Six illegal hostels owned by foreigners on Koh Pha Ngan closed

[blubb]

3 hours 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. 

call them, if no reaction, file a case for defamation, cost you almost nothing and brings a lot of positive adverts (if it is correct)

[tomacht8]

5 hours ago, scratchy said:

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.

 

 

 

 

Spot on.
I know this island for 25 years and the development is sad.
Haadrin, with one of the nicest beaches has got lost 15 years ago, when many owners have started to built concrete row houses on the beach properties. Today Haadrin looks more like a slum then a Holiday Destination.
The same has happened years ago with Mae Hat, prior has national park Level in front from Koh Ma. Now there are spread ugly concrete resorts which have bolted the beach accesses with high walls and barbed wire.
Now the same happens with Chaloklam, formerly the last nice and natural fishing village of three islands Samui, Phangan and Tao. Now with a illegal high built Hotel construction, which looks like a toilet.
The last development are concrete houses near the beach with 4-metre-high concrete walls around.
At Tong Nai Pan Noi is the same.
Nature shaved away and concrete in poured.
Soon also Koh Phangan will be destroyed by corruption, greed and money laundering.
And often the big Investors coming from the mainland and give a s..t for the Island born natives.
In Thailand it is all about money.

[thurien]

4 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?...

 

no worries, authorities know those places darn well, it is their guarantee of income...!

[toughlove]

jealousy

Dude get a grip on the word illegal.

Good to see no kick backs as would have been the case for decades

[lubfishin]

3 hours ago, James3225 said:

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. 

There is no hostel license. It follows under the hotel license which is impossible to get. They're making a big stink about the Koh phangan hostels but what about the hundreds of hostels throughout the country that also continue to work without license. It's the mafia on the island who are trying to run these people out.

[lubfishin]

1 hour 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?

He can't have more than 20 guests with homestay license.... Wich I assume he has. No such thing as a guest house license it's called Homestay limited to 20 guests. James can we know the name of your hostel so we can see how many beds you're renting since you're so honest and do business on the up-and-up

[toughlove]

There is no hostel license. It follows under the hotel license which is impossible to get. They're making a big stink about the Koh phangan hostels but what about the hundreds of hostels throughout the country that also continue to work without license. It's the mafia on the island who are trying to run these people out.

If they do nothing it's the ridiculously boring "brown envelope"

If they do anything it's "mafia"

[sammieuk1]

Their defense could be that the Six illegal hostels owned by foreigners simply belonged to a friend and are perfectly legal a defense fully endorsed by the country's leaders and time keepers.

[LittleSpy]

The locals not complain about the number of 7/11 shops on the Island. I would suggest these do more damage to the local economy than a few well run hostels.

[FitnessHealthTravel]

6 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

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

I agree. Dot the ‘I’ and cross the ‘T’ pay the Tax and get the License. I think that’s how it works EVERYWHERE. Good riddance to the cheaters!

[lubfishin]

1 minute ago, FitnessHealthTravel said:

I agree. Dot the ‘I’ and cross the ‘T’ pay the Tax and get the License. I think that’s how it works EVERYWHERE. Good riddance to the cheaters!

But what about all the rest I know for a fact that there are at least 70 more hostels that do not have a license why were they not shut down? The six that were shut down maybe they didn't have enough money in the envelope?

[johnefallis]

6 hours ago, scratchy said:

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.

 

 

 

 

In skipping Thailand these days, will begin staying at a place in the Philippines like what you said...native hut room with fan near the beach, huge covered deck with inexpensive bar, food and motorbikes for rent...party resort, about as nice and cheap as they get.  

[sawadee1947]

so the Thais were jealous about the good business plan of the foreigners. How long they ran this business already?

Anyway I hope they saved the money somewhere or they should have given to me as a loan.....very popular business at present......see watches/Prawit

[Hostel KP]

I do not know who James is, but saw him posting his opinions and it would appear now that he has been deleted or banned from the page, so don't think we will be hearing from him.

However, I live on the Island, also have a hostel here (not mentioned), and just did a drive up and down the street and all of these hostels appear to be open and operating. 

 

It is a shame to see all of these guys have their names tarnished for no reason.

[Lacessit]

4 hours ago, metisdead said:

 

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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

If I repeat a slander or libel someone else has disseminated to me, I would have thought I would be equally guilty of defamation in the eyes of the law.

[wakeupplease]

6 hours ago, dotpoom said:

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.

No around here i thought they just ran over them in a truck, drowned them or planted drugs on them, normal local tricks

[White Christmas13]

5 hours ago, whaleboneman said:

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

But make sure you don't smoke after that

[PoorSucker]

As far I understand they shut down the bars on this hostels for the night. 

The hotel license is 10.000 baht below 50 rooms. 

They also had bars, so should have paid 20.000 baht licence.

 

This is the licence fee for operating hotel with restaurant. 

 

Owners will get a fine for operating without correct licence  (40.000 baht) 

 

Some might got caught not renewal of licence, all licences expired on new year. 

 

People are to busy to go and renew licences. 

 

Off course they are open next day, they just went and paid the fine and correct licence. 

 

 

[mindfulness]

8 hours ago, dotpoom said:

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.

... look Woody idiots, idiots everywhere. 

[mindfulness]

... not long now until the locals run  this once beautiful country into the garbage heap.

Greed, greed, greed, the days of the gentle nature have gone, many now are hell bent on ‘me, me, me’ and wow to anyone who gets in their way. 

You only have to see the standard of driving to understand the logic !!! 

[moe666]

6 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

 

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/

There is a designation for a quest house and it is different than a hotel. Afriend here in Chiang Mai runs a quest House they wanted to change to a hotel last year. He got his lawyer involved end of story, still a quest house

[PoorSucker]

45 minutes ago, moe666 said:

There is a designation for a quest house and it is different than a hotel. Afriend here in Chiang Mai runs a quest House they wanted to change to a hotel last year. He got his lawyer involved end of story, still a quest house

So how does that license look like?

 

[PoorSucker]

Post removed.

 

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[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, Hostel KP said:

It is a shame to see all of these guys have their names tarnished for no reason.

 

Ohh, but there was a reason, apparently. And that being that the targeted places were/are at least partly owned/operated by non-Thais. And that wasn't sitting well with the locals running similar businesses in the area.

 

[Golden Triangle]

2 hours ago, mindfulness said:

... not long now until the locals run  this once beautiful country into the garbage heap.

Greed, greed, greed, the days of the gentle nature have gone, many now are hell bent on ‘me, me, me’ and wow to anyone who gets in their way. 

You only have to see the standard of driving to understand the logic !!! 

It's already there I'm afraid, and it is only going to get worse. Sad really, Your second sentence says it all. 

[Just Weird]

12 hours ago, scratchy said:

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.

"...air conditioning and lcd tv's in concrete bungalows in the beach are a curse for local tourism".

No, you're getting mixed up, it's penniless backpackers that are a curse for local tourism

[catman20]

16 hours 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. 

so whats new TIT

[jacko45k]

Better go raid the Hilton and the Holiday Inn too then!

[lubfishin]

13 hours ago, johnefallis said:

In skipping Thailand these days, will begin staying at a place in the Philippines like what you said...native hut room with fan near the beach, huge covered deck with inexpensive bar, food and motorbikes for rent...party resort, about as nice and cheap as they get.  

Ya but you can get killed just for smokin some herb with that idiot Deterte

[lubfishin]

10 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

As far I understand they shut down the bars on this hostels for the night. 

The hotel license is 10.000 baht below 50 rooms. 

They also had bars, so should have paid 20.000 baht licence.

 

This is the licence fee for operating hotel with restaurant. 

 

Owners will get a fine for operating without correct licence  (40.000 baht) 

 

Some might got caught not renewal of licence, all licences expired on new year. 

 

People are to busy to go and renew licences. 

 

Off course they are open next day, they just went and paid the fine and correct licence.