Government 40% rebate for Thai's booking a hotel this long weekend will cost them 85% more for the privilege

[CLW]

Currently, at weekends certain locations or hotels are full and therefore prices might go up.

Especially on long weekends / public holidays.

During the week it is dead empty and you can get good discounts.

However, especially higher priced hotels still have good discounts, last weekend I stayed on a raft in Sai Yok.

Discount from 4,500 to 2,000 baht per night. The hotel was full.

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

The only reason we thought about going away again so soon after being away for a long weekend recently is because of the cash back, however the 85% increase, or call it the 45% increase after the cash back is a spoiler as we have always paid the same amount for two rooms, e.g. family room 2,000 baht per night and the twin around 1,000 baht per night, now having to pay 85% more for a 3 star hotel a joke.

 

I always book through Booking.com, however it was the same price as the hotel, i.e. 85% more expensive and I went to the hotel website to see if it was cheaper as I know Booking.com charge between 5%-10% commission for hotels to be on their platform, so you would think the hotels would be at least the commission cheaper, but nope, looks like Booking.com has told them they can't go below their figure.

It is posts like these that cause confusion and misinformation. There is no "cashback" so to say so is blatantly false.

Anyone interested in the government scheme must first register on the government website. Once registered you then have to go to the list of hotels that have registered to participate in the scheme. The website has obviously been put together in a rush as the search facility is not very good and you have to do a lot of scrolling. Once you have found a hotel of interest you then must follow the link provided to make a booking. I didn't look at many hotels so only so 2 options, although only one would apply, either direct with the hotel or through a special Agoda website. Once you have made the booking a link to pay will come through the government app. We paid 2011 baht for 3 nights including breakfast in the Bluesotel at Ao Nang, the Dusit D2(across the road) would have been 1189/night including breakfast.

 

There are 2 other parts to the scheme, you will get a voucher each night per room for 600 baht which can be used for food in the hotel or any local tourist activity registered in the scheme.

The other part is a discount on air travel which would be 400 baht per passenger each way and 2 passengers per room.

The downside to that for anyone looking to go a few weeks down the line is that you cannot claim the discount until you have checked out of the hotel and the 2 million discounts on offer may have been used up by then. We have booked for the last week in August but the full fare is only 5000 baht so not too fussed if the discounts are gone. Still a good deal overall.

 

Anyone who thinks they can look at a website and try and calculate the price is spreading false information. 

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

It is posts like these that cause confusion and misinformation. There is no "cashback" so to say so is blatantly false.

Your words "cashback" I said government rebate so it is not blatantly false.

 

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

Anyone who thinks they can look at a website and try and calculate the price is spreading false information. 

Why again you are incorrect, we looked at the web and about 5 sites of various platforms come up, e.g. Booking.com, Agoda, etc, etc, etc and the list of prices shows what they offer the hotel for, then you go to that actual hotel and see what they offer the rooms for, you then ring the hotel and ask if they are registered and when they say yes, you do your calculations, what part of that didn't you get ?

[petermik]

2 hours ago, sandyf said:

We paid 2011 baht for 3 nights including breakfast in the Bluesotel at Ao Nang, the Dusit D2(across the road) would have been 1189/night including breakfast.

 

 

Funnily enough we checked out of the BlueSotel this morning.. booked through Agoda last month...3 nights B&B cost me 2420... also booked at it's sister hotel the BlueSotel Smart for late August 3150 for 3 nights once again...the girlfriend on Saturday then went through the government scheme and got the price down to 2480..paid upfront at 7/11... after checking out drove round to the Smart to confirm all was well and it was...as you say a 600 BAHT voucher per day to go towards food purchases, what the catch with that will be we shall find out....BTW Ao Nang was virtually dead very few places open..a great pity... hopefully next month will be better ????

 

 

 

[phetphet]

On 7/20/2020 at 10:28 AM, 4MyEgo said:

I don't believe in this current climate and especially without foreign tourism in the country that there is this mass culture of everyone wanting to go on holidays, I might be wrong, but I think those with money will be even more cautious and the hotel in particular trying a money grab as some other hotels in the area might still be closed because of the Covid-19 situation, i.e. it may not be feasible for them to start up again yet.

 

Supply and demand very of aware of how it works, also very aware of how money grab works, you see the way I see it, they have nothing to lose, except me as a customer.

I also thought that, but the last long weekend a week or so ago, it was extremely busy here in Samui. Mainly Bangkokians and foreigners wanting to get away from other parts for a break.

 

There were so many people that Bangkok Airways increased their daily flights from three to four, and one of them was a big aircraft rather than the normal small ATR props they have been using during COVID. Also the ferries not only returned to their normal one/hour schedule, but increased it to every 30 minutes.

 

There is pent up demand to travel, or maybe people are a little "stir crazy" with all the restrictions in place. Any long weekend now gives them a chance to get away.

 

[sandyf]

20 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Your words "cashback" I said government rebate so it is not blatantly false.

 

Why again you are incorrect, we looked at the web and about 5 sites of various platforms come up, e.g. Booking.com, Agoda, etc, etc, etc and the list of prices shows what they offer the hotel for, then you go to that actual hotel and see what they offer the rooms for, you then ring the hotel and ask if they are registered and when they say yes, you do your calculations, what part of that didn't you get ?

You really need to read what you wrote in post 23 again.

You will probably understand better when you have actually made a booking.

[sandyf]

20 hours ago, petermik said:

Funnily enough we checked out of the BlueSotel this morning.. booked through Agoda last month...3 nights B&B cost me 2420... also booked at it's sister hotel the BlueSotel Smart for late August 3150 for 3 nights once again...the girlfriend on Saturday then went through the government scheme and got the price down to 2480..paid upfront at 7/11... after checking out drove round to the Smart to confirm all was well and it was...as you say a 600 BAHT voucher per day to go towards food purchases, what the catch with that will be we shall find out....BTW Ao Nang was virtually dead very few places open..a great pity... hopefully next month will be better ????

Thanks for that, never been to that area, tend to go where we can get on the overnight train, wouldn't have bothered with this trip if not for the discount. What's the hotel like? It says the restaurant is buffet meals, something my wife is quite partial to so hoping it is quite good.

I don't see much of a problem with the voucher in the hotel as I expect it to be a good bit less than the full bill. They also say it can be used on any registered tourist activity but don't expect much of that to be available.

I don't see things picking up very quickly, we go end of August and plan to hire a car so just have a drive around. My wife has a friend on Koh Lanta so may go and see her.

[4MyEgo]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

You really need to read what you wrote in post 23 again.

You will probably understand better when you have actually made a booking.

I stand corrected, I usually use the word rebate, however, you got me ????

 

Yeh, nah, we have decided to not travel this long weekend regardless of the government giving a rebate of 40% off, be it either to the hotel or the wife, the 45% on top off the 40% rebate which as mentioned before is a whopping 85% mark up for the long weekend, or 23,000 baht plus..... when it's 10,000 baht for the same rooms on the same days the following week, if hotels want to charge like that, I suppose it's legal and they choose to do so, we can choose to not travel on public holidays, and use an alternative hotel, in the future not that desperate, suffice to say I see no reason for them to charge a whopping 85% more for a long weekend as they don't pay staff weekend penalty rates, nothing increases so why should we pay 85% more, as for everyone else, well if they want to spend the extra 85% up to them, we will put it to good use on something else.

[steven100]

Booked 2 rooms in 5* resort near Pattaya so we are off to see the sea tomorrow. 

We looked into the government rebate etc ... but it's only on certain hotels and you have to register and that isn't instant and it was just a hassle so I paid cash. There are some discount room rates but not so much on a 5 start resort hotel. I want lobster and I want ice cold Tiger beer.   lol

[allane]

We are staying home this weekend, and this promotion is the reason why. If Thai hotel owners haven't suffered enough, they have the God given right to suffer some more. And, this is not just idle talk.  We always travel on this weekend.

Edited July 25, 2020 by allane
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[Neeranam]

Does anyone know the website for the Thai discounted hotels? I'm going to Bangkok next week to pick up my Thai ID card and want to celebrate in style somewhere. I'm not sure if the better hotels give the discount.