Billionaire hotel tycoon Bill Heinecke asks Thailand to charge foreigners more per room to aid industry’s economic recovery

[ThailandRyan]

41 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Minor Hotels is a hotel owner, operator and investor with a portfolio of over 75,000 rooms across more than 520 hotels, resorts and serviced suites under the Anantara, AVANI, Oaks, Tivoli, Elewana, NH Collection, NH, nhow, Marriott, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Radisson Blu and Minor International brands.

 

Minor Food is one of Asia's largest casual dining and quick-service restaurant companies, operating over 2,410 outlets in 24 countries under The Pizza Company, The Coffee Club, Riverside, Thai Express, Benihana, Bonchon, Swensen’s, Sizzler, Dairy Queen and Burger King brands.

 

Minor Lifestyle is one of Thailand's largest distributors of lifestyle brands with over 390 points of sale, focusing primarily on fashion and lifestyle products. Its brands include Anello, BergHOFF, Bodum, Bossini, Charles & Keith, Esprit, Joseph Joseph, Radley, Zwilling J.A. Henckels and Minor Smart Kids.

That's guite a list of brands to boycott...since I shop and use many products like my J.A Henckels, and Zwilling knifes and other kitchen utensils daily. Looks like Zebra Brand from now on...

[Toby1947]

Would wager his employees are on absolute minimum wage. I for one are praying for his demise one way or another. 

[Lung Khao]

[theodoresaed]

would get a room for 300 to 500 baht usually, now the big hotels in Hatyai  are closed for COVID, and they would be 600 to 800.  If the big hotels could open, this would make it impossible for them to recover, nobody would go there, with the nicer big rooms even, because of the price, very bizarre proposal, why not for Thais too if an increase desire, kills all desire to leave home and  with a Thai wife of twenty years, she knows what to do best anyway, very suspicious character here

[Mad mick]

Typical type elite millionaire or Billionaire ! lm aright Jack f the rest .. so what he's proposing no tourist in Thailand,  just go Vietnam great accommodation at low to high prices low end market have great safe secure facilities " lF Thais fall for this as its $s normally do ! do at there own peril 

[0815]

And who asked this fool for his advice ?

[lifeincnx]

Sounds like he got this asinine idea from another billionaire, Elon Musk. He wants to charge Twitter users 300 baht ($8 US) per month for the silly blue validation check. 

[ConnectionNotGuaranteed]

Deleted.

Answer already provided.

 

[mikeymike100]

Well this is gonna turn out rather bad for his hotels in Thailand?

What is he gonna call it a foreigner/alien surcharge? Sure that's gonna ensure that the foreign tourists stay at his hotels, isn't it?????

[rankric]

This guy has wrote in on purpose, knowing he will never be listened to, no matter how much they like that idea. One way of protecting thailand tourism that may actually work. 

 

 

[Mad mick]

Typical of these Billionaires multi millionaires types f u Jack im alright type " Obviously doesn't like competitive  competion with his Hotel chains & forgets where he came from !! If " Thais fall for this more than likely they will $s do at there own peril , plenty great accommodation in Vietnam high to low low end market exceptional  value clean tidy safe neat all the spots like to visit ! Vietnam is booming bums on seats mentality 

[SportRider]

"Dealing with high inflation and rising costs of raw materials, wages, energy, and fuel prices"

 

It's the same for everyone mate, not just Thailand.  You increase prices here, and tourists will just go elsewhere.

[IamNoone88]

What a ridiculous suggestion. 

[thairookie]

He will inspire a new business model among Thai females, where a Thai female will be girlfriend to 100 foreigners for the sole purpose of booking hotel rooms at a price for Thai.

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The hotels needed to charge more because the tourism industry is dealing with high inflation and rising costs of raw materials, wages, energy, and fuel prices, said Heinecke who chairs Minor International Pcl, which runs more than 500 hotels worldwide.

So you don't think tourists are having a tough time at home too?

You need to relieve them of a bit more cash to you can wallow in your lifestyle.

[Mickeymaus]

Dear Mr. Heinecke. I feel for you. But did you try sites like gofundme already?

[LudwigK]

Billy THE MONEY KID  8-)))))

(het got money for his public advice too?)

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, JayClay said:

Lol.. Isn't this the same guy who thought that now is not an appropriate time for a tourist tax on flights?

Yeah short memory man, must be getting down to his last billion or so, things must be tight for him.

[Edwin Cameron]

Go ahead,then watch the Thai tourist industry implode..! I for one shall not go to Thailand,Vietnam is cheaper and more interesting anyway.

[MrJ2U]

His hotel brands, mostly, aren't cheap to begin with.

 

If this happens I'll never stay at a Minor affiliated hotel again.

 

 

[Boomer6969]

3 hours ago, Robert Tyrrell said:

We don’t charge more based on your ethnicity in America ???????? For a Hotel why should it be done anywhere in the world !!

Even though  I share some of your ire, I find your post somewhat entertaining.

[Highend Expat]

12 hours ago, sscc said:

This man is American-Thai.   

 

If he renounced his US citizenship, he is no longer an American, by law. 

[shackleton]

If you can afford to stay in his hotel group then a $8  a night rise will be not be a  problem to you 

Let him hike up his hotel cost and see if it matters to his customers or any. future  tourist ????

[10baht]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

American-Thai billionaire and hotel tycoon Bill Heinecke advises Thailand to charge international tourists an extra 300 baht (US$8) per room per night to aid the hotel industry’s post-pandemic economic recovery.

What an ignorant A-hole.

[webcrawler00]

He is free to increase his hotel rooms with as much as he wants. Increase by 1000% and help the economy! Double salaries too! Go ahead! 

[digger70]

Greedy sods , the more the've got the more they Want.

What a sad pair off dickens are they .they've got billions in $ they can spare a couple Billion for the Thai Hotels/motels. 

Why is it that the working man who saves for their holiday got to pay extra .

The tourist centers Charge already like Scrub bulls .

This is one more discouragement to come for a holiday in Los.

[scorecard]

16 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

If Mr Heinecke thinks that hotels need to charge more then surely they will. Hotel pricing is driven by costs and the market (supply/demand). No artificial support needed to generate more profits for him! Is he saying publicly that there should be dual pricing for foreigners? This is just plain wrong and will backfire on him and the country if they pander to his greedy non-sense. Especially when everything needs to be done to attract travellers in this recession. If I knew which hotels he's involved with, I would surely boycott them.

 

He became a billionaire on the back of rampant capitalism. 

 

Now he wants more than capitalism. 

 

[Nemesis7]

If Thailand takes this guys opinion seriously in the long run Thailand will lose its market and eventually some other country will replace Thai hospitality market . Dual pricing ? What a moron 

[jaywalker2]

3 hours ago, jayboy said:

You do not know the man.Heinecke is a highly intelligent operator though like many entrepreneurs of the highest rank he has no academic credentials to speak of.He has his faults (who doesn't?), the most conspicuous being his total adherence to the exclusion of other considerations to the fortunes of William Heinecke!

He did have the vision to see the potential of U.S, fast food when most people thought Thais would never go for it. But a lot of his success is attributable to the connections he was able to form among the elite. Remember, he jumped on the Prayut bandwagon right after the coup and his 300 baht hotel surcharge mirrors the surcharge that the government wants to impose on foreign arrivals.  The fact that he, originally an American, should subscribe to such discrimination is disgraceful.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I met Bill Heineke and his brother Skip back in the 1990s.  Bill is probably the only billionaire with whom I've had a conversation.

 

As others have already stated, he gave up his US citizenship decades ago. His billions are self-made and prove that it is possible to make a living, and a spectacular one at that, doing business in Thailand. Good for him.

 

If he wishes to charge an additional $8 a night for his hotel rooms, he is certainly free to do so. He can use the extra income to develop the tourism sector or he can use it to replenish a depleted balance sheet. Up to him.