Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

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Cowshed Cowboy
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by Cowshed Cowboy »

Kuroneko wrote:
indigo_design wrote: SHV is a cheap and cheerful seaside town for those on a budget and I don't expect it to ever climb out of that with or without an international airport and for me personally I am quite happy about that.

For those from the UK, think Blackpool rather than Bournemouth.
Pattay was a bit "rural" back in the '70's - looking back would many people have imagend how it would develop
I've seen those old pictures before and there is some great old you tube footage of those times, I wish I had had a chance to experience in those days as fully developed resorts are not totally my thing, I think they lose a lot of the character in favour of commercialism.
I like Independence beach in SNH but if it achieved full development and was swamped with people I probably wouldn't bother with place.
Yes sir, I can boogie, I can boogie, boogie, boogie all night long.
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vladimir
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by vladimir »

Last time I went to Otres I couldn't believe how much it had changed in a year or two.

tbh, I preferred it when it wasn't so developed, much quieter, now it's alike a toasting rack for Russians/Scandinavians, hundreds of them everywhere, I don't like crowds.
Jesus loves you...Mexico is great, right? ;)
OrangeDragon
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by OrangeDragon »

StroppyChops wrote:Just to chime in from the sidelines, hotel stars are not awarded on how lush the establishment might be or on consensus - there is an internationally established rating system for assessing hotels that includes number of rooms, availability of room service, 24/7 reception and certain tangible resources. This is why the 'self assessment' system on TripAdvisor and Wotif (for example) becomes a bit of a nonsense for discerning travelers.
There is no international standard... there are several different ones:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_rating
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phuketrichard
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by phuketrichard »

in Cambodia,
the owners assign the stars.

like i said i looked at all 3.4,5 star properties in the country in late 2008 ( the 1-2 star were handled by Cambodia staff)
and just about 90% were marked higher than i rankled them by international standards that we had used in Ca.

SO stars dont mean shit in SE Asia
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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StroppyChops
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by StroppyChops »

Perhaps I should have said there is an accepted standard of assessment in the western world - at least there was when I was completing hospitality studies in the late 80s and working at the Sheraton.
phuketrichard wrote:SO stars dont mean shit in SE Asia
My point, exactly.
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by OrangeDragon »

Reflecting on some of the shit said here... I can't think of a single city I've ever been to in any country where I would think that it's remained unchanged for 5-10 years. Especially if it was a place in need of some growth... I would assume it had either happened or fallen mostly off the map.

I'm sort of surprised by how many people apply what they experienced in Sihanoukville half a decade ago or more to their perceptions of what it now must be. Especially since the type of person who travels frequently enough to end up being an expat (generally) would normally have experienced those same changes in other cities between visits, often even much shorter ones.
wackyjacky
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by wackyjacky »

When I search for a hotel in say BKK on say Agoda or Hotels.com, I 1st check 5*, by price to see if there's a mistake rate or a great promo. I got the Crown Plaza Lumpini for 500B (all in), the Marriot Sukhumvit for 2500 (ai), the Renaissance for 1800, and the Four Seasons for 2700 (ai) that way this year. Then I go to the 4s. There will be some old joints that are living on reputation, haven't been maintained, and have dropped to 4 or 3.5. However the lists are usually pretty solid. The only time I really give a sh*t is on Priceline. They over-rate a ton of properties and since you don't know what your buying, can't do any research, then it's easy to get f*cked. I check out Better Bidding and Bidding For Travel to see what properties I might get and what people are bidding, but that only helps so much. Recent customer reviews are what I count on generally. ps: the Crown Plaza is going for only 5000 IHG points right now (Points Break Promo) and there's a way to buy the points for 7 cents each through a glitch in the system. That = $35. The place is great. I'd pay 35 just for another go on their automatic Japanese toilets. Go to the Points Guy's archives and he'll walk you through the process to buy the points so cheap.
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phuketrichard
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by phuketrichard »

I worked for Booking.com, agoda, ( before they were agoda), Priceline & Hotel travel so do understand the stars and most of it is based on what the OWNERS / managers tell the agents.

i never look at what stars or points a property has,

does it fit what i need at the price i want is all i care about
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
giblet
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by giblet »

I haven't been in Cambodia for so long, but already Sihanoukville has changed a lot. Serendipity Road wasn't even paved four years ago. There are several hotels there in the 3-4 star range, and I think Song Saa and Sokha would probably make 5 star. Don't get me wrong, I think Sihanoukville is a dump, but to pretend it's the same dump it was 6 or 7 years ago isn't correct. It's an up-and-coming dump.

I don't understand the surprise about the Russians. Russians have always been one of the primary communities in Sihanoukville--the only thing that's changed is that they're now on Serendipity, too.
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Re: Bar Owners in Sihanoukville Being Watched

Post by OrangeDragon »

phuketrichard wrote:I worked for Booking.com, agoda, ( before they were agoda), Priceline & Hotel travel so do understand the stars and most of it is based on what the OWNERS / managers tell the agents.

i never look at what stars or points a property has,

does it fit what i need at the price i want is all i care about
when? and have the rating systems been updated since then? most rating systems now are averaged votes of users, which of course will include some sockpuppets from the owners (and competitors) but once i place gets over 30 or so you can generally assume those are moderately insignificant to the statistical total. over 100 and they're almost completely insignificant. especially considering the competition between the owner sockpuppets rating it up and the competitor sockpuppets rating it down sort of cancel one another out for the most part.

google almost demands a user based rating system for them to take a sites reviews/ratings seriously now and for the site to rank well as a result. a few exceptions... but not many.
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