Refurbishments are underway at the Royal Bay Inn Angkor Resort, which has been taken over by Shinta Mani’s management company HMD Asia, and is being rebranded as the Shinta Mani Resort when it re-opens on August 1.

HMD Asia officially acquired the Royal Bay Inn, which is over the road from Shinta Mani, from previous owners Chheng Oun and Ly Heab on April 20, although the company was able to get a head start on work on one of the wings two weeks earlier, due to it being low season with few guests staying there.

Shinta Mani Resort is being marketed as a four star family resort, boasting 24 poolside garden rooms, 38 pool-view rooms and two junior suites.

Designed by legendary architect Bill Bensley – the man behind Shinta Mani and the forthcoming Park Hyatt – the look will be in keeping with its sister hotel’s clean lines and monochrome theme, but with a somewhat more lavish feel.

“The look will be totally different from what it is now to what Bill Bensley’s concept will be,” says director of sales and marketing Marpha Domingo.

She said the rooms will look a little like those in the sister Shinta Mani hotel, adding, “But of course it’s a slightly different target because it’s a resort. We will have 64 rooms so it will be more for groups and for families because we have more connecting rooms there.

“The setting will be lusher. Landscape-wise, Bill will be putting more plants and trees around, making a greener area. We have a lot of space between the wings so there is an opportunity to improve in terms of the landscape.”

The resort will also feature an all-day dining restaurant and conference rooms. Royal Bay’s large swimming pool will remain, although Domingo says the plan is to covert it from chlorinated to salt water.

“The pool is bigger,” she says. “The space is quite nice because we’ll be able to do dinner at the poolside. And there will be more opportunity to have events at the pool area.”

In keeping with the family friendly feel, there will be children’s play area near the pool.

The Shinta Mani Foundation, which supports local communities through education and vocational training, will also have a more visible profile at the Resort.

Domingo says that at the sister hotel, there isn’t really room to showcase the Shinta Mani Foundation and the work that it does. But the new hotel will have an area where the Foundation can show guests the nature of its philanthropic mission. A shop in the old hotel will be converted into an area where the Foundation can display information about its projects.

Domingo adds, “We are now involved with Senhoa, and we’ve given one of the classrooms as a space for a workshop where they make jewellery. Part of that area where the foundation is going to be will be used to display and sell the products that they’ve made.”

To coincide with the Shinta Mani Resort’s grand opening, Shinta Mani Hotel will also be renamed the Shinta Mani Club.

“The Club will be more exclusive for the guests,” says Domingo. The club will feature refreshments in the afternoons between three and five pm in Bensley’s Bar and this will be included in the rate.

She adds, “There will be other perks in the rooms as well, and the services.”