It is very difficult to find detailed data of the past of Hotel Cambodiana. There are bits and pieces here and there, but not easy to find. I collected as much as I could that is still available from different sources.
However, meeting the Architect Moritz Henning here in Cambodia in 2018, who had several interviews with Lu Ban Hap in his apartment in Paris a few years ago, provided us with more original details of Hotel Cambodiana’s history.
I am very grateful to Moritz Henning for letting us use and publish his writings in our Blog. Some more great insight into Cambodia’s architectural history by Moritz Henning can also be found here “Kambodschas modernes Erbe“
Situated on the banks of the famous Mekong River, the magnificent Hotel Cambodiana is located in the heart of Phnom Penh’s central business and tourist districts, offering visitors convenient access to all that Phnom Penh has to offer.
With this, here is a timeline of the exciting story of Hotel Cambodiana with pictures from the past.
Originally, His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk had asked architect Lu Ban Hap to design a small motel of 10 bungalows to be built on a piece of land near the Water Sports Complex.
Norodom Sihanouk himself had made sketches for some bungalows and a – or kitchen pavilion in which he wanted to accommodate and entertain close friends and state guests. Lu Ban Hap then made blueprints out of these drawings, and so began the first expansion stage of the hotel. But the concept was economically unsustainable and led to large losses, and so the idea for a large hotel was born.
When Lu Ban Hap noted that only a “proper hotel” would be commercially successful, Norodom Sihanouk replied, “But I have no money. How can we achieve that? ” Lu Banh Hap says that he was able to persuade Tourism Minister Ang Kim Khoan to continue planning, and that on this basis, Norodom Sihanouk agreed to continue the project. Towards the end of 1967, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Tourism, Ung Mung said that the hotel must have at least 100 rooms in order to be profitable.
To finance the construction, the state-owned company SOROTEL was transformed into a joint venture and capitalized with Riel 120 million. The National Bank of Cambodia became the largest shareholder, Norodom Sihanouk and a banking consortium held further shares. Lu Ban Hap mentioned in 2014 that Sihanouk probably held about 30% of the shares.
According to Lu Ban Hap, it was unclear at the time how such a large hotel could function economically, which is why he tried to involve the Air France Group in project development.
“When Sihanouk asked me to build the Hotel Cambodiana, I told him that if we want to build a hotel of this size, we have to fill it up, and we need to know how it works. The customers do not come by themselves. We need someone with an international name who knows what customers want. “
Lu Ban Hap contacted Air France and told them we wanted to build a hotel and asked them if it was possible to get a 70% occupancy rate. Air France invited him to visit different hotels like Meridien, Concorde etc. for two weeks, and he looked at it and tried to get the suggestions for Hotel Cambodia. However, the cooperation with Air France to implement the hotel concept has never been realized.
The design for the building dates back to 1966 or 1967. Lu Ban Hap recalls that with his concept he outcompeted a proposal by Vann Molyvann’s Ministry of Public Works, which proposed a high-rise building. LBH convinced Sihanouk with the idea to keep the hotel’s large building mass as low as possible and to provide it with a roof that is based on the design of the roofs of the palace and the pagodas along the water:
“Before drawing the plan, I walked along the banks of the Mekong River. From there I saw Wat Phnom Daun Penh (hilltop temple), built in traditional Khmer style, the Royal Palace, built in Khmer style, the National Assembly building and a little further Wat Langka. So I thought that you can not build anything that is not Khmer style. At the beginning there were two suggestions. The ministry then suggested a rectangular tower with 10 or 12 storeys. After introducing my project, Sihanouk asked me why I wanted to build in Khmer style. I told him how I walked down the river and saw all the red roofs, built in Khmer style, and that’s what the visitor wants to see. A tower would be a foreign body in the silhouette of the city. And Sihanouk followed my argument.”
Originally, the hotel was budgeted with Riel 100 million, but ultimately cost about 160 million. The north wing was completed in 1970, the same year as Norodom Sihanouk was disempowered by Lon Nol.
Lu Ban Hap and Sihanouk were divided over the design of the rooms (size, balcony …). Each room of the hotel had a balcony, which in turn should provide shade for the balcony below. Sihanouk wanted to discuss big rooms, a salon, but Lu suggested, in view to keep maintenance, cleaning and energy cost down, that people can meet in the center and eat there, that was the salon, so that the rooms do not get dirty. Generous living areas were planned in the middle section / tower of the building but people, according to Lu Ban Hap, did just the opposite, ate and celebrated in the rooms …
The hotel was originally set up on pillars to provide a view of the river on the ground floor. Today, the ground floor is completely enclosed in order to gain additional space for the hotel.
Lon Nol, leader of the military coup in 1970, turned the hotel into a military camp and walled the balconies when Phnom Penh came under fire.
In conversation, Lu Ban Hap tells that the Cambodiana was actually not officially put into operation in the 1960s, as due to political conditions, it could no longer be fully completed and officially opened. Rather, the building was officially opened in the 1980s.
The opening was actually scheduled for Sihanouk’s return to Cambodia from his 1970 trip, but Sihanouk did not return to Cambodia due to the recent takeover of Lon Nol.
At times, the hotel was at least partially used by the military and with the growing unrest in the country Phnom Penh refugees used the building and the associated land.
To protect the building from looting and destruction, Lu Ban Hap had the entrance to the building walled in the early 1970s and built a fence around the site. When the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975 the building was abandoned and just sometimes used as a fertilizer depot.
In 1988, Singaporean investors, Stephen Lek and Lim Ban Thoon re-launched the project and completed the Hotel at its present site. Traditional Khmer architecture is still prevalent around the façade of the hotel, surrounded by large landscapes. The hotel rooms and restaurants were designed and given pagoda themes. It was then first opened as a hotel Sofitel in June 1990 when peace was finally restored to Cambodia. Nearly all Diplomats and journalists coming to Cambodia stayed at the hotel during the 1991-93 UNTAC period, and it was the boom time for the Hotel Cambodiana.
Many celebrities and politicians were seen at the hotel during that time, such as:
The President of France – François Mitterrand, a popular star of Singapore – Fann Wong, the United States Senator and Currently Secretary of States – John Kerry, the popular star of Hong Kong – Jakie Chan, Senior Japanese diplomat and United Nations administrator, supervised the Cambodian peace negotiations and subsequent elections in 1993 – Yasushi Akashi, English Actor Sir Peter Ustinov, Swiss President Jean Pascal Delamuraz and many, many more.
By 2005, the Cambodian owned company ‘Royal Group of Companies’ purchased the property lease and manages the hotel since then.
To see more photos that did not fit into the text above, follow the link here. If you have ever worked at the Hotel Cambodiana and have more background and stories or relevant photos, please send it to us to add it to the history of this fantastic building. I hope this write-up will animate readers to send in their collections for the joy of others and keep the history alive.