People
We hired twelve, mostly from Thlok Andoung Village and the next village over. Some had hotel experience. Most did not. All of them had grown up around a Yeay.
- We pay above the Siem Reap market rate, and we pay on time. Every two weeks, no exceptions.
- We cover healthcare premiums for staff and their immediate families — a parent, a partner, a child.
- We pay a school stipend for the children of every full-time hire, from primary school through high school, with a bridge fund for university where the family wants it and the student qualifies.
- Every employment contract is written, signed, and in Khmer. Copies stay with the staff member.
- We do not subcontract roles to labour agencies. Every person on the property is hired directly by Phteah Yeay.
The first day of orientation was not about service standards. It was about what it feels like to walk into your grandmother's house. The room was quiet. Several people cried. Then we ate.
We don't put these things on the home page. The staff know, their families know, and the village knows — and that's the only audience that matters.
Place
We chose this plot because it had a tangle of banana palms and an old well, and the third walk through it convinced us. We did not clear the trees. The architect designed the building around them, not over them.
- Travertine floors throughout the rooms and common areas, because a stone floor stays cool through April and reduces the air-conditioning load by a meaningful share.
- "Lamplight light" — the architect's phrase. Most of our interior lighting is warm, low, and pooled. There are no fluorescent strips anywhere on the property.
- The courtyard catches rainwater. Garden irrigation is run from collected rain in the months we have it.
- The kitchen vents through a chimney designed to draw without an electric fan during the cool months.
Sourcing
Where we can buy locally, we do. Where we cannot, we are honest about it.
- Greens from the courtyard. Lemongrass, basil, mint, makrut lime, and dragon fruit grow in raised beds along the south wall.
- Fish from Tonle Sap. The fishmonger at the market on Wat Bo Road sources from named villages, not anonymous wholesalers.
- Kroeung pounded by hand. A stone mortar and pestle, not a blender. The sound matters. So does the texture.
- Coffee from Mondulkiri when it's available, and Ethiopian or Colombian beans roasted in Phnom Penh when it's not. The espresso machine takes its espresso seriously; we did not skimp.
- Furniture from a workshop in Siem Reap that has been making teak for forty years. Oiled, not varnished. We can refinish it on-site as it ages.
Materials
- Linen sheets from a small mill we visited. Cotton sleeps cool here; synthetic does not. The cost difference is real, and we paid it.
- Raw silk lampshades from a weaver in the next district. The light through silk is the colour of the moment a meal is almost ready.
- Ceramic water carafes in every room. No plastic bottles. The carafe is refilled from filtered water at the reception each morning.
- Krama — handwoven cotton in the Cambodian style — folded on the foot of every bed.
Things we have not figured out yet
We promised ourselves we would write this section honestly, so here it is.
- Solar panels. The roof is the right size and orientation. The cost-benefit is closer to break-even at our scale than we hoped, and we have not yet committed. We will revisit in 2027.
- Single-use packaging in the kitchen. Eliminated in the dining room, not yet eliminated in our supplier chain. Some of our ingredients still arrive in plastic.
- Water bottles for tours. When the front desk arranges a tuk-tuk for Angkor sunrise, the guests need water for four hours. We have not found a satisfying alternative to bottled water for off-property use. Open to ideas.
- Carbon offset for international guests. Honest: we have not added this and we have not decided how we feel about offset schemes. We are reading.
What this is not
This is not a B-Corp certification. It is not a sustainability score from a tourism agency. It is a list of specific, real, small decisions, written down so that we can be held to them.
If you have a question, write to hello@phteahyeay.com. If you have a better idea than something we are doing, we would like to hear it.
Phteah Yeay — Thlok Andoung Village, Siem Reap, Cambodia.