Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor reopened its doors after a six-month closure for renovations and refurbishments.
112 of the property's 119 rooms and suites have been fully refurbished. Among the contemporary touches, spotlights have been added to brighten up the rooms and power ports and USB charging stations have been added.
The French windows, which swing open to views of either street scenes or the plantation-style grounds of the hotel, have been upgraded. Each room now has a writing desk and vintage rotary telephone, thanks in part to the added floor space created by removing cabinets and replacing them with built-in wardrobes.
The greatest makeover is to the bathrooms, with all-new Italian tiling and fixtures and separate rain showers.
"In the Grand Hotel, we're custodians of an incredible historical asset," said Oliver Dudler, Raffles Cambodia Cluster general manager. "The careful restoration and refurbishments will enhance guest comfort by offering new modern amenities while staying true to our longstanding heritage and classically elegant ambience."
The main difference that returning guests will notice upon arrival is that the updated facade and the entire exterior of the hotel is now painted alabaster white, rather than its former cream-beige hue, which is the color of Royal Khmer architecture across the country.
The hotel's Elephant Bar, renowned for its celebrity patrons, retains the air of a bygone era.
Contractors David Grace Designs have brightened up the Café d'Angkor, while refurbishing the interior design in the conservatory, famed for its afternoon teas and baby grand piano.
A new signature restaurant, named "1932," will open for service in November.
The biggest structural addition to the property is the complete renovation of the outdoor Apsara Terrace, where Khmer performances are enacted, into a new meetings and event venue to be called the Raffles Marquee.
With Angkorian boundary stones of laterite, and surrounded by lush gardens, the new canvas-roofed center aims to meet the growing luxury MICE business demand.
The property has nearly 3,000 square feet of meeting space.
The Grand Hotel d'Angkor was designed in 1929 by French architect Ernest Hébrard, whose vision endures in many of the longstanding French colonial buildings of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh.
The Grand Hotel opened in 1931-2 with just 63 rooms and Its first visitors were treated to an interior combining Khmer art and furnishings with Art Deco influences such as black and white marble floors.
The property, along with its sister heritage hotel, Le Royal, in Phnom Penh, was taken over by Fairmont Raffles Hotels International in 1997 at the invitation of Cambodia's King Sihanouk.
Information is based off a press release from Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor.
