I didn't get to book the Sydney Harbour YHA hostel because it was out of my budget. So I decided to book one night's stay at another YHA hostel simply because I wanted to experience one of the top rated hostels in Sydney. Luckily this YHA hostel didn't fail to impress me!  Awesome staffs, awesome facilities and awesome location!!!

I love their storage system like this. Normally some hostels just let the guests simply put their luggage at one corner.

We stayed at The Luxury Concept Hostel when we were at Siem Reap. I chose this hostel because a blogger wrote that this hostel was very near to places like pub street and night market.  All of these places were within walking distance.  At first I wanted to book the Mad Monkey Hostel because the hostel has a rooftop bar and a swimming pool. However, it was a little bit pricey and it was a party hostel.  So we changed our mind and chose this hostel.  I was glad that I chose this hostel because I really enjoyed my stay at this hostel. We really rested well after visiting the temples.

Price

The Luxury Concept Hostel *private room for 2 person* (67.50 USD/2) = 33.75 USD

Facilities

FREE

•Linen Included   •Free City Maps   •Towels Included   •Free WiFi  Free Internet Access

GENERAL

•Security Lockers  •Common Room  •Bicycle Parking  •Breakfast included  •Air Conditioning  •Hot Showers  •Reading Light  •Safe Deposit Box

SERVICES

•Internet Access  •Laundry Facilities  •Bicycle Hire  •Towels for hire  •Luggage Storage  •24 Hour Reception  Tours/Travel Desk  •Currency Exchange  •ATM    •24 Hour Security   • Housekeeping

FOOD & DRINK

•Restaurant  Bar  and restaurant • Mini-Supermarket 

ENTERTAINMENT

•Pool Tables

Things to note

1)Credit Cards are not accepted and taxes included.
2)Check in time is 2pm and check out time is 12:00.
3)3 days advance notice for free cancellation.
4)Cash payment only upon arrival. *They accept USD

5)The rooftop restaurant and bar opens daily from 06H00 to 23H00 with Khmer and western food.

My Review

1. The Staffs

The staffs were really friendly and helpful. Before our arrival, I sent them an email to ask them to arrange a shuttle service from van station to their hostel. They were really helpful and gave me quick respond. I was glad that they did arrange the transport for us to reach their hostel and it was cheaper. They only charged us 5USD per trip. It was cheaper than my Cambodian friend's driver. So I told my Cambodian friend to cancel his booking with the driver and I used the hostel's shuttle service. 

Besides that, they were very thoughtful too. They printed my name on an A4 paper so when my friend and I reached there we didn't have to worry about communication problems with the drivers there. You know..it was hard because some people could not understand and speak English fluently.  We knew that we were safe and we boarded the correct tuktuk.

Apart from that, the tuk tuk driver also kept calling to confirm with my location. You know ..many bad things can happen at night. It was very good to know that there was people waiting for us at the station. Due to some communication problems, he waited for us for two hours. I told my Cambodian friend to call the hostel staff to arrange the transport for us. Maybe my Cambodian friend estimated our arrival time to Siem Reap wrongly. So the tuk tuk driver waited at the station sharp at 6 p.m. He called me at 6.30 p.m. and I was so shocked because I didn't know where I was at that time. The road was so dark and we could hardly see any road signs along the road. Besides that, there were less street lamps at the national highway too. Even though some roads had names, I couldn't read at all. I tried to search my location using GPS but there was no signal. I was really scared at that time.  Thus, I told him 'We were on the way. On the way. Just wait. Sorry. Sorry.' 

And he was very polite and answered, 'Okay.' 

One more hour passed and he called again. I was panicked. Luckily my phone was able to connect to the internet so that I could check the location and the estimated time of my arrival. Then I told him, 'Sorry, we are now at Siem Reap 8p.m. We will reach. 8 p.m.' I was really afraid that he would felt angry and storm off.  Thank God he didn't.

I felt relieved when I reached Siem Reap and saw my name on the paper. It meant that he was still there waiting for us patiently.  Once we were on the tuktuk, we kept on saying sorry to him. He smiled and said okay. He asked us whether we wanted to go to have dinner. We told him to go to the hostel first. Then we asked him ' You must be hungry?' He just nodded. Lol we felt so guilty. So I told my friend to tip him some money.  After 15 minutes, we reached the hostel safe and sound. We thought he would charge us extra because he waited for two hours. Thus, we asked him how much was the ride. He said 5 dollar. Then, we gave him 6 dollar and we said sorry again.  xD What an experience. Thank God I was not travelling alone.

The hostel did provide free breakfast for us daily. However we didn't get the opportunity to have our breakfast for two days. This was because we woke up very early to go to Angkor Archaeological Park. When we went back from temple-hopping, we were very tired.  We were too exhausted to walk out to have dinner so we went to our hostel's rooftop to eat. One of the staffs saw *A guy..I was not sure whether he was the owner of the hostel * us sitting there and he informed us that our dinner was free. He said he only charged us for the drinks but the meals that we ordered were free. He added that this was because we didn't get to eat their breakfast so the meals were free. The next day our dinner were free too. :) We were like 'Wow!' Thanks a lot for that.  

Apart from that, the staff also helped us on our last day's stay. After we checked out, we were waiting for a van to pick us up to the station. Then there was a staff sitting at the counter asking about our tickets and etc. She told us to inform her if the van driver didn't arrive on time so that she could help us to call the van driver. We really appreciated her courtesy to help us. In conclusion, all of the staffs there were very nice!

2. The Food

The free breakfast provided by this hostel was great! It was not the normal toast, eggs or jam that we usually have at most of the hostels. We could actually choose what we wanted to eat and drink from the menu. I was impressed. Too bad we only managed to try their breakfast the last before we departed to Phnom Penh.  At first I didn't want to try because we wanted to go back to Phnom Penh early. However, I was glad that we tried. 

3. The Room

The room looked slightly different from the photos from the website. I was not sure about other hostel rooms having the same problems or not. There were some crickets in our room, on our bed, in the shower room and toilet. I didn't know where did they come from because we already closed the door and window tightly. Then I realised that we also faced the same problems when we stayed at a hotel at Phnom Penh. There were crickets everywhere. Overall, the room was comfortable. They also had housekeeping daily. How did we know? Lol. This was because they folded us dirty and smelly clothes neatly.  It was really nice but we just felt embarrassed because our clothes were strewn everywhere. Haha this was because we didn't expect that they would fold our clothes either. I just thought that they would clean the room only.

The room looked slightly different from the booking website. Overall we still had a pleasant stay there.