Guesthouse Requiremnts - Passports

[bazmlb]

We have a guesthouse and i we take copies of guests passports, but

1: do we need to do anything with them?

2: does every guest staying in a room need to leave a copy of their passport

We just had the police come thru tonight and register us as a guesthouse, not sure what their motive is but in pattaya i am guessing its for tea money for somethinglater on.

[Briggsy]

All guesthouses need to be registered with the local police as I understand it. They may ask you to ask your guests to fill in certain forms or ask you to take passport copies. It would be in your interest to follow these instructions. Like everything in Thailand the policy varies from one station to the next.

There must be guest house owners on the forum somewhere. My info is second hand.

[cmsally]

Guesthouses/hotels need to report guest details to the police/immigration every day.

In practice normally you have police working for the immigration that check about every twice a week.

This just brings you into line with immigration rules. There will be a fee for the policeman every month.

You can choose to not take the service but you would be required to report list of guests every day directly to immigration yourself.

To be totally legal you would need to have a hotel license as there is no such thing as a guesthouse license.

When something happens police like to crack down on the illegal guesthouses.

[Chang_paarp]

Every person staying should be registered and their details sent to immigration. The form you are supposed to fill out is available on the download section of TV.

In some places they are able to email the details, this is a local arrangement. I would have your "local manager" talk to immigration and the BIB to ensure there are no other forms/licences/permissions you need. As mentioned above it seems a hotel need to be registered, some place here mentioned that a hotel is defined as being over 15 rooms. There are probably different rules for hotels and guest houses. Maybe talk to your accountant or lawyer.