Bunwin Boutique Hotel in Siem Reap

Worst hotel experiece ever! I did a walk-in and paid for 5 nights, the room was filthy and run-down with few hair on cushions, broken cabinet doors, a smelly mini fridge, and a TV that didn’t work, I was devoured by mosquitoes after being in the room only for a few hours, the mosquitos were all over the place in this hotel, I don’t think they do any pest control.

To make matters worse, I saw a massive cockroach crawling on the floor at midnight and the night manager Rith was very attentive and friendly and help me moved room, however the new room smelled like SB had been smoking in the room and the toilet rubbish hadn’t been cleared out but Rith took it out after I complained to him. I couldn’t sleep the whole night because of the constant mosquito noises, bites and I was worried about the cockroaches crawling onto my bed.

The next morning I requested a refund for the remaining 4 nights, the day time manager in the white shirt kept me waiting for an hour and had a very lengthy conversation with his’ boss’. He tried his best not to refund me:
1 He told me to leave first and that he would contact me later if I left my number.
2 I refused and demanded a refund there and then, he said his ‘boss’ was away and he couldn’t make a decsion in his absence, I asked to talk to his ‘boss’ on the phone he refused.
3 Then he said they could only refund me the amount minus the ‘bank fee’, minus a huge amount of ‘tax’ and that his ‘boss’ only wanted to refund me half, he has to pay the other half out of his pocket(lol, nice try, I wasn’t born yesterday). I asked why the taxes needed to be deducted as I paid everything on-site and was told the price was inclusive of everything. At this point, he saw that I brought up the phone number of the tourist police on my phone and finally said ok just minus ‘bank fee’.

The only reason I accepted the refund after the ‘bank fee’ deduction was because I have a blood sugar issue and thanks to the chaos, I haven’t had any food since getting up and I hadn’t slept well for 5 nights. Then he followed me to my Tuk Tuk, wanted to take a photo with me said just in case the money I paid by debit card didn’t come through. Even more shockingly, he took my Tuk Tuk driver’s contact number and wanted to know where I stayed next, I felt quite disgusted and offended as he was insinuating that I could be committing credit card fraud even though I paid by a debit card.

This place is old, run-down, dirty and run by a snake oil, seedy, greedy, disgusting day time manager and the experience with him truly cast a shadow over my experience in Siem Reap. However, don’t let my experience put you off, most of the locals are very nice and friendly, and there are millions of hotels here which offer better value, facilities, and customer service in this city.
If I weren’t so tired, I’d have called the tourist police to report him for harassment and possibly defamation, and have this hotel on record for tempted scam. For every tourist and expat out there, please do not hold back, do not hesitate to call if anyone comes across any place or anyone seedy like him trying to scam you as they wouldn’t want a bad reputation especially when this city has never really bounced back since Covid.