Phnom Penh Hotel Prices: A Cost Guide

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Phnom Penh’s hotel prices run similar to, sometimes slightly below, Siem Reap’s — a well-appointed capital city with less tourism pressure on accommodation than the temple town gets.

Budget: guesthouses and hostels

Hostel dorm beds run $4-9/night; private rooms at budget guesthouses run $10-22/night, generally with air conditioning and en-suite bathrooms, similar in standard to Siem Reap’s budget tier.

Mid-range: boutique and business hotels

Boutique hotels and solid business-class properties, particularly around riverside and BKK1, run $30-70/night for a double room.

Upscale: 4-star hotels

Fuller-service 4-star properties with pools and multiple amenities run $70-130/night.

Luxury: 5-star hotels

Top-tier international-brand hotels run $130-250/night, generally cheaper than equivalent properties in more heavily touristed Southeast Asian capitals like Bangkok.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a hotel cost in Phnom Penh?

Budget guesthouses run $10-22/night, mid-range hotels $30-70/night, and luxury hotels $130-250/night.

Is Phnom Penh cheaper than Siem Reap for hotels?

Prices are broadly similar, sometimes slightly lower in Phnom Penh given less concentrated tourism demand than Siem Reap.

Are Phnom Penh’s luxury hotels cheaper than Bangkok’s?

Generally yes, for a comparable standard of international-brand luxury hotel.

Related guides

• Best Budget Guesthouses in Phnom Penh
• Best Riverside Hotels in Phnom Penh
• Best Hotels in Phnom Penh
• Where to Stay in Phnom Penh: Choosing Your Area
• Phnom Penh Nightlife Guide

Named examples by tier

At the luxury end, Raffles Hotel Le Royal and Rosewood Phnom Penh anchor the $130-250/night bracket. The Plantation – Urban Resort & Spa and Pavilion Hotel represent the strong $30-70/night boutique tier. Onederz Hostel Phnom Penh and Mad Monkey Phnom Penh cover the budget end at $4-22/night depending on room type.

Why Phnom Penh runs slightly cheaper than Siem Reap

Phnom Penh’s hotel market is shaped more by business and NGO travel than pure leisure tourism, which keeps average pricing a touch more stable and slightly lower than Siem Reap’s more seasonal, Angkor-driven demand. This also means less dramatic peak-season price spikes than in Siem Reap.

What drives price differences within the same tier

Within any given price band, river views, pool size, and proximity to the Royal Palace/riverside sights are the main things that push a Phnom Penh hotel toward the top of its bracket — a BKK1 hotel with the same star rating as a riverside one will often run 10-20% cheaper purely for location.

Booking timing

A week or two ahead is usually sufficient even in peak season (November-February) — Phnom Penh’s hotel inventory is larger relative to demand than Siem Reap’s more concentrated boutique scene.

Booking timing and seasonal swings

Phnom Penh doesn’t see the dramatic seasonal price swings that beach destinations do, but dry season (November-February) still runs 10-20% above rainy season rates, and rooms during the Water Festival in November (when the whole city fills up for the river boat races) can sell out days in advance at any price. Booking 1-2 weeks ahead is usually enough outside of these peak windows, though named riverside properties like Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra are worth booking a bit further out given their popularity.

Why Phnom Penh runs slightly cheaper than Siem Reap

As a working capital city rather than a resort town built around a single attraction, Phnom Penh has a much larger and more varied hotel supply relative to tourist demand, which keeps prices more competitive across every tier — a mid-range hotel here often runs 10-15% less than a comparable property in Siem Reap. Business travelers also make up a larger share of Phnom Penh’s hotel guests than in Siem Reap, which supports steadier, less seasonally volatile pricing overall.

Comparing a full trip budget by hotel tier

For a 4-night Phnom Penh stay, budget guesthouses ($6-20/night) total $24-80, mid-range hotels ($30-60/night) total $120-240, and upscale riverside properties like Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra ($110-180/night) total $440-720 — a wide enough spread that, as in Siem Reap, accommodation choice often has more impact on total trip cost than any other single spending category.

Because Phnom Penh functions as both a tourist destination and a working business capital, its hotel market includes a genuinely deep mid-range tier built around business travelers — this works in leisure travelers’ favor, since it means solid $35-55 hotels with reliable service are easier to find here than in some purely tourist-driven destinations.

What drives price differences within the same tier

Within any given price band, the biggest swing factor is usually age and recent renovation status rather than star rating alone — a recently renovated 3-star can outperform a tired, older 4-star at a similar or even lower price. Checking recent review dates and photos (rather than just the overall star rating) is worth the extra few minutes when comparing similarly priced options.

How to negotiate longer-stay discounts

Independent guesthouses and smaller hotels are often willing to offer a modest discount (5-15%) for stays of a week or more when contacted directly rather than booked through a platform — a polite direct email or WhatsApp message mentioning your planned length of stay is worth the small effort, particularly for budget and mid-range properties where margins make this kind of direct negotiation more common than at large international chains.

Larger chain hotels like Sofitel are less likely to negotiate directly but often run their own loyalty program discounts or seasonal promotions worth checking on the hotel’s own website before booking through a third-party platform, since these direct promotions sometimes beat the platform rate.

What a realistic total accommodation budget looks like for a week

A week split between 3 nights budget ($10-15/night) and 4 nights mid-range ($40-50/night) lands around $190-245 total for accommodation — a useful anchor figure for travelers trying to build a realistic overall Phnom Penh budget before adding food, transport, and activities on top.

A final comparison worth keeping in mind

If your trip splits time between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, budgeting slightly more for Siem Reap accommodation and slightly less for Phnom Penh reflects the genuine price gap between the two markets discussed throughout this guide — a small adjustment that helps your overall trip budget track reality more closely than assuming identical costs in both cities.

Keeping these figures as a rough mental benchmark makes comparing specific listings considerably faster than researching every individual hotel’s pricing history from scratch.