Practical Experience for ACE Diploma Students: A Trip to Borei Angkor Resort & Spa
By William Coward, ACE Siem Reap Campus Manager
On Saturday 3rd March, ACE Siem Reap students enrolled in the Diploma Program’s English for Tourism course were invited to attend a tour of one of Siem Reap’s most prominent hotels, Borei Angkor Resort & Spa. We were met at the hotel by Mr Sophai Yoeun, the Organisational Development Manager of Innotality Group.
The view of Borei Angkor Resort and Spa's large pool
Borei Angkor Resort & Spa is one of several hotels and hospitality businesses that are under the Innotality Group business umbrella. Mr Sopai then took us to the conference room where he gave us a very informative and interesting presentation about Innotality Group, Borei Angkor Resort & Spa and its history, and the future vision and plans for the hotel and group. The students were able to learn a lot from this and understand more clearly the different areas of business within the hotel and how it’s run.
After the presentation, Mr Sophai then started to take us on a tour of the hotel, but he was called away to attend to urgent business, as is the nature of running a business. Mr Bona Try, the Guest Experience Manager, was kind enough to take over the tour at a moment’s notice. The students were shown many areas, including the swimming pool, restaurant and bar area, spa, business centre and Privilege Floor, which is for guests who pay to have the ultimate service experience. All the employees at Borei Angkor Resort & Spa were very friendly and polite, and the students were very impressed with the level of professionalism and service they gave us.
Students listening to the hotel's manager speak
Visiting Borei Angkor Resort & Spa was extremely useful and relevant for the students: we were able to actually see what we have been learning about in a real-life setting. We are extremely grateful to Mr Sopai Yoeun and the team at Borei Angkor Resort & Spa for taking their valuable time to help educate ACE students.
Student Testimonials
“I'm so grateful that I had a chance to do a tour of Borei Angkor Resort & Spa. It was a rare opportunity for me. It helped me to learn more about how people manage a hotel day-by-day effectively. The hotel encourages its staff to be more confident about themselves. It focuses on hospitality, not about the guests’ appearance and personality. Moreover, it also invests in local communities by donating money to the children’s hospital, donating study materials for students in rural areas, buying fruit and other products from local markets, fundraising, holding blood donation drives and working to clean the environment.
I'm so proud of this hotel's style as it has a traditional Khmer style with traditional Khmer music, which shows the guests how stunning the culture of Cambodia is.” — Lin Sekreyvoleak
“Education is really important for humanity as we live on this planet. Also, it will be far more interesting if education is applied to the real world, so all learners will be able to compare their knowledge and understand real-world applications. With this idea, ACE has many different courses; English for Tourism is one of the fantastic examples of these. Alyson, an ACE teacher, organised a trip to Borei Angkor Resort & Spa.
Having a trip to Borei Angkor Resort & Spa was a great thing to do because the ideas of running and operating the hotel are brilliant. It is incredible how Borei Angkor Resort & Spa has visualised the future needs of customers. The clear and precise vision helps this business continually grow. In the beginning, it was a small guest house with several rooms and limited facilities. The ideas of each leader, management or board member set up the details of all kinds of action plans.
It is also very interesting as equality can be seen at Borei Angkor Resort & Spa between male and female leaders who come from different places with different skills. The board consists of both men and women, and all levels of management love and respect each other. Contained in their strategy is the word ‘MUDITA’, which means everybody is happy and everybody wants to see everybody being happy.
The Diploma Program students together in the hotel lobby
To conclude, taking the English for Tourism course at ACE is a great choice as the school has professional teachers and you can experience the reality of some of the aspects learned in the course. This can be seen clearly from the trip to one of Siem Reap’s best hotels, Borei Angkor Resort & Spa.” — Chun Pechey