Big selloff of hotels in Chiang Mai - not lack of Chinese tourists but because of so many, official

[webfact]

Big selloff of hotels in Chiang Mai - not lack of Chinese tourists but because of so many, official 

 

Pictures: Manager Online

 

A senior tourism official in Chiang Mai has said the reason people want to sell hotels in the city is not because there are so few Chinese tourists now.

 

It is because there are so many. 

 

Former tourism industry chief Pornchai Jitranawasathian who now runs a Lanna tourism promotion board said that in reality the downtown in Chinese tourism was a minor factor.

 

He was responding to stories in the media on Manager that a huge number of especially small hotel operators in the Chiang Mai area were looking to sell up. 

 

 

He said many of these were inexperienced operators who could not cope with the boom in tourism in recent years. 

 

Far from quitting the business because the Chinese were not coming any more they were actually looking for profits on their initial investment by selling their businesses.

 

Source: Manager Online

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-11-27

[carstenp]

Sounds like a face saving article, because as I know thai, they dont sell gold business , accept for lower profit from there the business and want to get out before loosing 

[flyingtlger]

Take the money and run!

 

[cmsally]

How about actually going to interview some of the people selling in order to get the real perspective. I doubt most of the officials really know the details.

[happy chappie]

Good job this guy wears asbestos pants else he might burst into flames.absolute horse <deleted> spewing out.if a guest house can't handle as many guests as it has rooms the Thai way is stick the prices up.even better hang a sign saying no vacancies.im giving him the biggest BS award of the month medal.

[Thechook]

As they say tourism is booming and records expected to be smashed agaim this year

[BritManToo]

Who is gonna buy a guesthouse/Hotel that has been closed due to not meeting planning regulations?

[Topdoc]

Perhaps they only came to feed the pigeons?

[LomSak27]

32 minutes ago, flyingtlger said:

Take the money and run!

 

ALERT - Not going to be much money in the Hotel Glut - maybe half or a third of the money invested.  Maybe.

 

Four years in the making and now we have officially scraped bottom.   

[LomSak27]

Just now, BritManToo said:

Who is gonna buy a guesthouse/Hotel that has been closed due to not meeting planning regulations?

The 'Boutique hotels' are going on the block first, then they big Blocks. The last would be the Guesthouse Hotels. 

[LomSak27]

57 minutes ago, webfact said:

Far from quitting the business because the Chinese were not coming any more they were actually looking for profits on their initial investment by selling their businesses.

  Classic BS spin ... they don't make it any better.

[johng]

42 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Who is gonna buy a guesthouse/Hotel that has been closed due to not meeting planning regulations?

I would guess the clampdown on guesthouse and shortime  daily rentals has much more to do with it than "too many tourists"   LOL ????

[Laza 45]

Do the chinese stay together in the larger places and the smaller places miss out?.. Has the influx of package Chinese tours displaced the backpackers and independent travelers who would normally stay in the smaller places?  I used to visit places that are now hot spots for the Chinese.. I avoid them now...

[jmd8800]

I sat in a small cafe inside the moat one evening in August and a guy sitting there and I got to talking. I asked why he was there. He said he was scouting for old hotels to buy up and build new hotels as Chiang Mai was a hotbed for tourism. His 'holding company' had just sold a high end hotel in Japan. From all I could gather from his dress, language and other stuff he was a quite wealthy individual.

 

Seems lots of places are being torn down and rebuilt, or remodeled into rather nice hotels. I doubt the price for a room will be 400THB per night.

 

3 years ago I walked over the area inside and around the moat asking about rooms for rent. Many said they no longer rent by the month. The one place I ended up renting in had originally planned to have 2 floors of monthly rentals and one of daily rentals. When I lived there it was 1 of monthly and 2 of daily. Now it is 3 floors of daily.

 

Lets just call it gentrification.

[fruitman]

I stayed in a high end hotel in Pattaya this weekend..it was 2 years old..the owner tried to sell it but nobody was interested...EVERYthing was broken, in bad shape, or just dangerously designed.

 

We paid full price for it but when i looked on Agoda i saw it had 75% discount already and loads of very bad reviews.

 

When i told the Thai who booked the executive suites for us about it he was so angry...from now on he'll also use Agoda first he said.

 

While we stayed there another large group of 200 persons (companyparty) stayed there and they kept a houseparty on the rooftop...VERY LOUD music untill the police arrived and told them to stop because neighbours had complainted....party was over.

 

I bet this hotel will be smashed down soon...lots of money lost for the owner..mai pen lai.

[Chang_paarp]

 I wonder how many of the hotels for sale meet the government regulations for fire escapes and green spaces? The regulations they were claiming would cause the downfall of the industry when they were being enforced a few months ago,

[Brickbat]

Big bust coming, world wide. Cash will be king

[manarak]

1 minute ago, Brickbat said:

Big bust coming, world wide. Cash will be king

the opposite will be true in this case.

if everyone is selling off, the market will be awash with cash looking for investment opportunities.

fully paid off real estate in good locations is always king - although there might be temporary price corrections.

[Classic Ray]

I would think the prevalence of accommodation apps like AirBnB offering cheap or in some cases free accommodation is a big factor. People don’t want full hotel facilities unless they are on business, just a cheap clean safe place to sleep and leave their bags.

 

Chinese are right into this and as they are the main Chiang Mai tourists now, must be having a big effect on hotel bookings. Someone I know gave free lodgings to two Polish guys who have hitchhiked around Asia for 3 years now, staying cheap or free.

 

May explain all the hotels for sale.

 

 

[Lupatria]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

A senior tourism official in Chiang Mai has said the reason people want to sell hotels in the city is not because there are so few Chinese tourists now.

It is because there are so many. 

 "the downtown in Chinese tourism was a minor factor."

That's the problem in this country- too many experts on the job.

[mok199]

And yet they keep building.

[bkk6060]

3 hours ago, fruitman said:

I stayed in a high end hotel in Pattaya this weekend..it was 2 years old..the owner tried to sell it but nobody was interested...EVERYthing was broken, in bad shape, or just dangerously designed.

 

We paid full price for it but when i looked on Agoda i saw it had 75% discount already and loads of very bad reviews.

 

When i told the Thai who booked the executive suites for us about it he was so angry...from now on he'll also use Agoda first he said.

 

While we stayed there another large group of 200 persons (companyparty) stayed there and they kept a houseparty on the rooftop...VERY LOUD music untill the police arrived and told them to stop because neighbours had complainted....party was over.

 

I bet this hotel will be smashed down soon...lots of money lost for the owner..mai pen lai.

Sour grapes??

No 2 year old hotel in Pattaya is going to be smashed down.

Sounds like they are doing okay with the 200 people group partying there.

Add on suckers like you who paid 75% too much and it sounds like a winner to me.

[scorecard]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Who is gonna buy a guesthouse/Hotel that has been closed due to not meeting planning regulations?

Depends, plenty of Thai and other entrepreneurs around who have cash and they invest long term.

 

They offer hard cash but at a fraction of the actual value and plenty of times the seller agrees.

 

They do some tart up and wait for the next boom and sell at the high point of the market. The entrepreneurs who are not frightened to wait eventually make a killing on most of the gambles.

 

Happens everywhere. eight years back i had a luxury house on the market at Jomtien beach, price 9 Million Baht, buyers market. Along comes an Aussie guy who offers me 3M, I said no thanks, but i'm aware he did soon after buy 2 properties in the same village, both similar to my house (9M) be bought both for 3M cash same day. He struck it lucky he found 2 sellers who were desperate to sell because they got themselves into very serious debt with other items and they accepted his 3M offer.  

[heybruce]

"Far from quitting the business because the Chinese were not coming any more they were actually looking for profits on their initial investment by selling their businesses."

 

Funny, I've heard many are for sell, nobody is buying.  Does he have any sells figures to back up his ridiculous claim?

[mercman24]

nice one. the usual cover up, *i am going to sell my hotel, not because there is a 60% downturn in tourism just i feel there are tooo many * yeah right. so if business was booming then all hotels should be full, who would buy a hotel with no customers. i imagine it would still be a hotel, so the staus quo would be the same, unless someone wants a dam big house

[ChakaKhan]

Bet this guys "Tourism Business" folds in 3 months.....clueless

[fruitman]

10 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Sour grapes??

No 2 year old hotel in Pattaya is going to be smashed down.

Sounds like they are doing okay with the 200 people group partying there.

Add on suckers like you who paid 75% too much and it sounds like a winner to me.

Then book it! you get 75% off so what are you waiting for? It has the same last name as the winner of the F1 and is in Pattaya...have fun!

[simoh1490]

Some posters need to decide what they really want.....too many Chinese tourists, get rid of them........not enough tourists, tourism is dead....which is it!

[cmsally]

My opinions on the Chinese as tourists are fairly flexible. However I have very strong opinions on them when it comes to environmental sustainability. They have the numbers and the attitude to tip the human race into disaster.

[scorecard]

10 hours ago, mercman24 said:

nice one. the usual cover up, *i am going to sell my hotel, not because there is a 60% downturn in tourism just i feel there are tooo many * yeah right. so if business was booming then all hotels should be full, who would buy a hotel with no customers. i imagine it would still be a hotel, so the staus quo would be the same, unless someone wants a dam big house

Just one point:

- Some folks are hopeless at marketing, worst case being :  'Don't do any marketing, it costs money'.

- Some folks are very clever at marketing and not frightened to spend money to make good money.

 

Case in point, small time developer bought land not from from my moo baan, he built 4 big luxury houses on the plot, took him 2 years to complete the whole thing, several times walls pulled down, whole thing must have cost a fortune. He never put up one sign about anything. When all finished he did put a very small sign on one house 'For sale 0812345678'. (Sign about 20cm long by 10 cm wide), but the rough block out (90% non see through) fence in front about 2 M high remained, and no landscaping. Nothing happened for maybe 2 years.

 

Suddenly massive professional signs went up, quickly front block out fencing removed and nice new modern see through fencing went up and nice but simple landscaping installed all houses, all houses sold within about 45 days.