By Paul Andrews

 

Hotels in Hua Hin and Cha Am are almost fully booked for the New Year period, tourism leaders have said.

 

There had been concerns that the discovery of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in three British tourists last week could lead to a spike in cancellations.

 

However, this has proved not to be the case. According to Mr. Chamnong Butsong, General Manager of Veranda Resort Hua Hin Cha-am and advisor to the Hua Hin Cha-am Tourism Business Association, hotel bookings in Hua Hin and Cha Am are at almost 90 percent for New Year.

 

Full story: https://www.huahintoday.com/hua-hin-news/hotels-in-hua-hin-and-cha-am-set-to-be-fully-booked-this-new-year/

 

-- © Copyright Hua Hin Today 2021-12-27

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

The great majority of those New Year hotel bookings are Thais from BKK who want to get to the beaches and the seafood restaurants. Nothing to do with foreign tourists and covid variants.

And the reason they are full is ? Heavy discounting ! Take that away and they would be way less than 50% full

 

In addition, Thai tourists are also able to use the government’s We Travel Together subsidy scheme to get discounts on room rates and dining at restaurants.

The hotels are full because many of the ‘borderline’ tourists are taking advantage of government promotions... 

 

The Thai Government offered 2 million subsidised (40%) hotel nights.... these were snapped up quickly. 

(Lau Teaw Doi Gan from the BauTang app)

 

 

And then the Thai Government announce that they want to avoid a repeat of Songkran and don’t want people to travel !!!!...  

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1244549-thailand-wants-to-avoid-a-repeat-of-songkran-tourism-policies-to-be-reconsidered-in-january/?tab=comments#comment-17074018

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Hotels in Hua Hin and Cha Am are almost fully booked for the New Year period, tourism leaders have said

Good for the locals then... 

The wife and I have been staying in downtown HH since before Christmas, including this past weekend. 

 

It's VERY quiet out and around, and our good sized hotel appears to be mostly empty,,, to the point they've cancelled their normal buffet breakfast and are serving set plates in a mostly empty dining room instead.

 

Maybe upcoming NY will be different, but I didn't see any sign of it for the past Christmas weekend. And other local hotel prices I've been checking for just days ahead are showing big discounts on offer.

 

A quick check of just one online booking app shows over 200 establishments available on 31st, many with several room options available. Not what I would call fully booked. 

That doesn't look fun.

 

 

Why is this projection newworthy? Why don't they let us know after the new year if the hotels were full?

6 hours ago, London Fog said:

A quick check of just one online booking app shows over 200 establishments available on 31st, many with several room options available. Not what I would call fully booked. 

Was there no ban on fake news??? indeed a lot of hotels have still rooms available..But the head pretends different

30 minutes ago, bronzedude said:

Why is this projection newworthy? Why don't they let us know after the new year if the hotels were full?

 I guess " in same boat and something in the line of  talking it up".......

11 hours ago, London Fog said:

A quick check of just one online booking app shows over 200 establishments available on 31st, many with several room options available. Not what I would call fully booked. 

That's the same kind of thing I'm seeing \ experiencing being "on the ground" here right now.

 

Visited two other HH hotels in the Market Village Mall area yesterday to scope out for potential future stays. Both said they had all kinds of room types available right now.

 

Meanwhile, yesterday, our downtown hotel looked a bit busier after looking dead over Christmas weekend. A Thai group of some sort with everyone wearing the same color/ style T-shirts.

 

So I asked the front desk last night, would they change to have a regular buffet breakfast avail in the morning instead of the crappy (and unadvertised) set plate western eggs and toast or Asian rice soup choices they been doing since our arrival last week (due to lack of guests...)

 

Answer: they would be having a buffet breakfast finally just for today / Tues,, then back to set plate offerings again for Weds and Thurs... That pretty much tells the story.