The Hotel That Gives And Gives

There’s a lot more soul to this hotel than just luxury.

- Sim Ee Waun

From luxurious accommodation, great food, memorable excursions and indulgent pampering, great guest experiences are the goal of most luxury hotels in Asia. But behind the scenes, many of them also go the extra unseen and unsung mile of giving back to the communities they work in, some more so than others. Luxury boutique hotel group Shinta Mani in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is an impressive example. In its portfolio are boutique hotels Shinta Mani Shack and Shinta Mani Angkor in Siem Reap, as well as upcoming Shinta Mani Angkor Bill Bensley Collection and Shinta Mani Wild, both of which open late this year.

While high-end holiday-makers enjoy pampering stays at its properties, part of the Shinta Mani Group’s revenue funds its own foundation, which runs a plethora of community programmes mainly in the form of education, healthcare programmes and ‘direct assistance’.

The Shinta Mani Foundation (SMF) was founded in 2004 by Sokoun Chanpreda, a Cambodian businessman and the owner of the Shinta Mani hotels. This not-for-profit organisation started on the grounds of the group’s first hotel, the Shinta Mani Shack, in the form of its own hospitality school—one of the first in the country. Here, underprivileged students are taught international-standard hotel operations free of charge, with their meals, accommodation and materials provided and a small stipend of money and rice given to help their families. Says Brad Akins, Director of Shinta Mani Foundation, “We work together with other organisations to find at-risk students—at risk of being taken advantage of. These include women, which comprise 50 per cent or more of our students, orphans and displaced people.”