If I could give 6 stars for service I would, the people here are magnificent. it's rare to find a hotel where excellent service is provided by everyone from the manager (Roth K), to the reception desk, restaurant staff, tuk tuk driver ("Mr Payne" as we called him) and tour guide. Even though the last two are not directly employed by the hotel, the hotel referred us to them and we could not have been more pleased. We've traveled pretty extensively and our experience at the Smiling Hotel & Spa (where we stayed in October 2012) is to this day unmatched. We had a presidential suite, which was huge and featured a large jet tub. The pool was cleaned dutifully by a young man every morning and was the largest most pristine pool I've ever seen at a hotel. Till this day we still talk about this marvelous pool. The breakfast offered a large selection of asian and western foods and my husband could not get enough of the made-to-order omelettes.

The hotel may not be in the center of Siem Reap, but I wouldn't want it to be. Who wants to hear all that noise at night? The US$3 tuk tuk ride to the center was more than fair, especially when you grapple with US$20 taxi rides in New York City and even worse fares in Tokyo. Siem Reap, the hotel, the people, the food, everything about our trip was wonderfully charming and we cannot wait to go back.

I'd like to give special mention to our tour guide, whose name escapes my memory. He was formerly a monk and has a son and wife. Not sure if that helps identify him, but his English was great and his attention to detail as a tour guide could not be more appreciated. Angkor Wat is undoubtedly beautiful but he enhanced its beauty with all the information he was able to provide. I (a female) was wearing shorts the morning we met him and he had the wisdom to tell me to change into something more conservative since we were visiting a temple. We were so grateful for this, as we would not want to offend anyone or desecrate an ancient holy place. Apparently, many other tourists were not given this advice and we saw many a french and british lady walking around wearing shorts, oblivious to how they must look from a Cambodian perspective. All tour guides should be this honest, especially since as tourists, we travel long distances to appreciate and be humbled by foreign lands and their ancient treasures. Unknowingly offending the locals is something we very much want to avoid!

We tipped our tour guide 20%, which was all the cash we had on us, but if we could have we would have provided a much much bigger tip. Please, if you have the honor of having him as a tour guide, tip him and everyone else you encounter in the town generously. As middle class Americans (note, we are far from the 1% or any of the rich classes for that matter), we often have to cough up 15-20% tips for services in the USA no matter if they are good or bad, but with prices in Cambodia being but a fraction of what they are here, Americans and all others from developed countries can afford to tip amply.

I booked through agoda for a price of USD30 per night (breakfast included) and I got this huge room with a living room. Clean hotel, friendly receptionist, and cool swimming pool.

You can hire a tuk-tuk for USD25 per day and the driver will take you to the Angkor Wat archaeological park, Tonle Sap lake, night market, etc.

we stayed at this hotel for 5 amazing nights.
the staff are really smiling and helpful.
the room, toilet and corridors were all clean,
breakfast was very good.
the rate compared to other hotel is a bit high, but it worth of it :)
the only problem is the location which is far from town. but by only $2 u can go to old market, night market and pub street.