Is Viroths Hotel in Siem Reap Really One of the Best Hotels in the World?

Viroths Hotel Siem Reap has been named best hotel in the world many times over the years by Trip Advisor users on the travel site’s annual Traveller’s Choice awards. Are you curious as to what makes these hip lodgings so special that they win time and time again? We’ve been lucky to stay at Viroth’s a couple of times, so here’s the lowdown on Siem Reap’s most stylish boutique hotel.

Viroths Hotel, Siem Reap keeps topping the list of world’s best hotels. So what makes this gorgeous mid-century modernist boutique hotel on a quiet street in Siem Reap‘s emerging Wat Bo neighbourhood one of the world’s best hotels?

I’m here to tell you why, as a Siem Reap based travel writer who first tested out Viroth’s Hotel soon after its 2015 opening, who continually sends friends, clients and readers to stay, and who drops by regularly.

We live three blocks away, so I can vouch that Viroths Hotel’s employees are some of Siem Reap’s most outstanding staff, owners Viroth and Fabien Martial are often at the property ensuring everything is perfect, and there are always icy-cold scented towels and cooling lemongrass tea on arrival, even for visitors not staying.

Viroths Hotel is easily one of Cambodia‘s finest hotels and most stylish lodgings, and the Cambodian hotel I recommend most, alongside Siem Reap’s Sala Lodges, Raffles Hotel Grand d’Angkor, Shinta Mani, Maison Polanka, and Templation, and Phnom Penh’s The Plantation.

And as Cambodia’s boutique hotels are hands down some of Asia’s best hotels – Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, and Saigon simply can’t compete with cool Cambodia style – this makes Viroths Hotel Siem Reap one of Asia’s best hotels. But is Viroth’s Hotel the world’s best hotel?

What Makes Viroths Hotel Siem Reap the World’s Best Hotel

Chic and sleek and set in a whitewashed mid-century modernist building dripping with greenery, with a drop-dead gorgeous palm-fringed swimming pool, breezy poolside café-bar, and a more sophisticated glassed-in restaurant, Viroths Hotel in Siem Reap is one of the city’s most head-turning hotels.

With just 35 rooms and suites with balconies and terraces, Viroth’s Hotel is a small hotel. Yet its super-spacious light-filled rooms and suites at 30-50 square metres are some of the largest of any boutique hotel in Siem Reap. The hotel also has some of the biggest bathrooms, with sexy black tile showers and baths, and more retro touches in the terrazzo and louvred glass windows. 

Better resembling petite studio apartments, the rooms are some of the most comfortable and welcoming in the city, with cushions scattered on the vintage-style sofas, flowers in vases, fruit in bowls, art on walls, piles of books on coffee tables, and decorative objects on shelves of the kind you’d find in a cultured friend’s home.

Designed by ASMA, one of Siem Reap’s hottest architectural firms, whose headquarters is directly opposite, Viroths Hotel was decorated by owner Fabien Martial with an eclectic mix of antiques and collectibles, art and crafts, vintage pieces and retro replicas.

Expect to see anything from endearingly-battered well-travelled suitcases to Danish designer Verner Panton‘s funky moulded plastic S-shaped Panton Chairs. The look and feel of Viroth’s Hotel has been much copied since its opening.

Yet no matter how many other hotels attempt to mimic ASMA’s nod to Cambodia’s mid-century modernist movement of the late 1950s and 1960s known as New Khmer Architecture, and the retro eclecticism of Viroths Hotel’s otherwise minimalist interiors, few succeed.

Because it’s near impossible to match the attention to detail, taste and style of Fabien Martial. Fabien is the son of Jean-Pierre Martial, who in 1992 founded Siem Reap’s first vocational training school, Chantiers Ecoles, and the step-son of Nathalie Saphon-Ridel, a woman of exquisite taste.

Nathalie travelled Cambodia in the early Nineties making an inventory of master craftsmen who had survived the Khmer Rouge, and joined her husband in transforming Chantiers Ecoles into Artisans d’Angkor, and reviving Cambodia’s traditional arts and crafts in the process.

She also started Cambodia’s first carefully curated concept stores, Khmer Attitude (in 2000) and Galerie Cambodge (in 2010) and the couple transformed their family home into beautiful Maison Polanka hotel. Fabien, who grew up between Siem Reap and Paris, was surrounded by creativity and beauty. Viroth’s Hotel couldn’t have been anything but original.

Viroth’s location is also part of its appeal. Tucked down a quiet street off busy Wat Bo Road on Siem Reap’s Right Bank, east of the Siem Reap river, Viroth’s Hotel really is a hidden gem. The leafy, largely residential neighbourhood is rapidly emerging as one of Siem Reap’s most interesting neighbourhoods, and remains considerably more laid-back than the hectic city centre on the Left Bank.

This has made Viroth’s Hotel something of a secret for most visitors to Cambodia’s Temple Town, the vast majority of whom wouldn’t cross to the other side of the river unless staying there. And that has been a shame, as some of Siem Reap’s loveliest cafés, shops, bars, bakeries, and art galleries are located on the Right Bank.

Siem Reap’s Right Bank stretches all the way from Wat Damnak to Wat Polanka, while Wat Bo neighbourhood is centred around historic Wat Bo pagoda. The compact quarter is home to some of Siem Reap’s best restaurants, such as The Sugar Palm, and best bars, such as Miss Wong, which moved to the neighbourhood to escape the increasingly high rents of the city centre.

If you’re a lover of local travel and getting an insight into everyday life and how locals live their lives, set aside an hour for a wander and stroll along the nearby riverside paths. After a sweaty saunter you can reward yourself with a dip in Viroth’s stunning 20-metre swimming pool and a cocktail at the adjoining bar or delivered to your sun-bed.

Book Viroth’s Hotel Siem Reap online with our booking partner Booking.com

Can’t get into Viroths Hotel Siem Reap? Try Viroth’s Villa nearby, and see our guide to Where to Stay in Siem Reap for more of our recommended Siem Reap boutique hotels, all tried and tested.

UPDATED: 18 January 2025