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I found this apartment on Agoda quite early on, I booked this back in May which is 9 months before my arrival. As I keep looking at the prices over the months, they have only gone up and up which I was glad that I got this property booked early on, and you will see why soon.

LOCATION

1 Residence Hotel & Apartments is situated on the southern part of the Phnom Penh city, I would say this is towards the very edge of the city bordering the suburbs, but is still fairly accessible to many eateries, malls and the famous Bassac Street which is only 10 minutes walk away. Aeon Mall is about 15 minutes walk away which is very doable, but be aware that if you’re doing a tour in the city or any sort of tourist activity like cruises where they offer TukTuk pickup, they usually don’t cover this area as it is too far out so you’ll have to be prepared to pay for your transportations but they are usually USD$1-2 to get into the city.

I would say this is a relatively good part of the city with many embassies lining this street so you can be sure it will be a bit more upscale compared to some parts of the city. There is a shopping mall right opposite but it’s not a big mall, they do have Starbucks there if you are looking for one. There are also other drinks specialty store nearby other than Starbucks if you’re wanting to try something else.

ROOM

I booked the 1 bedroom apartment, from the entrance you’ll see the kitchen area. They provide all the utensils and pots for you to cook during your stay, but I couldn’t find any dishwashing liquid so I had to leave it in the sink for housekeeping to wash them. If you’re staying long term or even more than a week maybe it’s worth buying it yourself but for a few days and only cooking 2-3 times it’s not worth the hassle, and also this should be provided by the hotel if you’re going to be cooking, not expecting them to provide a big bottle of dishwashing liquid but at least a tiny bottle would suffice. They also have a big fridge for you to store your food. All minibar items are complimentary which is really nice to have. The toilet/bathroom is located on the left, it’s not very big but it’s decent enough.

On the right side of the room there’s a 4 seater dining table and a balcony, although the balcony floor was a bit gross so I didn’t feel like going outside, also it’s fairly hot. Opposite the dining area is the living area, with a 2 seater sofa and a TV. Further in is the bedroom, with a King bed, a TV, a stool, a full length mirror with makeup lighting, a large closet space with a bathrobe, slippers, umbrella and a safe provided.

There are some issues I’ve discovered staying here, mainly things seems to start falling apart despite looking fairly new. An example would be the handle of the shower faucet which was falling apart, the build quality of the apartment was not very well done as it can be seen throughout the apartment. Another issue that I had was the hot water for shower didn’t last longer than 10 minutes, well when you start showering for a minute you’ll have to start adjusting the temperature and by 5 minutes the handle would be nearly all the way to the hottest setting and you’re barely getting anymore. By 10 minutes it was just cool water coming out. I asked them if that’s normal and they told me that the tank needed to be refilled so I had to wait 10 minutes to get hot water again. I’m not sure who decided to fit such a small hot water tank that it doesn’t last more than 5 minutes, they may as well just fit those instant hot water machines that many Asian countries uses and you’ll be able to get consistent hot water for as long as you need. I also had problem with the closet door, it was difficult to close on one of the doors so I had to get maintenance to fix it on the 3rd day because it was getting worst and I didn’t want to break the door while forcing it to close.

AMENITIES

The property has a coffee machine and pastry cabinet next to the check in counter, there’s some variety from day to day for the pastries but most of the time it’s more or less the same thing. They are complimentary between 7-10am. There’s also a self service laundry and ice machine hidden behind the back of the building past the lift, which was not mentioned to me during check in or at the information sheet in the room, so I ended up going to a laundromat 15 minutes away to do my laundry. When I did my laundry, there were clothes thrown all over the table and ironing board and some even ended up on the floor. I’m not sure who they belong to whether someone took out another person’s laundry or someone leaving it there to wash. Regardless I was able to do my laundry right away but it was a bit confusing without instruction to some of the buttons, I had to go online to search up a manual.

Up on the 15th floor is the rooftop pool, it’s very breezy up there throughout the day so it’s definitely on the cooler side if you want to escape the heat and not stay in the room all day, but the pool water is also fairly cold so it might get a bit chilly. Next to the pool is another set of stairs up to the 16th floor where you can find the gym.

You’ll also find the ice machine near the laundry room if you want them. Other than that you’ll find 2 vending machines next to the lobby lift and 1 on the rooftop near the pool, some of those things are already complimentary to the room so unless you want more during the same day otherwise they will just restock it the next day.

PRICE

As I have mentioned that I booked this property 9 months out, and I got it for USD$228 for 5 nights, with a USD$13 cashback which is an absolute bargain for what you get with a full 1 bedroom with all the comfort of a home away from home. So if you are planning to visit and stay at this property, or even anything similar to this, you are better off booking it as early as possible to secure the best rate, but make sure they are free cancellation so if you do come across a lower rate in a later date you can always change.

They would also charge a deposit of USD$100 and they only accept cash. I don’t have much USD to begin with but I did have 80 Euros which they were happy to accept.

CONCLUSION

While it seems like a decent accommodation, the price I’ve seen is way too high for what they are offering, in terms of the quality of the accommodation. You do get a lot more space in comparison to a regular hotel room of course, but the build quality is like buying a Rolex from Temu, the lack of hot water and broken furnishing is not very ideal, the perception of luxury is quickly replaced by cheap low quality build, and definitely a big issue when it comes to a lack of accessibility to hot water.

The property amenities were good, the rooftop pool was refreshing when it’s hot out, but I find it to be a lot cooler up there even on a hot day so even just hanging out by the rooftop is nice if you get tired of being in the room. The gym seems well equipped but not a large area so you’ll be working in a relatively small space, but it doesn’t seem to get utilised much anyway.

The great thing would be the free bakery and coffee in the morning to kick start your day even if you don’t have time to get a proper breakfast. You can also utilise the kitchen to cook something up, but one night someone was cooking something and set off the fire alarm so maybe don’t go cook up a feast since they also don’t provide cleaning liquid which I think should be essential and not very expensive to provide if they have a kitchen facility.

The location seems safe, with many businesses along there having security personnel guarding which made the street to be safer to walk. There are also embassies located along that stretch of road so it’s a bit more well kept and designed than other streets, but there are still small stretches where you might have to dodge parked cars and rubbish by walking on the road. Once you go off the side street things would be very different and don’t expect to even get a side walk to walk on.

The biggest area for improvement is the information that they provide for their guests. Since some amenities like the laundry/ice machine are hidden behind a door that isn’t marked, you wouldn’t just wonder to the back of the building knowing that the amenities are there. They should inform the guests during check in or have an information sheet by the room including how to use the machine since there’s no explanation on what the buttons are supposed to be for the washing.

I wouldn’t pay much more for this property in saying so, given that I don’t think the value for experience/comfort/luxury is justified or worth it.