Govt plans to charge foreigners more than Thais for hotel rooms

[reader]

From Bangkok Post 

Foreign tourists may soon find Thailand a more expensive destination than in the past two years with the country now planning to raise hotel rates to pre-pandemic levels to support a faster recovery of the industry.

The Tourism and Sports Ministry plans to ask hotel operators to implement a dual-tariff structure under which foreign visitors may be charged rates similar to pre-pandemic days while locals may continue to enjoy discounted rates, Traisuree Taisaranakul, a government spokeswoman said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“This is to maintain our standards of rates and services for foreign tourists, which affects the perception of country’s tourism brand,” Ms Traisuree said. “Rates that have been reduced during Covid-19 will be maintained for Thais to sustain the momentum of domestic tourism.” 

It was not immediately clear how the government's new plan to attract more foreign tourists to Thailand - by raising prices and charging them more than Thais - would impact foreigners living in the kingdom. 

 

 

[GWMinUS]

HAHAHA

Just bend over!!!

[Guest]

I thought hotel rates were set by competitive pressure, not regulation.    Regulation would be rather difficult, given various standards of hotels.

If they do pass regulation requiring hotels to charge foreigners more, then when demand is high, I would expect Thais to be unable to get hotel rooms.

 

Also, foreign tourist numbers are already recovering relatively slowly.    We can deduce that from the reduced number of flights going to Thailand.    Double pricing on hotels would only slow down any recovery,

[a-447]

The Thai way of thinking never ceases to amaze me.

Doesn't anybody there have a business brain?

[reader]

The elitist wet dream of Thailand for wealthy resurfaces with a new face. There’s no way of course it works because it ignores principle of supply and demand.

File under TIT on steroids.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, a-447 said:

The Thai way of thinking never ceases to amaze me.

Doesn't anybody there have a business brain?

To be fair, this is the government, not private business.

In many countries in the world, governments are stuffed full of people who know nothing about business, science or anything that would be of significant use.    

 

 

[a-447]

1 hour ago, z909 said:

To be fair, this is the government, not private business.

True. But this idea mirrors that of bars which put up prices when business is slow. I've seen it so many times. 

[macaroni21]

9 hours ago, a-447 said:

True. But this idea mirrors that of bars which put up prices when business is slow. I've seen it so many times. 

Yes, this parallel occurred to me too. The private sector is also prone to this kind of thinking.

One saving grace however, may lie in the fact that there are way more hotels than gay bars and competition is fiercer. Another would be how international hotel chains might not want to adopt any such policy for fear of damaging their brand reputation.

 

[tm_nyc]

Yes, I agree that it all sounds a bit unworkable.  All the booking sites like agoda are going to have to post 2 rates for Thai properties, one for Thais & one for the farang?  Sounds pretty unlikely!

Also, I think that Reader is right about this being another ineffective attempt by the Thai government to lure wealthy tourists & to hell with everyone else.

[reader]

From Bangkok Post 

Hoteliers have expressed concerns about the government's plan to set dual pricing for foreign tourists and locals, saying the move is "impractical" and demanding the administration roll out effective promotions to spur tourism sentiment in an effort to increase room rates.

The idea of dual pricing is impractical as room rates shift dynamically based on market conditions, said Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association. Hotels in each tier also use different strategies to set prices, she said.

If demand increases to support hotel occupancy, then the rates will automatically increase, said Mrs Marisa.

“Every hotelier would like to operate with higher and fair rates to gain a larger margin, but it is difficult to do so because of heated competition and oversupply. Operators have to use pricing strategy to gain cash flow," said Mrs Marisa.

Suksit Suvunditkul, president of the Thai Hotels Association's southern chapter, said it is common for hotels to offer discounted rates for Thai residents and normal rates for foreign visitors, but hoteliers cannot raise the prices to levels tallied in 2019 because demand is too weak.

[kjun12]

Until now I have avoided this topic because I feel so strongly about it.  I just cannot imagine that a government agency having the job of promoting tourism has the ultimate stupidity to take this position.  They constantly talk about promoting tourism but then come up with a plan to screw foreigners coming to Thailand.  Perhaps their mothers dropped them on their heads shortly after birth.

[Boy69]