The precise opening date of Grand Hotel d'Angkor is difficult to establish due to the lack of documentary evidence mostly lost during the Khmer Rouge and civil wars. From a 1929 document, it appears that the hotel was already under construction with a projected opening by 1931. Information written in 'L’Indochine: revue économique d’Extrême-Orient' on 5 June 1930, mentions that the Société des Grands Hôtels Indochinois (S.G.H.I.) is building a palace in Angkor, which will include 70 rooms and will open in a few months." It was later reported that on 11 March 1931, Eugène Jean Louis René Robin, then the governor general of French Indochina, "left the capital of King Monivong to visit the 60-room hotel which has just been built and which only remains to be fitted out. The hotel, along with the Bungalow d'Angkor (Hôtel des Ruines), located in front of Angkor Wat, with 45 rooms, will be able to accommodate all the tourists from Bangkok." The construction appears to have lagged with the advent of the Great Depression. Based on records, the hotel began to function only during the 1932-33 season.