Is there a kickback/commission system with hotels and guesthouses?
Yes, there is. And it is very well established and you can’t do much about it. In fact, there’s hardly a transaction of any kind in Cambodia that doesn’t involve some kind of kickback or commission for somebody. As a tourist it can affect you in several ways. Hotels and guesthouses. Some establishments actively encourage taxi drivers and moto drivers to bring guests by offering commissions of as much as $10 per guest and in some cases cuts of up to 50% of the customers entire bill for the length of their stay! This is the system at its worst and many guesthouses, including Khmer-owned guesthouses, would like to see it go away. As all the drivers know which hotels and guesthouses pay this kind of money there’s no way you can sneak around it and it probably wouldn’t save you any money if you could. Yes, the commissions are buried in the cost of the room but if you somehow managed to sneak into the hotel without a driver you’d still probably pay the same for the room. The problem that dev
