Guest houses must now get a hotel license--any info?

[cmsally]

2 hours ago, heybruce said:

Thanks for the updates.  If you can keep them up it will be appreciated.  I have a friend who is being seriously impacted by this.

Did your friend go to the meeting today ??

This time I went myself as sometimes it is difficult to make sense of second hand info.

I missed the first bit and there were no seats left, so a bit difficult to hear all of it. Briefly my understanding is that they have managed to stave off more shutdowns and shakedowns by informing Tesabahn they are trying to conform to the law as well as the police. Basically they seem to be very well organised and approaching everything as a group. They seem pretty ambitious, in that what they are aiming for is to go right to the top and have Article 44 used to change the regulations/specifications  needed to obtain the Or 1.

The 2 main requirements they seek to get dropped are the distance to neighbouring boundaries and road, as well as green space.

I would imagine width of corridors and stairs might have to be dropped too as that seemed a sticking point for many people.

It is my understanding that once that has been accomplished they will then do a joint effort to get plans drawn up for each place so it is as economical as possible, then do a collective submission to Tesabahn.

Getting an article 44 to change the requirements is no mean feat so best of luck to them!

One person mentioned better to wait to get plans drawn up all together because if they are successful getting the Article 44 then specifications would be different than to what they would be now.

This is no easy exercise as they aim to go right to the top and change the regulations needed for the building permit.

 

So the best thing to do would be to approach the group and ask what you need to provide to them before August and join their collective effort - as it would seem to be the best way forward.

[BestB]

1 hour ago, MekkOne said:

The most stupid thing is the request by the local government of the building plans of the house, this is what I'm challenging now as nobody ever modified it and the Landlord don't have the plans as he didn't build the house but bought it from the company that built it, the company that built it is of course far gone... So requesting to somebody documents that are impossible to be produced is slightly unfair...

I am afraid you wasting your time challenging anything . Logic and common sense is not very common with authorities . City hall has all the plans but what they want is that building was approved initially for a hotel not just a house or building.

[cmsally]

I should add that the meeting was very well attended with about 200 people there. The meeting hall had approx . 14-15 rows of about 10 chairs with a few more packed around the sides . All were occupied. They relayed the sound outside to approx 30-40 more people outside.

[BestB]

27 minutes ago, cmsally said:

Did your friend go to the meeting today ??

This time I went myself as sometimes it is difficult to make sense of second hand info.

I missed the first bit and there were no seats left, so a bit difficult to hear all of it. Briefly my understanding is that they have managed to stave off more shutdowns and shakedowns by informing Tesabahn they are trying to conform to the law as well as the police. Basically they seem to be very well organised and approaching everything as a group. They seem pretty ambitious, in that what they are aiming for is to go right to the top and have Article 44 used to change the regulations/specifications  needed to obtain the Or 1.

The 2 main requirements they seek to get dropped are the distance to neighbouring boundaries and road, as well as green space.

I would imagine width of corridors and stairs might have to be dropped too as that seemed a sticking point for many people.

It is my understanding that once that has been accomplished they will then do a joint effort to get plans drawn up for each place so it is as economical as possible, then do a collective submission to Tesabahn.

Getting an article 44 to change the requirements is no mean feat so best of luck to them!

One person mentioned better to wait to get plans drawn up all together because if they are successful getting the Article 44 then specifications would be different than to what they would be now.

This is no easy exercise as they aim to go right to the top and change the regulations needed for the building permit.

 

So the best thing to do would be to approach the group and ask what you need to provide to them before August and join their collective effort - as it would seem to be the best way forward.

Sounds very positive , I am surprised why it’s not nationwide to gather bigger group, more resources and naturally more power

[cmsally]

I don't know if other places have some sort of "collective movement" but if they do, then the obvious thing would be to join forces and approach the "Article 44" issue together, the more the merrier !

[BestB]

1 hour ago, cmsally said:

I don't know if other places have some sort of "collective movement" but if they do, then the obvious thing would be to join forces and approach the "Article 44" issue together, the more the merrier !

Not aware of any in Pattaya 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 6:50 PM, BestB said:

I got your point, but package tours are not elite and not all people staying in cheaper places are poor. Just have different priorities.

 

and yes I do agree and have mentioned before that this may be their idea of attracting rich tourists and as I posted before, rich will not be coming only because have 4-5 star hotels .

 

language level still crap, service levels still crap, beaches still crap, safety still crap, side walks still crap.

 

They just need to look at elite visa to see how well it will work

Package tourists may not be elite, but they stay in expensive hotels as travel agents don't cater to no star places. They get special rates so package tourists can stay there. I've seen tours including accommodation offered for less than the airfare that I paid travelling independently.

 

Agreed that the infrastructure will put off the rich tourists that they have wet dreams about. However, plenty of rich tourists that head to expensive beach resorts without ever having to set foot on a Thai city pavement.

[cmsally]

There is another meeting with the Tesabahn and at the Tesabahn on Monday 9 July.

I will try and check the time and post details.

It is the Tesabahn building (close to US Consulate) on the third floor. The meeting is specifically about room rentals, hotel etc. It would seem quite a few at the meeting yesterday will be attending.

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, JAZZDOG said:

Next they will want receipts for materials and labor, total insanity. Are they serious when they stand there and ask for something so ignorant.

They are just doing what they have been told to do.

[cmsally]

On 7/6/2018 at 9:29 AM, cmsally said:

There is another meeting with the Tesabahn and at the Tesabahn on Monday 9 July.

I will try and check the time and post details.

It is the Tesabahn building (close to US Consulate) on the third floor. The meeting is specifically about room rentals, hotel etc. It would seem quite a few at the meeting yesterday will be attending.

The above meeting starts at 1pm today (Monday 9th)

[cmsally]

24 minutes ago, cmsally said:

The above meeting starts at 1pm today (Monday 9th)

I just received an update that the meeting is for only the small 4 rooms or less establishments.

[MekkOne]

1 hour ago, cmsally said:

I just received an update that the meeting is for only the small 4 rooms or less establishments.

will be nice to have an update anyway, I paid 2.500THB to have a chat with a lawyer that basically said "I DON'T KNOW"....

 

[WinnieTheKhwai]

 

Apparently not just for the smallest places, the general hotel situation got discussed too.

 

* 30% green space in the old city (which includes the area inside the old outer city wall) remains a thing. Outside of this area this requirement doesn't apply, or the percentage is much lower. The intent seems to be to keep the Old City from being completely built full with hostels that eat up every square inch of available space.  (Personal opinion: this may be a good thing for everyone, except those who recently built a hotel building without applying for permits. )

 

* There is talk of having local Chiang Mai regulation that will allow existing hotels to get legal, but it will still involve adding green space especially for new buildings, submitting building plans and permit applications, etc.  The crucial thing here is that hotels may be allowed to keep operating while all this permission business is taking place which could drag on for years. (Personal opinion: I've always suspected government & police to intentionally cultivate legal gray areas because they're very profitable when it comes to taking money under the table. This seems a prime example.)

 

* Places with 4 rooms or less are basically in the clear no matter what. They still need to get registered and have the required basic facilities such as fire extinguishers, etc. and of course need to do TM30 registration for foreign guests.

 

5 hours ago, MekkOne said:

will be nice to have an update anyway, I paid 2.500THB to have a chat with a lawyer that basically said "I DON'T KNOW"....

 

 

Was it about a small place with up to 4 rooms / 20 people maximum or a more hotel-like place?

[MekkOne]

1 hour ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Was it about a small place with up to 4 rooms / 20 people maximum or a more hotel-like place? 

2 Rooms...

 

EDIT: And we can register guest directly in the immigration website...

 

Still they asked us building plans for a new registration as we were already registered but apparently right now the registration we have is worth nothing...

Edited July 9, 2018 by MekkOne

[MekkOne]

1 hour ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Places with 4 rooms or less are basically in the clear no matter what

what does this even means?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

7 minutes ago, MekkOne said:

what does this even means?

 

It means that any of the current hoopla about having to register as hotels and having to have 30% green space does not apply to places with up to 4 rooms.   Any Thai person can register to rent out a couple rooms on a daily basis to guests. 

 

The places that remain in legal limbo are hostels and (boutique) hotels with lots more than 4 rooms, but located in a building that they never applied for a hotel license for.

Edited July 9, 2018 by WinnieTheKhwai

[MekkOne]

1 minute ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

 

It means that any of the current hoopla about having to register as hotels and having to have 30% green space does not apply.   Any Thai person can register to rent out a couple rooms (up to 4 rooms) on a daily basis to guests. 

Unfortunately this is not what they said to my wife (me present in there), they asked the building plan of the house (that nobody has) for register. I nicely said to the lady at the Amphoer that I read a lot and they should not ask but just come and take a look if we got fire extinguishers but she was like no, you need the plan as I'm the one that decide...

[WinnieTheKhwai]

12 hours ago, MekkOne said:

Unfortunately this is not what they said to my wife (me present in there), they asked the building plan of the house (that nobody has) for register. I nicely said to the lady at the Amphoer that I read a lot and they should not ask but just come and take a look if we got fire extinguishers but she was like no, you need the plan as I'm the one that decide...

 

As with most things bureaucratic in Thailand, find a different person at a different counter and get completely different results.

[johnoko]

The tesabaan went around yesterday in soi 6 & soi 7  putting up notices that the buildings weren't suitable for use as a hotel. And the promised delay to the implementation which I believe they call section 44 still hasn't been passed. So as it looks now the old law will still come in to affect in 2 weeks.  

Edited August 4, 2018 by johnoko

[cmsally]

Be interesting to see what happens, because an awful lot of people are just ignoring it.

In fact Tesabahn sent out letters to every place saying building not for use as hotel, with small print "unless you have the right paperwork".

Be nice if they could actually check before they send them out!

Without saying too much - if anyone should be asked for a lot of money to get the right paperwork, do not do it!

[BestB]

6 minutes ago, cmsally said:

Be interesting to see what happens, because an awful lot of people are just ignoring it.

In fact Tesabahn sent out letters to every place saying building not for use as hotel, with small print "unless you have the right paperwork".

Be nice if they could actually check before they send them out!

Without saying too much - if anyone should be asked for a lot of money to get the right paperwork, do not do it!

Got to love the irony . Building not suitable for hotel unless you have the right paperwork. But how can you have right paperwork when buildings are not suitable ? And yet without having to do anything at all, including any checks for safety , the very same buildings are perfectly suitable for 30 day stays.???

[cmsally]

I can see this whole thing imploding for a number of reasons. Some I don't want to repeat in writing but gave a hint to in my post above. Now we have an additional one, which is that land adjoining Wat Lamchang (which ironically is the temple organising the meetings for local guest house owners) maybe leased to a private person to build a hotel! One can only presume he won't have a problem getting a license. One can choke on the amount of irony!

Wat Lamchang land issue

 

Quote

The Buddhism Office has been asked to disclose the lease agreement. The rally claimed that the lease agreement is per year and is not a 30 years contract as the office has claimed. The statement also revealed that the office has claimed that the contract has been lost in a flood.

The statement also asked the Office of Pubilc Sector Anti-Corruption Commission, The National Anti-Corruption Commission, and the State Audit Office to inspect this matter.

For goodness sake; what flood???!!

[JimmyJ]

On 8/4/2018 at 10:05 AM, cmsally said:

I can see this whole thing imploding for a number of reasons. Some I don't want to repeat in writing but gave a hint to in my post above. Now we have an additional one, which is that land adjoining Wat Lamchang (which ironically is the temple organising the meetings for local guest house owners) maybe leased to a private person to build a hotel! One can only presume he won't have a problem getting a license. One can choke on the amount of irony!

Wat Lamchang land issue

 

For goodness sake; what flood???!!

The Noachian?

[scottiejohn]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 4:05 AM, cmsally said:

For goodness sake; what flood???!!

The daily flood of useless paperwork perhaps!

[Seeall]

On 5/24/2018 at 7:11 AM, cmsally said:

The law has always been that  more than 4 rooms is a hotel . There has never been anything such as a guesthouse license . The local government has started a crackdown in the past week and apparently many places ordered closed and yesterday a few taken to court and fined. I don't see anything on the local news but was told there is a LINE group with all the details.

It seems to be the Tesabahn enforcing the rules checking for hotel license and also building license (which allows a place to be a hotel).

 

Any idea what name is the LINE group?  Thanks

[Gonzo the Face]

Anyone have any updated info on this topic??  Are the older, smaller guesthouses that have been around for yonks just doing business as usual or are they being made to comply with the un-get-able hotel license requirement?  To me a new separate guest house regulation is needed.  Much like you would not expect an airliner to have the same regulation as an  ocean liner just because they both carry passengers. (well, on second thought, maybe in Thailand they would)  Are your local guesthouses doing nightly rentals or just shutting down?

[BestB]

29 minutes ago, Gonzo the Face said:

Anyone have any updated info on this topic??  Are the older, smaller guesthouses that have been around for yonks just doing business as usual or are they being made to comply with the un-get-able hotel license requirement?  To me a new separate guest house regulation is needed.  Much like you would not expect an airliner to have the same regulation as an  ocean liner just because they both carry passengers. (well, on second thought, maybe in Thailand they would)  Are your local guesthouses doing nightly rentals or just shutting down?

Nothing has changed, no progress or changes. No hotel licenses being issued, no

review of regulations or anything at all.

 

business as usual until next round of crackdowns 

[scottiejohn]

2 hours ago, BestB said:

business as usual

To the Businesses impacted by the lack of info it is nothing like "business as usual", it is more a case of can I continue in THIS business tomorrow and if so how.

[BestB]

5 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

To the Businesses impacted by the lack of info it is nothing like "business as usual", it is more a case of can I continue in THIS business tomorrow and if so how.

There is no info. There is nothing new. What more did you want or expect ?

 

all must have hotel license , for which hardly anyone qualifies and even if by miracle qualify it’s 2-3 years wait to get one. 

 

No problem for a new hotel being being built but no chance for existing ones, especially small, boutique , guesthouse type.

[johnoko]

The guests house owners group is still working hard behind the scene petitioning several government  agencies. And are in talking with different political parties to see who might be willing to listen to their concerns