Six illegal hostels owned by foreigners on Koh Pha Ngan closed

[webfact]

Six illegal hostels owned by foreigners on Koh Pha Ngan closed

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Troops and police arrested two foreigners and four Thais on Wednesday for allegedly running six hostels without licence on the tourist destination Koh Pha Ngan in Surat Thani province.

 

A Dutch man and an Italian man were arrested and charged with operating hotels without licence and carrying out business prohibited to aliens.

 

The four Thais were charged with acting as nominees for foreign-owned hotel businesses. They were identified as Prathumsri Pitchanankul, Sukanya Diewma, Kongkiart Moolpol, and Matniya Charujit.

 

The authorities ordered their six hostels – Ecco Beach, The Wonderlust, Cash-in Space Hotel, The Nomate House, Pha Ngan Arena, and Slumber Party Hostel and Bar – to be closed.

 

Action was taken after a group of hotel operators on the island recently staged a protest against hostels illegally opened by foreigners, as they offered cheaper rates and affected the local people’s businesses.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30337122

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-01-25

[AGareth2]

jealousy

[BEVUP]

17 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

jealousy

Yep says it all, nothing done till the operators complained a bit louder 

 

[FritsSikkink]

19 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

jealousy

No, action against people who don't play by the rules. 

[scratchy]

Over a decade now koh phangan was absolutely full of tourists, you could easily find a basic wooden backpacker bungalow on the beach with a bed and a hammock on the porch for 150-250 baht and people could stay for the long term. It was all you needed to see out the European winter.

Somewhere along the time line greedy locals saw many resorts in samui and phuket and thought they could make more money if they thought they could attract a higher status tourist, cutting down the natural surroundings we come here for and building concrete monstrosities 10 times the price of a wooden bungalow, trashing what we came here for. was it any surprise no one could afford to stay there for the winter?

Haad rin is now a ghost town, a shadow of its former self destroyed by greed, granted 3-4 days around full moon time it's busy again but quickly goes dead.

Smart operators set up backpacker hostels further inland than the beaches we would stay on prior so no one status for the long term but they are a lot of fun for young backpackers and it's laughable that the locals are livid.

I recommend they should go back to basic wooden bungalows with a mattress and a fan inside with a hammock on the porch and charge a realistic price then the island could be busy all year, air conditioning and lcd tv's in concrete bungalows in the beach are a curse for local tourism.

 

 

 

 

[Borzandy]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Cash-in Space Hotel

Nice name...

[crazykopite]

3 minutes ago, Borzandy said:

Nice name...

Think it should be “ Cats in Space. “

[ezzra]

Illegal hotels are more than just jealousy issues, when you operate

an illegal business, you don't pay taxes, you don't adhere to hygiene and

safety regulations and no one knows who's checked in or out because

the authorities doesn't know you're exist and thus no come to check,

is that the kind of place you'll like to spend the night?...

[Briggsy]

6 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

Think it should be “ Cats in Space. “

Indeed, they have managed to mis-spell 4 of the 6 hostels.

[James3225]

This article is completely inaccurate. None of the Hostels mentioned have been closed and several of them are owned by Thai / Foreign married couples. Lastly and most importantly there is no “hostel license” currently in existence in the Thai system. They’ve proposed one, but it has been agreed on and put in place by the government as of now. 

 

Irresponsible reporting. 

[1337markus]

2 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Illegal hotels are more than just jealousy issues, when you operate

an illegal business, you don't pay taxes, you don't adhere to hygiene and

safety regulations and no one knows who's checked in or out because

the authorities doesn't know you're exist and thus no come to check,

is that the kind of place you'll like to spend the night?...

anyone pay taxes?

[dotpoom]

1 hour ago, AGareth2 said:

jealousy

So, if you were the owner of one of the legal hotels that was being undercut by illegal foreigners....I know you wouldn't be jealous, ...so how would you handle it.....go over to them and clap them on the back for being such great entrepanures and ask them to build a few more of their hostels so they can really put you out of business much faster than they are doing now.

[James3225]

Again, you’re assuming. We own a hostel, my Thai wife and I, we pay taxes, we register all of our guests with imagration as required by law, we have a guest house licenses, we didn’t get shut down, and yet somehow we are incorrectly listed in the above article.

 

its irresponsible and inaccurate reporting. 

[Baerboxer]

21 minutes ago, James3225 said:

Again, you’re assuming. We own a hostel, my Thai wife and I, we pay taxes, we register all of our guests with imagration as required by law, we have a guest house licenses, we didn’t get shut down, and yet somehow we are incorrectly listed in the above article.

 

its irresponsible and inaccurate reporting. 

 

Sue them for defamation and demand a full page retraction and apology. Let us know how it goes. You have the right.

[Wildliferescue]

22 minutes ago, James3225 said:

Again, you’re assuming. We own a hostel, my Thai wife and I, we pay taxes, we register all of our guests with imagration as required by law, we have a guest house licenses, we didn’t get shut down, and yet somehow we are incorrectly listed in the above article.

 

its irresponsible and inaccurate reporting. 

If that is correct you should sue the news sources immediately and force them to withdraw your name.

[kcpattaya]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Cash-in Space Hotel

Yeah - live the dream!

555+++

[metisdead]

Quote

Very unfortunate that this is the way Thaivisa.com operates and that they don’t validate or verify their leads. 

 

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As it was The Nation that reported this, perhaps you can contact them here:

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/Contact/Contact_nation

[blubb]

illegal business on Facebook please next 

[Gillyflower]

8 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

No, action against people who don't play by the rules. 

I agree but jealousy as well.

[whaleboneman]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Illegal hotels are more than just jealousy issues, when you operate

an illegal business, you don't pay taxes, you don't adhere to hygiene and

safety regulations and no one knows who's checked in or out because

the authorities doesn't know you're exist and thus no come to check,

is that the kind of place you'll like to spend the night?...

if it's clean and the price is right it works for me.

[whaleboneman]

45 minutes ago, hyku1147 said:

Do the women on the beach go topless?

No, they all run around naked. You better get down there now so you can...whatever.

[peperobi]

Good so! I hope they continue, in Samui are much illegal business running by foreigners and Thai.

[metisdead]

Posts commenting on moderation have been removed. 

[Ninni]

James 3225

You have a hostel with a guesthouse

license because it's nothing called

hostel license. Hope I got that right!

What is the big diffrent with hostel and guesthouse? I have lived in guesthouses with both dorms and privat rooms so mayby your guesthouse license cover it all?

[NextStationBangkok]

4 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

jealousy

Once customers coming to you for the valued service, you are under scanner by locals, and bring the henchman.

Finished.

[Moti24]

"Action was taken after a group of hotel operators on the island recently staged a protest against hostels illegally opened by foreigners, as they offered cheaper rates and affected the local people’s businesses."

 

There you go again!  Thai greed rears its ugly head yet again!

 

More like the foreigners were offering reasonable rates instead of ripping-off the tourists.

[PoorSucker]

24 minutes ago, Ninni said:

James 3225

You have a hostel with a guesthouse

license because it's nothing called

hostel license. Hope I got that right!

What is the big diffrent with hostel and guesthouse? I have lived in guesthouses with both dorms and privat rooms so mayby your guesthouse license cover it all?

 

As far as I know there is nothing called guesthouse license, only hotel license.

 

There are four different types of hotel licenses:

1. Hotel business only, for up to 50 rooms: application fee at 10,000 THB
2. Hotel and restaurant business: application fee of 20,000 THB
3. Hotel, restaurant and seminar rooms: application fee of 30,000 THB
4. Hotel, restaurant, seminar rooms, entertainment business: application fee of 40,000 THB

An additional fee of 80 THB per room per year is due.

 

 

http://www.interactivethailand.com/corporate/business-licenses/hotel-license/

[natway09]

One phone call & I found out this whole article is BS.

Where do they make up this rubbish.?

It is legal to own 49% of a Thai Co operating a guest house.

It is not legal to operate any lodging house without appropriate licence.

It is not legal for a farang to work in the business without a workpermit

[Sir Dude]

Don't you just love these file photos they have of all these places...haha, yeah, right.

[futsukayoi]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Illegal hotels are more than just jealousy issues, when you operate

an illegal business, you don't pay taxes, you don't adhere to hygiene and

safety regulations and no one knows who's checked in or out because

the authorities doesn't know you're exist and thus no come to check,

is that the kind of place you'll like to spend the night?...

 

Obviously tens of millions do like to spend the night in that kind of place.  After all you have given a perfect description of all the Air BnB properties being rented while avoiding regulations and scamming taxes.