Inclusions: How a little place near Angkor became one of the world’s best hotels


Jaya House River Park: How a little place near Angkor became one of the world’s best hotels
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There’s a lot of good going on behind the leafy green exter­i­or of one of the world’s best hotels. And much of it is “rather easy”.

Talk is cheap.

Chris­ti­an de Boer is tired of the hypo­crisy that runs rampant in the travel & tour­ism industry, such as “the B Corps that can’t wait to give you a plastic water bottle”.

Cer­ti­fic­a­tion sys­tems, which should rig­or­ously uphold cer­tain stand­ards and make decision mak­ing sim­pler for pro­spect­ive cus­tom­ers and sup­ply chain part­ners, rather serve to dis­ap­point and deceive.

Christian de Boer of Jaya House River Park Siem Reap speaks at the United Nations
Chris­ti­an de Boer speaks at the United Nations

Industry asso­ci­ation and trade media awards reward the paid-up mem­bers, pat­rons, and spon­sors of the organisers.

There will of course be cred­ible excep­tions; cer­ti­fic­ates and awards that mean some­thing; that rep­res­ent effect­ive action. 

How­ever, in an atmo­sphere of declin­ing trust in insti­tu­tions at all levels, includ­ing, or per­haps espe­cially, glob­al, it’s tough to sort the real from the ‘feel’. 

Loc­al actions speak louder than ‘like’-able words. 

And genu­ine smiles on the ground tell a story.

Smiles tell a story

With a beam­ing one, Tiger picked me up at the new Chinese-made air­port serving Siem Reap, the ‘gate­way’ to Cambodia’s premi­er tour­ism attrac­tion Angkor Wat. 

The former tuk tuk driver who once reg­u­larly shuttled Mr de Boer around Siem Reap is now the proud own­er of a lux­uri­ous tour­ing van thanks to the driv­ing and guid­ing work he picks up through his asso­ci­ation with Jaya House River Park.

Vanak, my deep tis­sue mas­sage ther­ap­ist, after learn­ing of my earli­er arrival from Bangkok, spoke of her recent hol­i­day in the Thai capital.

The Cam­bod­i­an staff of Jaya House River Park clearly earn decent wages with which they can lead expans­ive lives. And they take pride in their work.

Jaya House River Park's staff smiles tell a story
Jaya House River Park’s staff smiles tell a story

Hon­our­able HR policy is partly why Jaya House is not for the trav­el­ler on a budget, of course. But, with all the com­pli­ment­ary inclu­sions — daily mas­sage in the plush spa, break­fast (I spot­ted a bottle of spark­ling wine among the juices), laun­dry, mini bar, tuk tuk rides to and from town, and even the use of an old-school mobile phone to call for one — Jaya House River Park will put a smile on the faces of those who seek value for money.

I don’t think I’ve seen Google Maps reviews of such volume that are so over­whelm­ingly pos­it­ive. Tri­pAd­visor users are sim­il­arly delighted. They have col­lect­ively ranked Jaya House River Park among the top 25 hotels in the world for four years straight.

Con­tents ^

‘Trees for life’

With 36 guest rooms, two swim­ming pools, a spa, and an all-day-din­ing res­taur­ant, Jaya House River Park is a quiet, lush, and lux­uri­ous oas­is in the middle of a bust­ling tour­ist town.

The green­ness with­in the hotel’s grounds spills out into Siem Reap. 

The pub­lic park­lands that run along both sides of the Siem Reap River would likely still be rub­bish-strewn strips of dirt if it weren’t for Jaya House River Park remov­ing the trash and plant­ing more than 2,000 trees.

While many hotels talk about what they would do — if only guests would help them save pen­nies on laun­dry deter­gent — the good people at Jaya House lit­er­ally stepped out­side their front door and did some­thing great: Cre­ate a leafy river park to hon­our the Jaya House River Park name.

Jaya House River Park's greeness spills out into Siem Reap, along the Siem Reap River
Jaya House River Park’s green­ness spills out into Siem Reap, along the Siem Reap River

Con­tents ^

‘Refill Not Landfill’

Before we set off on the drive from Siem Reap’s new inter­na­tion­al air­port, Tiger handed me a cold tow­el, a glass of fruit pieces, and a Jaya House-branded ‘Refill Not Land­fill’ alu­mini­um water bottle brim­ming with cool relief. 

Refill Not Landfill at Jaya House River Park Siem Reap

I could keep the water bottle, he said. (Anoth­er inclu­sion!) There would be no plastic water bottles at Jaya House River Park.

Mr de Boer is a pas­sion­ate act­iv­ist against single-use plastics. He co-foun­ded Refill Not Land­fill in part­ner­ship with Dean McLach­lan, a fel­low Siem Reap-based hotelier.

Cambodia’s tour­ism industry uses 4.6 mil­lion single-use plastic water bottles a month, which, along with plastic bags and oth­er pla­sticky things, even­tu­ally end up in land­fills, rice fields, rivers, the Gulf of Thai­l­and, and the South China Sea. And around the world they go.

But merely com­plain­ing about it does nobody any good. As Mr de Boer has proven there are “viable altern­at­ives”. Indeed Mr de Boer’s pro­act­ive lead­er­ship-by-example is why he is an advisor to the United Nations in their Glob­al Tour­ism Plastic Ini­ti­at­ive

And he was a pan­el­list at the ‘High-Level Them­at­ic Event on Tour­ism’ that took place at the United Nations Gen­er­al Assembly, April 17, 2024. Dur­ing the ses­sion, Mr de Boer called for the tour­ism industry to do away with single-use plastics by Janu­ary 1, 2025. 

“[I]t’s rather easy to make the switch with sim­il­ar-think­ing industry part­ners”, he reck­ons. (One of his part­ners in this ini­ti­at­ive is Khiri Travel; also a “GT” Partner.)

High-Level Thematic Event on Tourism at United Nations April 2024
Chris­ti­an de Boer was a pan­el­list at the ‘High-Level Them­at­ic Event on Tour­ism’ at the United Nations in April 2024 dur­ing which called for the tour­ism industry to do away with single-use plastics by Janu­ary 1, 2025.

Con­tents ^

Multifaceted

Jaya House River Park’s viab­il­ity and suc­cess as a hos­pit­al­ity busi­ness in its own right makes all of its ini­ti­at­ives pos­sible and sustainable. 

None of them are ‘in your face’, boast­ful, or preachy when you’re a guest at the hotel, which is both refresh­ing and inspir­ing in our hyper­bol­ic, vir­tue-sig­nalling world. 

And regard­less of guests’ fur­ther dona­tions, which are of course grate­fully accep­ted, the property’s own­ers, man­age­ment, and staff sup­port sev­er­al oth­er causes, including:

Fur­ther­more, dur­ing the COVID-19 lock­downs that shut down live­li­hoods, Jaya House River Park co-star­ted an ini­ti­at­ive with Treeline Urb­an Resort and Mul­berry Hotel to donate and dis­trib­ute 54,000 plastic-free and styro­foam-free meals through­out Siem Reap province.

Con­tents ^

No pressure

Mr de Boer didn’t want me to focus on Jaya House River Park for this post. He would have pre­ferred it if I focussed on one or more of his causes, includ­ing per­haps the ‘Nutri­tion­al Book Drive’, which is cur­rently prom­in­ent on Jaya House River Park email sig­na­tures and the web­site right now.

Again, there’s no pressure: 

“You are already mak­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ence by stay­ing in a loc­ally owned hotel, [which] employs Khmer nation­als, provid­ing jobs, income, and oppor­tun­it­ies to the loc­al com­munity. This is the first way you, as a guest, help cre­ate a ripple effect.”

So, in that spir­it, I have centred this post around the prop­erty that Mr de Boer leads; the little hotel that walks the talk, and is much loved as a res­ult. And, I’ll go ahead and pub­lish any­way; as a “GT” Part­ner mes­sage; a com­pli­ment­ary inclu­sion with­in “GT” Partnership …

Thanks for all that you do, Jaya House River Park. You’re a cred­it to your people, your place, and the hos­pit­al­ity pro­fes­sion. I’m thrilled that you’re a “GT” Partner.

Con­tents ^

Jaya House River Park logo

About Jaya House River Park

Peace­fully loc­ated along­side the Siem Reap River, sur­roun­ded by fully-grown trees, Jaya House River Park is a hid­den gem in Cambodia.

With 36 rooms, two swim­ming pools, a spa, and an all-day-din­ing res­taur­ant, the boutique hotel is loc­ated about a six-minute tuk-tuk jour­ney from Siem Reap town in the dir­ec­tion of the mag­ni­fi­cent temples of Angkor Wat.

There is much more to learn about Jaya House River Park …

Featured image (top of post)

One of Jaya House River Park’s two swim­ming pools. Jaya House River Park reserves all rights to that image and all the oth­er images used in this post.

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