News Forum - Thai hotels oppose plan for 75% foreign condo ownership

[Thaiger]

The Thai Hotels Association (THA) expressed strong opposition to the government’s plan to allow foreigners to own up to 75% of condominium units, warning that it could lead to intense price competition and market disruption. Concerns were raised during a meeting where members discussed significant issues impacting the hospitality industry. During the meeting, Tourism and … …

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[Vigo]

Understandable, but a pointed indictment of the poor quality of many of Thailand hotels, even the 4 and 5* brands.  Short term condo rentals are ideal for those who want privacy, and an ability to access their own food and schedule. When I travel around Thailand, I often stay at hotels where housekeeping is unpredictable. We never know when the maid will show up. 10Am or 4 PM it's housekeeping roulette. I am trying to eat moderately and with reduced added sugar and sodium, so that means sometimes  preparing my own food.  I can have friends over for drinks or to discuss a file before we go for dinner and I can't do that in most hotels. Or, if someone is romantic, there are the "joiner" fees even though the person will have paid for double occupancy. Condo rentals often offer larger living areas and a less stressful experience than many Thai hotels.  All that needs to do is to enforce the registration of the condos which rent short term and to require them to pay a licensing fee to address the unequal taxation treatment. That's what is done with Air BnBs in many countries.

[Ramanathan.P]

Currently, over 40,000 hotels operate on online travel agency (OTA) platforms, but only about 15,000 to 16,000 of these are legally registered. The remaining 25,000 are unregistered establishments.

This itself indicates that there are no similarities in their establishments. Better let the condo ownership to 75%. At least that will give a boost to the property market which will have some ripple effects in the slowing down of the economy. May be they should invite the property developers and hotel owners for the same meeting and discuss it openly face to face to come to an middle level where both are happy and benefits 

 

[Marc26]

18 hours ago, Vigo said:

Understandable, but a pointed indictment of the poor quality of many of Thailand hotels, even the 4 and 5* brands.  Short term condo rentals are ideal for those who want privacy, and an ability to access their own food and schedule. When I travel around Thailand, I often stay at hotels where housekeeping is unpredictable. We never know when the maid will show up. 10Am or 4 PM it's housekeeping roulette. I am trying to eat moderately and with reduced added sugar and sodium, so that means sometimes  preparing my own food.  I can have friends over for drinks or to discuss a file before we go for dinner and I can't do that in most hotels. Or, if someone is romantic, there are the "joiner" fees even though the person will have paid for double occupancy. Condo rentals often offer larger living areas and a less stressful experience than many Thai hotels.  All that needs to do is to enforce the registration of the condos which rent short term and to require them to pay a licensing fee to address the unequal taxation treatment. That's what is done with Air BnBs in many countries.

I don't know about all that 

 

I can't recall, if any, bad experiences in all the 5 star hotels we have stayed at in Thailand 

 

The true 5 star hotels are tremendous...

 

 

I always go back to an experience at The Four Seasons way way back

My stepson was only 8 or 9 then 

 

My flight was getting in very late and my wife didn't have a credit card back then 

 

I called the hotel and explained I was getting in late and asked if I could prepay for our stay so that my wife could then check in before me and they said no need to and let her check in without any payment until I got there...

 

And we've had experiences like that in so many places

 

It's the moderate places that we have had some issues with staff, but not that many either

 

 

We've had good and a few bad experiences with Airbnb in Thailand as well