News Forum - 100 masseuses in Phuket complain of 150 baht massage shop

[Bluesofa]

2 minutes ago, Guest1 said:

How dare you, dont give them ideas!

Because they would look at it, check if these shop makes money (has customers), and: "We all need to rise the price for Thai massage up to 400/h, oil to 500, ......"

Ha ha! I stand (well, sit) corrected!
Perhaps the more expensive shops offer a better quality of service (ignoring any obvious extras), just sticking with the massage, staff attitude, etc.

[StephenA]

Do Market Stall vendors/Food vendors go into Makro and say ''Your food is too cheap'' or into Homepro and say ''Your TV's are too cheap'' ?  The girls get the same money, the owners get the profit. It's the Cartel of owners who are complaining.

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

If you're looking for a real massage, anyone here have any tricks on how to avoid the lazy ones, apart from deselecting those with skinny arms and fake boobs?

[Janneman]

4 hours ago, Cabra said:

When you have fewer customers (tourist) you lower price to get volume. 

Or raise the price to get the same income. For less work

[Guest1]

21 minutes ago, DoUKnowWhoIAm said:

If you're looking for a real massage, anyone here have any tricks on how to avoid the lazy ones, apart from deselecting those with skinny arms and fake boobs?

You can mostly eliminate by the reaction to "I want a strong massage". Just look at their faces, not at the boobies. 

Or choose an really elder one, they mostly have to be good in doing massage, to get tip.

And you would be surprised, how strong skinny ladies, or elder ladies, can be.

[Cabra]

1 hour ago, Janneman said:

Or raise the price to get the same income. For less work

That would be typical failed Thai logic... Raise the price 10x so they can make all the days receipts on a single customer 

[Pinetree]

4 hours ago, Chaimai said:

I would say that monopoly = greed = monopoly.

Classic Thai cartel.  Keep the (extortionate) price up by controlling the supplier (Mafia style - taxis motocy etc).......Phuket is expert at it.

The last thing they want is competition.

Greed is a very subjective word.  I  would state the obvious;  that  monopoly in a particular sector means maximizing profits, often at the expense of the consumer and any notion of efficiency. That is the best and most powerful argument against State ownership of anything commercial. 

[Giltee]

8 hours ago, jobapps said:

Sounds like the time that mall owner, i think it was central in pattaya or phuket came up with the brilliant idea for shuttle buses and the next thing all the taxi drivers are protesting. Anything that makes peoples lives easier someone will protest if they start losing cash ,, 300 baht is a tad steep in thailand 250 is the recognised standard price.

I was only discussing this with my gf the other day ,. how once you arrive in mo chit bus station its very difficult to get out unless you know all the buses and might wait a while ..

The thai setup everywhere is geared towards making the local people money ...

thank god for grab .. but even in Chiangmai they rip you off with package deals sometimes more than the red buses .. its all about the money

However phuket is so full of horror stories im surprised anyone who has read up on it would go

I have never been to Phuket and never will. Your first impression of the place is the ripoff taxi mafia and now there’s overpriced massage mafia

[Marc26]

Reading all these replies(which are as expected on this forum)

 

Makes me shake my head and Thank God I don't go through life worrying and complaining about a 300 baht massage

 

Either most are poor loosers or just miserable, miserable people

 

It probably falls on a combination of both 

 

I can't imagine being a local Thai and seeing the amount of abject loosers that come to my country......

[londonpeter]

Many people working only earn just over 300 baht per day, plus it doesn't say if its 150 baht for 30mins, 1 or 2  hour.. So they want to earn a days wage with just one hours work? Are they registered government certified?  my wife has all the qualifications and charges 200baht for a 2 hour session. plus her customers are happy, come back often and give her a handsome tip. perhaps if they offered a 30min massage for a 150 baht then they would be able to earn more, plus tips. competition is healthy and alas not liked in Thailand, I mean 25 shops in the supermarket selling the same phones, and not one of them offer discounts and special prices, all same price and all not doing a roaring trade. heaven forbid if one of them started to discount their prices.

[Donald]

Of course they need to mention foreigners again. Anyway, the most controversial business I have ever come across must be the Thai massage business. Very few of the people claiming to be "professionals" have had a proper training but have no qualms to call themselves professional massage therapists. My wife, who is indeed qualified, ran a successful massage business in Spain for over 10 years. No funny stuff, but there where still people coming in expecting "certain" services to be provided. It certainly did my head in. I don't suppose you go and see your GP expecting him/her to provide a "happy" ending. There must be a reason why so many people seem to have the "wrong" idea. It takes two to Tango. My apologies to those that try to run a serious business and feel like they are thrown in the same sack.

[Marc26]

9 hours ago, Donald said:

Of course they need to mention foreigners again. Anyway, the most controversial business I have ever come across must be the Thai massage business. Very few of the people claiming to be "professionals" have had a proper training but have no qualms to call themselves professional massage therapists. My wife, who is indeed qualified, ran a successful massage business in Spain for over 10 years. No funny stuff, but there where still people coming in expecting "certain" services to be provided. It certainly did my head in. I don't suppose you go and see your GP expecting him/her to provide a "happy" ending. There must be a reason why so many people seem to have the "wrong" idea. It takes two to Tango. My apologies to those that try to run a serious business and feel like they are thrown in the same sack.

I go to massage therapy every 2 weeks, basically a physical therapy/sports massage

 

The other day there was another customer waiting, a really big guy

 

His massage therapist was a girl

 

There is absolutely no "extras" involved

 

But I could hear this guy moaning and yelling "oh yeah, right there"

Even that shouldn't happen in a normal massage session............just weird

[lspab]

On 8/23/2022 at 4:45 PM, londonpeter said:

Many people working only earn just over 300 baht per day, plus it doesn't say if its 150 baht for 30mins, 1 or 2  hour.. So they want to earn a days wage with just one hours work? Are they registered government certified?  my wife has all the qualifications and charges 200baht for a 2 hour session. plus her customers are happy, come back often and give her a handsome tip. perhaps if they offered a 30min massage for a 150 baht then they would be able to earn more, plus tips. competition is healthy and alas not liked in Thailand, I mean 25 shops in the supermarket selling the same phones, and not one of them offer discounts and special prices, all same price and all not doing a roaring trade. heaven forbid if one of them started to discount their prices.

On Samui, the arrangements are for a 300 Baht massage, the masseuse keeps half. Pre-covid, the peak monthly turnover for a business with two shops (legit health massage, mostly families and couples) was about 600,000 Baht, with 10 masseuses on the books, so they were working hard, each on 6 massages a day. After expenses, the shop owner, saw about 270,000. Post covid, the owner now sees about 30,000 max, and one shop has had to be closed. Numbers have been getting better recently, but its been slow this year.

 

[Marc26]

1 hour ago, lspab said:

On Samui, the arrangements are for a 300 Baht massage, the masseuse keeps half. Pre-covid, the peak monthly turnover for a business with two shops (legit health massage, mostly families and couples) was about 600,000 Baht, with 10 masseuses on the books, so they were working hard, each on 6 massages a day. After expenses, the shop owner, saw about 270,000. Post covid, the owner now sees about 30,000 max, and one shop has had to be closed. Numbers have been getting better recently, but its been slow this year.

Those figures seem a bit off

 

2 shops would have expenses way more than 30k/mo

 

Especially if they were that busy, it would mean they were in a primo spot

Rent would be way more than what you were proposing,  I would think 

 

And Thailand has considerable low seasons, even when it's at 100% tourism capacity, so they are probably at only peak 3-4 months/ year

 

I'd gather 

 

Still good money all around for the owner and massage ladies 

[Buzzkill]

Allows me to tip more when I have a great price . Higher price will eat into the tips I think . Wages have to go naturally that is capitalism if all wages rise the result is higher price for everything you buy then you are in same situation

[JerryNSB]

After some thought about this.  I am a retired masseur I think this issue is really just the owners and the really bad massage providers who are complaining.

A really great masseur or masseuse can work with a basic income for time and get a tip worth twice the price of the service.  So a good massage is what you are paying for.  A great massage is what you tip for.

If someone can underprice competitors for a good massage and still make money?  That's good capitalism.  If they are doing it to run all other business under to monopolize that's bad capitalism. 

Healthy competition will make the weak ones fall away, the healthy ones thrive and those who always wanted to do better will do better to stay in business.  I think someone could open a place here and just provide basic service, massage only, (no nails etc.) for 200 baht let the massager keep half plus tips and they would be packed.