A final salute to Charles-Henri Chevet, sixteen years to shape a legend of Cambodian hospitality

One does not say goodbye to sixteen years of hotel adventure as if turning the page of a file. One honors a trajectory, a style, a way of managing a place and making it shine. Last night, at Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, the hotel community, partners of the group, and many friends gathered to pay tribute to Charles-Henri Chevet, General Manager and Area General Manager Phokeethra Hotels, whose departure marks the end of an era and the opening of a new chapter for the hotel scene in the Kingdom.

A "classic" hotelier at the heart of the lobby

Opening the evening, Tom Mayer, SVP Operations SEA & Japan for Sofitel, MGallery & Emblems, painted the portrait of a general manager who is at once a diplomat, an acrobat, a strategist, and a man of the field, reminiscent of those "classic" hoteliers who prefer the lobby over the back offices and the gaze of customers over Excel spreadsheets.

In his eyes, Charles-Henri embodies that rare model of hotel boss capable of welcoming heads of state and anonymous travelers with the same demand and warmth, always ready to run across the lobby for the arrival of a VIP and to return a few minutes later with a perfect suit and a regained smile.

More than a collaborator, a member of the Phokeethra family

Dr. Supachai Verapuchong, Managing Director of the Phokeethra group, then recalled the bet taken more than sixteen years ago by entrusting the keys of a property called to become iconic in Cambodia to a young 38-year-old director.

For him, Charles-Henri did not just build a hotel success; he wove bonds of trust and friendship that far exceed the professional relationship, to the point of now being considered a full member of the Phokeethra family.

Sixteen years of a Cambodian story

When Charles-Henri takes the floor, it is first to measure the privilege of having loved his profession intensely and the scene on which he exercised it. Fourteen years within the walls of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, sixteen years if including the years at Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra, it is "almost half a professional life" spent serving a country, two exceptional properties, and teams he has seen grow.

To the thousandfold asked question - "How can one stay so long in the same hotel?" - he answers with an evident reply: Cambodia itself, the kindness of its inhabitants, their gentleness and authenticity, which have become, in his eyes, a rare commodity in a hurried world.

He then evokes the places that shaped his daily life: at Siem Reap, the seven hectares of gardens, the golf course he learned to manage almost by surprise, and those teams of villagers who gave a local soul to an international resort; at Phnom Penh, an urban hotel surprisingly nestled in greenery, a "resort in the city" where nature serves as a breath in the dense rhythm of the capital.

The art of putting the customer at the center

Faithful to a very embodied vision of hospitality, Charles-Henri reminds that the true measure of the profession remains, and must remain, the attention given to customers. In his eyes, 90% of a hotelier's time should be devoted to those who walk through the door, contrary to a recent trend where administrative tasks, procedures, and reporting often overshadow presence in the dining room and lobby.

He claims, for Sofitel Phnom Penh as well as Sofitel Angkor, this culture of the host at the center: visitors, residents, partners, daily patrons who inspire teams and give meaning to each day.

A generation of hoteliers trained at Phnom Penh Phokeethra

One of the red threads of his speech was the pride of seeing Cambodian talents emerge, sometimes recruited as interns or recent graduates to then accompany them to supervisory, management, and then department director positions. He pays tribute to this core group of "Heads of Department," mostly Khmer, who built with him the excellence of the house, through the quality of service but also through the elegance of attitudes, solidarity among colleagues, and fidelity to Sofitel values.

This dynamic has also been nourished by the partnership with hotel schools that made Sofitel a training ground and springboard for many young Cambodians in the sector.

For Charles-Henri, these women and men are the true artisans of Phokeethra's success: those who, day after day, transform a brand standard into a memorable experience.

A farewell under the sign of gratitude

In conclusion, the outgoing general manager left the professional field for a moment to thank, with some emotion in his voice, those who, behind the scenes, made this hotelier’s life at high intensity possible: in particular, a partner capable of understanding impossible schedules, wake-ups at dawn, shortened nights, Christmas Eves and holidays spent at the hotel, last-minute canceled trips, but also late returns made up for by a fresh salad and a good shared bottle.

Charles-Henri then invited the assembly to prolong the evening in joy, to celebrate not an end but the trace left by sixteen years of trust, passion, loyalty, and friendship.

For Charles-Henri Chevet, this departure is nothing like an ending: it is a change of stage. For Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra and the hotel sector, it is a standing salute to a man who made the art of welcoming a total commitment, a genuine vocation.

More photographs here...