Corona proofs we paid way too much

[abidismaili]

It surprises me how business can survive who depend on tourists. You would have expected nearly all hotels in Thailand to be broke by now. But that isn’t the case. I guess this proofs we paid way too much for hotel rooms. They can survive with almost no income.  

Same for restaurants and bars. The fact they still exists can only mean their prices in pre-Covid times were hugely inflated. Apparently it is possible to survive as a bar on almost nothing. I am almost surprised now we had to pay for drinks in the pre corona period 🙂 

[PeterRS]

9 hours ago, abidismaili said:

It surprises me how business can survive who depend on tourists. You would have expected nearly all hotels in Thailand to be broke by now. But that isn’t the case. I guess this proofs we paid way too much for hotel rooms. They can survive with almost no income.  

Same for restaurants and bars. The fact they still exists can only mean their prices in pre-Covid times were hugely inflated. Apparently it is possible to survive as a bar on almost nothing. I am almost surprised now we had to pay for drinks in the pre corona period 🙂 

Your assumptions are partly downright wrong - and partly vastly too simplistic! Many restaurants have closed for good. One of my favourites off Saladaeng in Bangkok Le Table de Tee closed for good during the first lock down in April last year. It was a small niche restaurant that could take not more than 20 diners per evening. Many others will never open their doors again.

Restaurants and bars are once again closed in Thailand. Some are able to offer meal delivery. Many of those that survive have fired huge numbers of staff in the hope they can keep losses to a minimum. I spent a few days in a good hotel in Hua Hin last November. Most floors were closed off and staff numbers had again been drastically cut. Many other hotels across the entire spectrum of prices have been closed for many months if not for a year. 

I have little sympathy for gogo bar owners who in the past did indeed raise drinks prices when the tourism economy was in a bad way. But I have no time for anyone who criticises hotels and restaurants for having overcharged guests prior to the pandemic. I think Thailand has always had a hospitality and restaurant industry with standards of service and cuisine that are as good as anywhere - and better than most.

[Londoner]

Hotel prices in Thailand have been amazingly good; anyone living in London, or other European cities, knows that that the cost of a 2* or 3* hotel here would pay for a 4* or even , in certain situations, a 5* one in Thailand. Eighteen months ago we paid about 2000 baht  a night for the best beachside resort in Krabi. That sort of money wouldn't even  pay for a guest house in the UK.

As for restaurants, it's difficult to spend 1000 bht  per person on the food even in the up-marketplaces in Pattaya.   P and I invariably eat well in Thai restaurants for well under 1000 bht for both of us. A Macdonald's for two in London costs about 700. 

 

[Guest]

Hotels in Thailand are very good value, even compared with some neighbouring countries.  

If I go to Myanmar, Laos or Cambodia, hotels for around $40 often have some problems and are far below the standard in Thailand for the same money.

Meanwhile in many towns and cities in Thailand, there are clean & new hotels where a nice room can be had for about 600 baht.  

I remember looking for a hotel in Savannakhet, Laos.  The app was showing numerous hotels that were both far nicer and cheaper than I had been experiencing in Laos. Unfortunately, all these good options were across the river in Thailand.    I had to choose between more money or a lower quality hotel in Laos.

[vaughn]

16 hours ago, abidismaili said:

The fact they still exists can only mean their prices in pre-Covid times were hugely inflated. Apparently it is possible to survive as a bar on almost nothing. I am almost surprised now we had to pay for drinks in the pre corona period 🙂 

I have no idea how you have come to this conclusion.

Hotels have had to let go of a lot of their staff, close their kitchens, and in many cases completely close the doors.

Bars aren't even allowed to serve drinks, so no one is 'surviving' as a bar. Bars have had to negotiate rent reductions from landlords just to hold on to their properties.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, vaughn said:

I have no idea how you have come to this conclusion.

I doubt anyone does, including the writer.  One could just disregard the OP and consider the broader topic.

I doubt the post is taking any account of losses, increasing debts and recapitalization of businesses, as has been common in the travel & leisure sector in 2020~21.   Businesses can operate at a loss until they run out of money.   

When a very nice hotel has run out of money, the asset remains, so there's always the chance that some opportunistic investor buys it cheaply.  This tells us nothing about what a reasonable room rate would have been in 2019.  

Finally, costs of most hotels etc are set by the market.    If profits are excessive, more hotels will get built in a free and open economy.    If they make losses, some hotels may close.  There is usually a time lag in this.

[abidismaili]

Your guys have some good points 

I am however worried that the longer it takes hotels will eventually go broke. And then when tourism opens up again we can’t book anything 

Say the lockdown is 5 years wouldn’t it be weird if some hotels were still left standing? The owners need to pay mortgage, local property taxes etc. And have as good no income. 

[Londoner]

I hope that when (or if) Thailand re-opens, prices in hotels and restaurants remain the same as last year....not forgetting that the recent drop in the value of the baht puts cash in our collective pocket!

[Gaybutton]

One thing many hotels don't have to worry about is closing or going out of business.  And the reason for that is unfortunate.  Because the Covid problem has become so rampant in Thailand, many hospitals and even field hospitals are full - no available beds.  At the time of this post, tens of thousands of new cases are still occurring every day.

To cope with this, many hotels are being used as "hospitels".  And if the numbers of patients in need don't start decreasing soon, it is likely many more "hospitels" will have to open. 

I don't know the criteria for determining whether individual hotels meet the standards to be "hospitels", but the results so far seem promising. 

Whether medical insurance would cover "hospitel" stays is another question.  It might be a good idea to find out - just in case.

I'll agree that bars in certain areas were charging, in my opinion, outrageously - and were getting away with it as long as customers tolerated it.  For that reason I stopped going to Pattaya's Boyztown bars long ago.  Maybe it's different when you are in Pattaya for a holiday, but for me as a resident there was no way I would be willing to pay those kinds of prices for drinks.  The off fees were no bargain either.  I remember the days when most bars, even the Boyztown bars, charged a standard fee of 250 baht for off fees and it was rare to pay more than 100 baht for a drink.  Those prices have long since vanished.  I realize operating costs became more expensive over the years, but not enough to justify, at least to me, the kinds of prices being charged over the past several years.  If those bars end up going out of business never to return, please forgive me - I won't be shedding any tears.

I hope the bar owners that do intend to reopen are smart enough to be using the down time to be planning how they are going to re-attract an influx of gay farang and whether they're going to charge reasonable prices or go right back to rip-off prices again.  Knowing what they were doing before, guess which I think it will be . . .

[macaroni21]

Was it only me or did anyone else sense that the original post was tongue-in-cheek?

[PeterRS]

10 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Was it only me or did anyone else sense that the original post was tongue-in-cheek?

I believe it was only you! I have read this poster's contributions on two chat room sites. He means what he says - even though there may sometimes be a lack of forethought before writing.