The One Hotel Angkor

A chic hotel for two – just one groovy room and a roof terrace that overlooks the bustling old town

The One Hotel has one room only – everything here is for you. It’s a cool little place in the heart of the old town, with a designer lounge that opens onto a narrow passageway and a shaded roof terrace where you can loll about on a comfy daybed or slip into a hot tub and gaze up at the blue sky. It's the brainchild of American owner and former luxury hotel manager Martin Dishman, who lives here and offers excellent guidance to the temples and buzzy ents scene of Siem Reap.

But this is a tale of two hotels, which are joined at the hip. Next door is owner Martin’s latest venture, Hotel Be Angkor, which opened in 2009 with 3 gorgeous rooms, a spa on the first floor and the Linga wine- and tapas bar below. And shared between them is the McDermott Gallery, where you can admire colourful tableaux by local photographer John McDermott, and even hire him as a photographic guide to Angkor.

Highs

• It’s not often you rock up to a hotel and find the whole place is yours, with all the staff at your beck and call
• The position in the middle of the old town is perfect if you want to go out and play at night
• A cool ground-floor lounge reception lounge with black cement floors, furry cube seats, designer sofas and chairs. Doors at the back take you through to the art gallery
• The roof terrace, with its daybed, jacuzzi, and surround sound system is a pretty cool place to hang out
• You're only a short motorbike or car ride away from Angkor Wat

Lows

• Now that Hotel Be Angkor is open next door, this place has lost a bit of that one-room exclusivity (though, with a total of 4 rooms between them, it's hardly huge!)
• The price was a little high compared to other places in the same area, but you get a lot of bang for your buck
• You’re bang in the middle of the old town so some noise is inevitable, although we stayed at the weekend and weren’t disturbed