Businesses on Khao San Road struggle to serve customers

[Yme]

Maybe they just should adjust their prices upwards so that they can pay a decent and proper wage instead of trying to be the one selling the most at the lowest prices and relying on ar fines and girly drinks to make their profit. 

 

[kwaiYai]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

Not that expensive when the government pays a large chunk of it. In the UK pensioners were given £510.

For someone living alone, not a bad idea to shut everything down for 3 months and go away.

My wife and I came here for the first time since the pandemic. Staying 3 months, Dec-March. Airfare was about £850 each, used to be £500. But my cousin back in the UK has a Smart meter which tells him he’s used £400 on gas in the last 2 weeks! He’s only heating his house to 20c for 14 hours a day. I’m sure we did the right thing!

[BigStar]

2 hours ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

Complete nonsense - Bangkok is severely lacking tourists - nightlife venues are half-empty and nowhere near what they used to be in high season pre-Covid.

Is the part about Kao San Rd., the topic of the article, nonsense?

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The foreign tourists are flocking back to Bangkok’s Khao San Road, but they may notice that service is a bit slower than normal. Businesses on the popular tourist thoroughfare, like just about all tourism destinations, are struggling to cope with staff shortages that are hampering their ability to cope at the busiest time of the year.

Maybe let some foreigners work?

novel idea?

[hotchilli]

12 hours ago, Pique Dard said:

wrong! they want better pay!

Got it in one

 

[BritScot]

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

Not that expensive when the government pays a large chunk of it. In the UK pensioners were given £510.

For someone living alone, not a bad idea to shut everything down for 3 months and go away.

Please direct me where you can get a flight in the uk to thailand for £510? I think you will find flights are near £2,000 from most parts of the UK to Thailand!!! I know as we were going to go and even travel on Christmas day.

[wealthychef]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

the former staff don’t want their old jobs back.

Crazy idea: increase wages or other paid benefits, or even better, offer partial ownership of the company, more empowerment and a better workplace.  Maybe management doesn't want to do what it takes to make their business a good place to work.  

[sandyf]

37 minutes ago, BritScot said:

Please direct me where you can get a flight in the uk to thailand for £510? I think you will find flights are near £2,000 from most parts of the UK to Thailand!!! I know as we were going to go and even travel on Christmas day.

You may well be right for those that think the cost of living and the winter are unexpected events.

The majority were well aware of the subsidies and the approaching winter months ago,

The pensioners winter bonus paid about 60% of my mates flight with Qatar.

[Jockstar]

20 hours ago, BritManToo said:

They still need to heat their homes and the air fares are very expensive. I can't see any saving to be made by a western foreigner coming here for two weeks unless they were homeless in the west. 

I was thinking exactly the same.

[Jimjim1]

21 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It’s not just Bangkok facing a labour shortage, as Phuket has made no secret of the fact that it too is struggling. Tourism businesses on the island recently confirmed they have over 17,000 vacancies to fill.

Karma,

the hotel owners dumped the staff instead of supporting them a little during the bad times and now the staff are telling them to shove it, and who can blame them.

Now it is time to win them back with some understanding and a better pay and benefits package.

[billd766]

7 hours ago, kwaiYai said:

My wife and I came here for the first time since the pandemic. Staying 3 months, Dec-March. Airfare was about £850 each, used to be £500. But my cousin back in the UK has a Smart meter which tells him he’s used £400 on gas in the last 2 weeks! He’s only heating his house to 20c for 14 hours a day. I’m sure we did the right thing!

But how much are you also paying for utilities in the UK while you are staying here? Have you left the heating on to stop your pipes from freezing, electricity on for the essentials etc.

 

You will still have to pay the standing charges for water and sewage, electricity and gas, council tax etc.

 

It it not as though you can just lock up and fly away and pay nothing in the UK.

 

You also have to pay here in Thailand for somewhere to stay, eating out, transport etc and the prices here have also gone up.

[rickudon]

Yes, when tourism crashed many Thai workers returned to their homes. Apart from the strictest lockdowns and nightlife, the only way you knew about the pandemic in Udon when out and about were the masks and handgel. Shops were busy and plenty of partying in the villages. At least 3 businesses opened on the regular routes i use at this time, probably funded from the tourism savings. They haven't closed down, one was expanding this week.

 

Most of the workers found jobs here, or started their own, maybe paid a bit less, but living at home, costs are lower. Haven't heard about anyone saying they want to go back to Phuket or Pattaya to work. Employers are notorious for wanting long hours, unpaid overtime, and few advancement opportunities. Until employees are treated as a valuable resource then recruiting good staff will not be easy.

 

In my own family a couple of examples of this. My wife worked 10 years for Charoen Optical, but was still paid the same as those just starting. Left to run a village bottle shop, then a restaurant at home. MY niece recently got a job as an accounts clerk, but was made to work 2 hours unpaid overtime most days. An 11 hour day. She left and now is a shop assistant - less money, less responsibility but an 8 hour day.

 

 

[Northstar1]

It’s a catch 22situation 

raise wages and give benefits, then listen to everyone whine about prices going up!

then Thailand isn’t a cheap destination anymore, not that it is now.

[Sydebolle]

Forget about cold Western climate patterns and increased cost of living.

Fact of the matter is, that the chickens came home to roost. Thailand's governments has anticipated for generations the un-education of the electorate. Due to the lack of power separation those in charge of education were beneficiaries of the fact, that the Thais remain uneducated until today.

After 15 years of Thai education they may hand out magnetic cards on a drive-up to a tollway or apply for telephone operators etc.; I do not know of any foreigners - who can afford the private education fees of international schools - who would have their child(ren) attend a Thai school; likewise the price tags of the international education institutes remain simply out of reach for 95% of the kids. 

The educational level of an apprenticeship is unknown; some parents are blinded when the "universities" offer a traineeship (ฝึกงาน) which is a fortnight of folding papers, wrapping something or just watch another employee doing something the trainee has not the slightest clue about. 

From this particular "horn of empty" the employment market recruits its staff. Latter, facing the uphill battle serving other people (which might be a loss of face for the youngster and hence flatly refused), the inability of applying basics of foreign languages, irregular working hours at salaries their bosses would not even answer the phone ....... go figure!

As said, the writing is on the wall in big capital letters. Revamp the education system, allow "alien" to work here without this tremendous avalanche of bureaucracy, photocopies to be signed with blue ink only and allow passport photographs which are, sidewise, off by one millimeter. 

Offload 50% to 80% of your "government officers" to increase the throughput and use the saved salaries to compensate the remaining workforce with proper pay ..... otherwise Thailand will go down the same drain as the Philippines after 1986. 

Your call! 

[Skeptic7]

On 12/21/2022 at 8:21 PM, Elkski said:

Maybe many are now working online

Internet sex, FB outcall and such❗????