Illegal hotels to feel the heat in Hua Hin, governor promises

[webfact]

Illegal hotels to feel the heat in Hua Hin, governor promises

By The Nation

 

File photo © Copyright Thai Visa 

 

Prachuap Khiri Khan Governor Panlop Singhaseni on Thursday said he has formed a committee to find a legal path to close 10 hotels in the tourist resort town of Hua Hin that continue to operate in defiance of licensing laws.

 

The Online Travel Agent (OTA) system is the root of the problem, said Udom Srimahachota, vice-president of the Thai Hotels Association. Only 197 hotels in Hua Hin have proper licences while some OTA websites have posted 699 Hua Hin hotels for people to book daily-rented accommodation, said Udom.

 

Authorities should require the OTA post the hotels’ licence numbers in their ads, so that consumers could feel confident of the facilities' safety standards, said Udom. His group has urged Tourist Police Bureau deputy chief Pol Maj-General Surachate Hakparn to crack down on illegal hotels in Hua Hin to prevent problems for tourists.

 

Following a May 15 complaint from provincial administrators accusing 10 hotels of forging state-issued documents, using the forged papers and illegally operating hotel businesses, the hotels have continued operating.

 

As bureaucratic red tape has posed a challenge in quickly shuttering the hotels, Panlop said he has set up a committee to look for a way to close them. He said the authorities had not issued licences as the hotels have claimed and was confident the investigation would bring the truth to light.

 

“Hua Hin Municipality and Tambon Hin Lek Fai Administrative Organisation can order a ban for hotels to use these buildings, if the buildings were modified illegally or used for purposes other than for personal residences as stated in the building permits,” Panlop said.

 

He conceded that this has been a longstanding issue in the province.

 

Panlop said he instructed all municipalities and tambon administrative organisations to check on buildings in their jurisdictions to discover if any had been turned into a hotel without proper permission, and to suspend such building use pending an investigation.

 

A source said the province’s fact-finding panel had reported to the Interior Ministry about 10 hotels that used fake hotel licences with forged signature of a deputy provincial governor who had retired in 2015, resulting in a serious disciplinary probe against four accused officials.

 

The four unnamed persons, who served at Hua Hin during 2014-2015, also faced a police complaint over charges related to state-document forgery. Those officials are a former district chief officer who now serves in another province, a district clerk, a former district chief officer in charge of administrative affairs who now serves at the Anti-Money Laundering Office and a district office typist – the latter of whom had implicated the others.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30346181

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-24

[james.d]

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

a former district chief officer in charge of administrative affairs who now serves at the Anti-Money Laundering Office

About sums it up.

[Get Real]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Prachuap Khiri Khan Governor Panlop Singhaseni on Thursday said he has formed a committee to find a legal path to close 10 hotels in the tourist resort town of Hua Hin that continue to operate in defiance of licensing laws.

Find a legal path? I thought it was illegal to operate without a licence. What more legal path might he need?

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Only 197 hotels in Hua Hin have proper licences while some OTA websites have posted 699 Hua Hin hotels for people to book daily-rented accommodation, said Udom.

 

Why is he only taking action against 10 of them, if he was doing his job properly he should close all 502 of the illegal hotels immediately.

 

This would obviously devastate the tourist industry but the law is the law - do your job lazy governor !

[observer90210]

The local stationnery stores will generate huge profit in sales of brown enveloppes !

[SOTIRIOS]

...promises, promises....

 

...if 'operating without a license' is not enough....

 

...seems to be enough to clean out hapless, misinformed foreigners....???

 

...I guess we better check in on 10-20 years...

 

...for example....some encroachment instances go back 30-50 years in some cases.....

[Colabamumbai]

The Army could close them all tomorrow.

[Golden Triangle]

On 5/24/2018 at 8:40 AM, webfact said:

Authorities should require the OTA post the hotels’ licence numbers in their ads, so that consumers could feel confident of the facilities' safety standards, said Udom.

Having a licence in this country guarantees nothing. 

[hotchilli]

22 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

Why is he only taking action against 10 of them, if he was doing his job properly he should close all 502 of the illegal hotels immediately.

 

This would obviously devastate the tourist industry but the law is the law - do your job lazy governor !

The law in Thailand is a very tricky area, to understand as to who it actually applies to is a matter of bribes and who's been paid to turn a blind eye...

most hotels etc are owned by influential people who are above the law!!

Hotels should provide documentation to confirm licences which then can be checked against official records

those that don't have them should be closed by court order not the governor!!