Royal Guest House

To quote Lonely Planet: "An old favourite with a new look, Royal Guesthouse has recently been renovated by its owners. Good value comfort and sparkling bathrooms in a central location. US $6-12" What an utter load of tripe!

The first thing I spotted were a lot of roadworks immediately outside and that is on par with as positive as this review will get.

The price for a (very) basic room is US $10 for a fan and $13 for air conditioning. Ok it sounds cheap, but by Cambodian standards you can get a lot more for the money. We paid $13 for a/c which you'd think would be a/c. We asked twice for the remote control, which still wasn't forth coming.

The "sparkling" bathroom probably is sparkling, but only in comparison to Cambodian Prisons. For instance, the loo didn't have a functioning flush and so I would question the ability to keep it "sparkling" with that particular handicap. When we informed the maintenance staff, we were told it would be fixed immediately. We sat down for some lunch (which was very over-priced) arrived and my curry stank like a badgers backside (not that I've ever whiffed, but use your imagination like I did), and despite only eating a small breakfast that day, I had to leave most of it.

On returning to our now 'fixed' room, we had the added bonus of stale cigarette smoke to enjoy in our non-smoking hotel, and our "comfort" was largely disrupted because we had to share our beds with a colony of ants which would no doubt be enjoying a free lunch whilst we slept.

The final initial complaints come from receiving change. You are expected to pay everything in USD, but don't expect the same in change. No, you'll receive the weaker valued Cambodian Reil. Every penny possible seems to be squeezed out at this place; please don't make the same mistake we did. There are cheaper, better places to stay near the more popular backpacking area around the lake. I would say that is a less than central location as well, but it is not at all fair to call this a "central location". I did not trust Lonely Planet after this.