Sustainability
We at Rambutan strive to be an environmentally and socially responsible Hotel and Resort.
We opened in Siem Reap in 2006 when the city was still undiscovered—a blank slate with few hotels. Our nine-room resort sat beside a pond where frogs sang nightly, buffalo roamed, and snakes were a common sight. Built as a Khmer Village, our stilted rooms embraced the breeze by day and offered restful nights above.
As Siem Reap’s first boutique hotel, we created an inclusive workplace, welcoming staff regardless of gender, background, or identity. Our only hiring criteria? Openness and kindness—values we expected from guests, too. At the time, Siem Reap was one of Cambodia’s poorest regions. Many of our team members, just 19 or 20, had only worked in family rice fields, with little formal education or infrastructure.
In 2009, we expanded with a 16-room resort, followed by a 19-room property in Phnom Penh (2013) and the Urban Residences—five luxury tropical apartments—next to our Siem Reap resort in 2016. Through it all, our mission remains unchanged, and many of our first employees are still with us.
Community Commitment of Rambutan
Engage, contribute, educate
The management and staff at rambutan’s hotel and resort are not only part of the community they live and work in but strive to be positive, supportive members of their community, dedicated to contributing to the sustainable development of Cambodia and its people. We actively encourage our staff to better themselves, their families and engage in humanitarian projects in our community. Many of our staffs are from the local NGO schools for hospitality, focusing on the poorest regions and people, to give them a better future.
Scholarship programs for staff and families available.
Education is the key to breaking the poverty cycle and improving lives but for many of the rambutan staff and families, higher education was previously out of reach. We are proud to say that through our scholarship program many of our staff and their children have now been enrolled or reintegrated into school. From kindergarten to university, they are studying subjects such as; law, tourism, business, finance, accounting, IT and English. A few of our team members even finished their Master degrees. We are very proud of them and their continued efforts to grow!
Healthcare and dental care for all staff
At Rambutan we provide free healthcare insurance for all staff, free dental care and we support family members in emergencies. We also provide interest free loans for staff to buy, renovate or built their house or buy land for a house. This to also accommodate lower salary earning people to build a future.
Emergency relief and support programs
In the past we supported an enormous flood relief campaign to help more than 1500 families around Siem Reap to survive the devastating effects of the worst flooding in living memories. In total we raised – together with 4 other travel businesses/organizations – more than 25.000 USD which went to emergency relief of rice, canned fish and clean water. Rambutan management and staff were proud to join the collaboration in delivering these packs to the communities.
The years after we supported a whole range of initiatives like the new Chhouk Sar Care Clinic for Gay and Transgender populations to get tested and treated for all sexual transmitted diseases as also the use of PREP to prevent the transmission of HIV. We also support the yearly giant pupped project, a creative festival and parade with giant puppets, made by many schools and organizations. A great and fun initiative
Environmental Mission
Cambodia is a country with many challenges in the past and even now. A lot of people have hardly the means to survive, electricity is scarce and expensive and even clean water is not available everywhere. We try as a hotel and guest in this country, not to add to the existing problems but to be a part of the solution. That’s why we strive to be as clean and as limited as possible in the use of energy and potential pollutions. Together with our staff with strive to make a difference, by:
• Using organic local fruits and vegetables in our kitchen and bar
• Recycling our cooking oil to return and transform into bio-diesel for the generator
• Use accessories made from recycled plastic bags
• Plastic-free!! Garbage bags, take-away meal boxes and straws made from compostable sugar cane residue
• Joining on a regular base the “city clean- up” events
• Promoting the usage of reusable aluminum water bottles instead of plastic ones which can be refilled for free at the water stations in our hotels
• Using Solar panels to pre-heat the hot water We hope you will support our efforts to minimize our impact on this beautiful society.
• And many other efforts to minimize our impact
Community partnerships
At Rambutan Hotel and Resort, we are proud to partner with local organizations that have proven results in within the communities that they work. Here some of our long-standing community partnerships:
