Pattaya: Bring on the long weekends, says leading hotelier

[webfact]

Pattaya: Bring on the long weekends, says leading hotelier

 

 

A leading Pattaya hotelier has told the Thai media that what the resort needs is more long weekends. 

 

Speaking in front of a deserted midweek terrace was manager of the Modus Beachfront Resort, Achawin Sorathip. 

 

He said that his beach side resort was previously focused on the foreign market particularly Russians and Koreans before the pandemic. 

 

Now they have been forced to turn their marketing attention to the domestic market and particularly weekends and long holiday weekends. 

 

He noted that in the past weekend they were around half full and things were better in the long Songkran replacement weekend at the start of the month. 

 

Not surprisingly he wants the government to give consideration to creating more long weekends. 

 

At least then the hotel can get some revenue to pay staff wages. 

 

Pattaya is particularly feeling the pinch of the pandemic and its aftermath because of its heavy reliance on foreign tourists, noted the media.

 

Right now there are virtually no foreign tourists in Thailand. 

 

Source: 77kaoded

 

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[steven100]

domestic market is sufficient to keep 4* hotels open but on a limited scale, however in less popular areas they will shut down.

Thai's don't stay in  5* hotels.

No international tourists = no money =  hotels will shut down.

[GeorgeCross]

bring on the 4 day working week, bank holidays every weekend! hoo-rah!

 

 

[petermik]

Why not just scrap work altogether and have one long holiday.....

[mikebell]

13 minutes ago, webfact said:

he wants the government to give consideration to creating more long weekends. 

This gives the police even fewer hours to make up the lost revenue.

[ChipButty]

Lets make it where every night is a Saturday night and every day is a Sunday that will work

[Leaver]

The Thai government should subsidise every hotel room in Pattaya.  100 baht a night for every room.  ????

[stouricks]

3 minutes ago, Leaver said:

The Thai government should subsidise every hotel room in Pattaya.  100 baht a night for every room.  ????

But would that mean Bht 200 for falangs?

[Leaver]

1 minute ago, stouricks said:

But would that mean Bht 200 for falangs?

No, double the normal price for farang, to pay for the Thai subsidy scheme.  ????

[Tropicalevo]

Downward spiral.

'Long weekends' cripples business by giving overtime payments or loosing production.

Peter, robbing Paul, to pay Mary.

[stouricks]

2 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Downward spiral.

'Long weekends' cripples business by giving overtime payments or loosing production.

Peter, robbing Paul, to pay Mary.

And the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind...........

[4MyEgo]

I would have thought that reducing rates on weekends would fill in those vacancy levels ?

 

As for the weekdays, well maybe they could make some kind of package deals, like stay Mon-Fri, receive Sat-Sun for free, with breakfast included for all nights.

 

I'm in !

Edited September 15, 2020 by 4MyEgo

[Matzzon]

What he is talking about is not possible in the long run nor for the already terrible economic state of the country.

[ezzra]

YIPPEE, more days off and more holidays, that is what this country's economy needs, more masses of people on the roads and oh yeah, more road accident and many more dead motorist...

[Peterw42]

Not sure if others are taking advantage of the 40% off scheme at the moment, but it does appear to be working to a point.

I have done 2 trips with Thai wife and family, stayed in several hotels and dined out etc. Lots of other Thais doing the same.

 

At the moment, wife is trying to arrange the next trip to a resort in Rayong, accommodation and seafood buffet etc, 40% off. 

Thing is, the weekends are all booked up for the next 5 weeks, we will be travelling during the week.

 

Long weekends and the 40% off scheme is certainly helping things along.

[BigStar]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

Not sure if others are taking advantage of the 40% off scheme at the moment, but it does appear to be working to a point.

 

A recent promotion with 5 million special offers for domestic tourism deals, heavily subsidised by the government, only had a 20% takeup rate.

    --Thai Examiner

 

Gov't promotions may not be the driving force that TAT: TVF claims they are. I mean IF there were in fact any domestic tourism.

[BigStar]

3 hours ago, steven100 said:

Thai's don't stay in  5* hotels.

TAT: TVF holds that Thais don't stay in any hotels. They just drive around and go home, wherever that is.

 

But back in the real world, Thais do in fact stay in 5-star hotels. SHOCK. Go take a look at Centara Grand or Cape Dara on the weekends, for example.

 

https://www.centarahotelsresorts.com/centaragrand/cmbr/

 

But not good 'nuff. If they only stayed in those B400/night fleabag hotels around Soi Buakhao, now THAT would mean Big Spending of Golden Egg Layer proportions and the coming revival of Pattaya's economy.

 

 

[richard_smith237]

3 hours ago, steven100 said:

 

Thai's don't stay in  5* hotels.

 

Have you ever stayed in any 5* hotels in Thailand? 

 

They are full of Thai’s (ok, before the semantics argument comes in, not full, but a lot of Thai’s stay at these nice 5* hotels - just look at the Marriott, Intercontinental, Putcharacsa, V-Villas and others). 

 

Not every Thai is a taxi driver or starving farm girl struggling to make ends meet in a Pattaya bar. 

 

There are a lot of middle and high income earners who can readily afford the 5* hotels in Thailand, which by comparison are relatively cheap and offer good value compared to their international counterparts. 

 

That said, a significant chunk, the majority of income for these high end hotels are international tourists on their 2-3 week trip of the year / 2 years, decade etc... 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by richard_smith237

[BigStar]

16 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Have you ever stayed in any 5* hotels in Thailand? 

 

They are full of Thai’s.....  Not every Thai is a taxi driver or starving farm girl struggling to make ends meet in a Pattaya bar. 

 

There are a lot of middle and high income earners who can readily afford the 5* hotels in Thailand, which by comparison are relatively cheap and offer good value compared to their international counterparts. 

 

 

Very true. I dunno why it's SO important for our ace Analysts to keep up the pretense that Only Farangs Have Money. Just bigotry, I guess.

 

 

[connda]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Not surprisingly he wants the government to give consideration to creating more long weekends. 

So, what he wants is for the government to mandate that the productive segment of the economy provide their employees with more days off making their enterprises less productive.  Let me think about that for awhile.  ????

 

Or

 

Maybe he wants government to adopt a 3-day work week for all government employees with weekly 4-day weekends.  That actually shouldn't impact government productivity at all.  ????

[jacko45k]

45 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

and high income earners who can readily afford the 5* hotels in Thailand,

So they are full of politicians, police and immigration officials?

[shady86]

Why not target the jobless. For them everyday is holiday. Productivity is already low, reducing work days and more holidays would make things worst?

[RichardColeman]

My car is about to be repossessed, My house is about to be repossessed, My phone is about to be repossessed, I cannot afford the school bills, I cannot afford to eat or take car of my family.

 

I know let's have an extended weekend and a  holiday !

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A leading Pattaya hotelier has told the Thai media that what the resort needs is more long weekends. 

Of course he would, let them work 2 days and holiday 5 days a week for the rest of the year.

[Peterw42]

4 hours ago, BigStar said:

 

A recent promotion with 5 million special offers for domestic tourism deals, heavily subsidised by the government, only had a 20% takeup rate.

    --Thai Examiner

 

Gov't promotions may not be the driving force that TAT: TVF claims they are. I mean IF there were in fact any domestic tourism.

The article you quote is a couple of weeks old, I think you will find the promotion has since been increased and the uptake has increased.

Try and book a midrange hotel for the next longweekend, you will see many places have healthy bookings on the back of the 40% scheme

[newnative]

10 hours ago, steven100 said:

domestic market is sufficient to keep 4* hotels open but on a limited scale, however in less popular areas they will shut down.

Thai's don't stay in  5* hotels.

No international tourists = no money =  hotels will shut down.

    Thais stay in 5 star hotels in Pattaya.  Weekends have been good for Mytt, Grande Centre Point, Dusit, and Cape Dara, all listed as 5 stars on Agoda.  Likely some others, as well.  

[steven100]

5 minutes ago, newnative said:

    Thais stay in 5 star hotels in Pattaya.  Weekends have been good for Mytt, Grande Centre Point, Dusit, and Cape Dara, all listed as 5 stars on Agoda.  Likely some others, as well.  

however, I don't think having more long weekend's is going to save the economy and/or the hotel industry. 

[newnative]

1 minute ago, steven100 said:

however, I don't think having more long weekend's is going to save the economy and/or the hotel industry. 

   Agree.  The hotels I mentioned and some other big ones are doing ok on weekends but there are other smaller hotels in my area of Pattaya that have not re-opened.

[Grumpy one]

5 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

My car is about to be repossessed, My house is about to be repossessed, My phone is about to be repossessed, I cannot afford the school bills, I cannot afford to eat or take car of my family.

 

I know let's have an extended weekend and a  holiday !

Sounds good to me I'll go find my credit card  

[JackThompson]

10 hours ago, Leaver said:

The Thai government should subsidise every hotel room in Pattaya.  100 baht a night for every room.  ????

How about 100 baht/night per hotel room for every day the govt blocks would-be paying customers over covid-fears?  That would be fair. 

Similar for restaurants - a govt-subsidy equal to 50% of revenue the same day last year, until the borders are open.  Subtract food costs, and that would cover rent + staff.

Only stipulation - to qualify, the businesses have to pay the same number of Thai-Citizen staff, at the same pay-rate, as during the same month last year.

Then, see how long they stay committed to pretending there is "no covid in Thailand, because the borders are closed."