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Hi Pushit,

Welcome on º£½ÇÂÒÂ×-blog!

I hope other members will advise you on this subject very soon.

Wish you good luck
Christine

Would like to know more detail to answer your question more accurately.  What time of hotel? geographic location? intended clientels? etc.....

hi Kimleang,

thank you for answering:)
the hotel is in Sihanoukville but a bit outside of central,close to Victory Beach...has 20 rooms,1 bar,1 restaurant.Clientele i would say mostly backpackers...but we would like to do some changes and aim for a bit more unique experience...similar to butique hotels...
or do you think hotel business is better in the capital?

Hi there,

From experience, I can tell you immediately NOW Sihanoukville is not a good place to run/own a hotel (especially taking over existing one that is not working) due to the following reasons:

1.    Limited number of tourists visit every year.  No direct flight and not a destination for cruiseliner etc

2.    Tourists with limited spending powerÂ…most are backpackers (nothing wrong with that!) on a $10-15/night budget, but you just cannot afford to offer nice hotel with unique experience and maintain a good level of services through out and charging anything less than $45/night including breakfast and still make money!  It simply doesnÂ’t add up.

3.    The Sokha Beach Resorts is under $100/night including breakfast for two.   Private beach, good size swimming pool, kid playground, real resort (old style) and good room but definitely lack "uniqueness"

However if you still keen on Sihanoukville geographically, I would say set up a small (10-15 rooms) boutique resorts from scratch and market it online to selected tourists + local expat family for weekend getaway. 

Here are a few concepts that is doing quite good in my opinions:

Note:  Ignore the size, just look at their conceptÂ…

1.    bambuhotel.com/ in battambang
2.    natayaresort.com/ in Kampot
3.    knaibangchatt.com/ in Kep
4.    the-252.com/ in Phnom Penh
5.    karavansara.com/ in Siem Reap
6.    sojournsiemreap.com/ in Siem Reap

To answer your questionÂ…yes, hotel business is better in the capital.  There have been at least 40 hotels (20-80 rooms) opened in Phnom Penh for the last 18 months and much more is coming along but still have huge potential to take on more.   Hope that helpÂ….

Leang