This boutique hotel looks great on the website, but the hotel is located a long way from the action in Siem Reap town. The first impression of shoes and sandals strewn all over the front steps of the hotel is annoying, tripping on the way in.

The rooms are nice, but one of the the lamps did not work and could not be fixed, there was only one towel and bathrobe in a double room, the towels are paper thin, the bathroom basin is cold water only, and the next-door dogs barking outside the window all night was very tiresome.

The pool is very small, only a few strokes to reach the other end, and there are only a few deckchairs and seats. The water was cold which was refreshing after a day at the temples.

The staff are very friendly and wanted to help at every opportunity, although security at the hotel is questionable - all room keys are left on the front counter, including late at night when nobody is attending the desk.

The room rates are expensive compared to most of the hundreds of hotels in Siem Reap, I guess adding 'boutique' to their name let's them charge more than it is worth.

Visiting the Angkor Wat temples being the primary reason for our 4 days visit to Siem Reap, we booked the 3N4D packages from Shining Angkor. The airport pickup, check-in and the 4 day tour plan was all well executed by the extremely service oriented staff of the hotel. We were upgraded from a superior to a deluxe room cheerfully by the hotel manager a as compliments from the hotel. The rooms are big and clean and there's a lot of wooden furniture around the hotel right from the lobby to the room. The only downside during our stay was the breakfast took very long to be served and they also got the wrong order a couple of times. Overall we had a great time at the place and their stay plus sightseeing package is highly recommended.

We were sad to leave! We had a wonderful experience at Shining Angkor and Siem Reap - a highlight of our trip. The friendly service of all the staff (night manager, Khim, in particular), beautiful/clean rooms, magnificent traditional wood furniture throughout...all at a reasonable price. The close location to the temples was very convenient, especially since I enjoyed multiple sunrises at Angkor Wat (a can't miss). Free tuk-tuks into the town center were also a plus - just $2 to get back to the hotel at night and out of the fray of all the traffic/noise. Based on other reviews of the hotel, I would agree that they are persistent in wanting to help make your stay as enjoyable as possible (booking excursions, transportation, etc.) but we didn't find it to be annoying. The included breakfast was good & featured options each morning to order (not a buffet, thank goodness). My one minor complaint was the dogs barking/fighting and roosters crowing all night, every night - not much you can do about that & we chalked it up to part of the adventure. All in all, a terrific hotel in an enchanting place!

The Angkor Shining is a nice hotel. I liked the wooden bed but the good things stop there. From the minute we arrived the reception staff were trying to hassle us into booking tours through them for every waking moment we would spend in Siem Reap. We told them we would think about it and let them know if we wanted to book any. That wasn't enough, we were receiving phone calls to our room every morning asking what we were doing and if we were going to book. We went to eat breakfast and could't relax as the waiter was trying to sell bus trips! We felt extremely under pressure and it was not enjoyable. The staff were visibly annoyed when we turned down their offers and became stand offish which was very awkward, We also found them to be untrustworthy as we asked them to book tickets for the Mekong Delta to Ho Chi Minh City and they told us the route was no longer in service we would have to book with a bus company they recommended. Eh no thanks, we checked and obviously the route is in service so booked ourselves. I purchesed (over priced) stamps and postcards from the hotel which they said they would post and never have. The location isn't great either and the room smelled really badly of rubbish om outside. There was a lot of building work going on next to it which was noisy from early in the morning till late at night.