night.