Just now, hotchilli said:

Illogical argument

How would you feel if you went to a foreign country and had to pay more for everything than the locals.

Just because you can afford to fly somewhere doesn't mean you are rich.

All people should pay a fair price and an equal one.

No, it's not illogical. They don't need you if you aren't bringing them more money than a regular thai person. You aren't some special alien creature they want here, you're a number on a spreadsheet.

1 minute ago, captain_shane said:

No, it's not illogical. They don't need you if you aren't bringing them more money than a regular thai person. You aren't some special alien creature they want here, you're a number on a spreadsheet.

 

1 minute ago, captain_shane said:

No, it's not illogical. They don't need you if you aren't bringing them more money than a regular thai person

Which is exactly why tourist numbers are dropping from previous years.

Tourists are favouring other Asian countries that offer more safe amenities than just walking streets.

And have fairer pricing.

Thailand is pricing itself out of the market.... the numbers reflect it.

Just now, hotchilli said:

 

Which is exactly why tourist numbers are dropping from previous years.

Tourists are favouring other Asian countries that offer more safe amenities than just walking streets.

And have fairer pricing.

Thailand is pricing itself out of the market.... the numbers reflect it.

They don't care about the foreigners who complain about 20 baht, they don't want them. What don't you get about this? You are a GUEST in their country. They don't even need to allow you to come here, yet they do. They could send you back to your home country if they wanted, yet you're allowed to live here. There's a reason people choose to live here over vietnam and cambodia and phillippines even though those are easier visa wise. Lol, you people are so entitled. You get to live in $100-200 a month apartments and eat food that costs $2-3 and then you complain about dual pricing at national parks. How about you go back to your country and pay $1k+ per month for rent and $15+ for a meal at a restaurant instead?

16 hours ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

"Why are we paying more for everything, from national parks to bar tabs?" asked one traveller. "Vietnam's starting to look better."

 

And that just about sums it up!!

Well - I wonder if that guy have ever been in Vietnam?

In Thailand I would get ripped off maybe 1 out of ten times at a tourist destination. In Vietnam I would say I got ripped off 9 out 10 times…

The real beast that needs to be tackled is the dual pricing in private and even in government hospitals which are government sanctioned by the way.

Just now, Mangkhut said:

Well - I wonder if that guy have ever been in Vietnam?

In Thailand I would get ripped off maybe 1 out of ten times at a tourist destination. In Vietnam I would say I got ripped off 9 out 10 times…

The only people that talk like this are people who love to complain about thailand, or people who have never been to vietnam. Only 5% of tourists return to vietnam compared to 80% for thailand.

2 minutes ago, captain_shane said:

A 3 min form to fill out is too hard for you?

Aged 82 with a very slow Spanish internet connection it took me at least an hour with many false starts.  The form would not accept my Thai telephone number so I made one up eventually.

'why are you here in thailand,' I've been here 20+ years with a number of friends and a son who has a successful business in Bangkok - that's why.

Vietnam tourist numbers are climbing exponentially.  I will be having my 5th trip there in January to take advantage of their cheap cost of living and wonderful natural beauty where most of the local population speak English and are grateful for the tourist trade.

'Duong Global Business Consulting' -  In less than 4years, Duong Global Business Consulting Group has become the #1 and fastest growing international business & law firm on Facebook in Vietnam!  What does that say about your source?

1 hour ago, actonion said:

Legal or not i still would like to know.... WHY

Because they can...

2 minutes ago, captain_shane said:

They don't care about the foreigners who complain about 20 baht, they don't want them.

It's all they want and exactly what they get, the low end cheap Charlies that come in droves, same as the digital nomads.

TAT daily spout about numbers not quality.

They certainly aren't getting the quality millionaires that they would love to target.

Name me a millionaire who wants to go to Pattaya to cruise Walking street to see the scantily dressed whores parading around in front of go-go bars.

Thailand get the dregs because they cater to the dregs.

Other countries offer what the middle upper class want, and that's where people are migrating.

1 hour ago, actonion said:

Dual pricing on everything for the  Foreigner, from your local Laundry to the International  Hospital, I  have  e- mailed  months ago   all of the International hospital's in Pattaya  asking them the reason why a Foreigner has to pay  more for all Hospital services  than a Thai person, all of my e mails remain unanswered

 

Never noticed, I pay the same as my wife for dentist, I pay the same for check ups.

 

She did get a local rate for child birth though. Everything else is the same from what I can see. 

Just now, hotchilli said:

It's all they want and exactly what they get, the low end cheap Charlies that come in droves, same as the digital nomads.

Lol, shows how much you know. Digital nomads aren't cheap charlies. They make way more than the boomer sexpats living in $70 pattaya apartments.

1 hour ago, Gsxrnz said:

Capitalism by definition is discriminatory. Not racism, but classist discrimination.  The seller will set the price according to the perceived ability and willingness of the buyer to pay based on their class or affluence. The free market will determine the outcome. 

 

Every decision a person makes is discriminatory. The act of buying a particular pair of shoes discriminates against every other pair of shoes in the world.

 

Hats off to any hotelier who can squeeze a few extra baht from, or offer a discount to any socio-economic class in the course of doing business and striving for a profit. 

 

 

Like the dynamic pricing for flights, you enter the plane and you don't know who paid what, if you ask a few people you would be astonished to know how different they paid for exactly the same product. 

1 hour ago, actonion said:

Dual pricing on everything for the  Foreigner, from your local Laundry to the International  Hospital, I  have  e- mailed  months ago   all of the International hospital's in Pattaya  asking them the reason why a Foreigner has to pay  more for all Hospital services  than a Thai person, all of my e mails remain unanswered

That is actually an easy question to answer.

 

Thai hospitals can claim part of the costs to treat Thais and get reimbursed through the health care system.  

 

There is also the money issue; these hospitals used to lose money from Farang tourists who did stupid things and could not or would not pay.

The topic of how much the hotel cost used to come up now and then when I have talked to other guests. There was usually a wide variation in how much each guest paid depending on how it was booked, who was paying for it, which country it was booked in, special offers, discounts for multiple bookings,etc.. No one used to bother too much about it then.

To make it easier to understand,look at it like a tariff?

 

I'm gonna take a different view of this.  I can't speak for other western nations but here in the USA there are lots of things that are cheaper for locals.  Ski day passes, golf course fees, National park fees, etc.  I can't take a holier than thou attitude against them.  Now, things like hospital fees should be the same.  And things like gasoline or electric service etc.  Those are unreasonable to have a two tiered system.

 

But vote with your feet.  Nothing we ever say will have any impact.

 

Absolutely the Baht rate to pound is very low at 43.38. That's with big tariffs coming, war at borders, unstable government & so on. The US Tariffs alone as covered in top financial press would lead to big drop of exports for Thailand leading to very large lay offs of Thai workers. US would also punish China etc using Thailand as a proxy. Its grim but somehow the Baht remains high against western currencies? 

12 minutes ago, sungod said:

 

Never noticed, I pay the same as my wife for dentist, I pay the same for check ups.

 

She did get a local rate for child birth though. Everything else is the same from what I can see. 

 Who ever put the thumbs down on my post, please explain. I am talking from experience from the Bangkok Pattaya hospital. 

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

One disgruntled visitor posted on a Pattaya travel forum, "Should I get a local to book my hotel for October? It's annoying knowing the guest next door is paying less for the same room."

 

If you're going to let that eat on you, you're in for a miserable life.   That's just a fact of life in the travel market.  There's always someone getting a better room rate than me.

 

33 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Most of the users of the 50/50 scheme are civil servants who enjoy a reasonable salary and take all the national holidays given, or the wealthier upper class who don't work.

Cash strapped locals tend to be self employed day workers who never go on holidays.

 

You are 100% correct.  How many farmworkers, street vendors, day laborers, taxi drivers, food, delivery, people, transport drivers, etc. etc. etc. would be able to take advantage of the discounted scheme.?

Vietnam Cambodia is starting to seem like a real option Thailand has been overcharging ex-pats for so many years dual pricing on everything TIT

If I recall, it was Prayuth when he was PM that authorized hotels to charge foreigners more than locals.

A couple months later I was checking out some hotels in Buriram for a trip my club was going on.

Found a good hotel close to the venue - posted room rate online - 1,750/night for foreigners, 1,000 per night for Thais. They actually had that posted on their website ! Didn't even try to hide it !
Found a "resort" about 1 1/2 clicks away that was much cheaper and charged everyone the same rate.

And remember that kerfluffle what, 2 years ago now, when a Thai woman went to the media because she thought the hospital in Bangkok had charged her "the foreigner" rate for her treatment !
The hospital apoligized because "they thought she was Swiss" - and then knocked 100,000 baht off her hospital bill !

I needed an operation at a hospital a few years ago and had to sit with the Finance section while they worked out the total cost. The woman was speaking to the doctor to find out what was going to be done and how long I'd have to stay in the hospital.
3 days - so she wrote "500 x 3" on the page. 

Then some more figures. When the call ended she went over the numbers and suddenly "500 x 3" was changed to "5,000 x 3" !
And a number of other expenses were jacked up as well.
(Private hospitals will charge foreigners 2-3 times the price that locals pay.)

(Last time I needed an operation (to remove a plate in my wrist) I went to one well-known private hospital and they quoted me 180,000 baht.
Went to a smaller private hospital where they charged me 90,000 and it was just as good as the bigger hospital.)

And of course, national parks and other attractions where you get charged 5-10 times the local price to look at the same trees or rocks.

Imagine if they tried doing that in your home country. The outrage would topple gov'ts overnight !

And the current gov't recently reviewed the "double pricing" issue and then decided to - keep the double pricing and raise the price of admission to National Parks and Museums.

At the same time they are crying because the number of tourists coming to Thailand is dropping and more are going to countries that don't try to gouge them as much.

 

2 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

It is true. 

 

Despite the low season rhetoric - Thailand is on course to attract 40 million tourists. Almost record breaking. 

 

They need to weed out low spending cheap tourists, especially those who whinge alot that things aren't cheaper. 

 

Quality tourists don't want to be visiting Thailand with masses and masses of cheap tourists around blocking everything up. 

So arrogant! So ill informed. Thailand built its tourism on American military; Pattaya for Grunts and Phuket for the officers. Thailand needed both then as it does now. After the Americans came the backpackers, hippy types and from there it grew. I first came here in 2002, lived in Thailand while the last two coups and what I've observed is Thailand during that time has not progressed and sometimes regressed. In the bank yesterday with my wife and as the bank was using two systems electronic and paper just the same as in 2002. The computer system still looks like the original Unix system or maybe dos. We now live back in the uk since 2019 so can see and compare and the difference is massive. Even with all the problems the uk has at the moment it is far better than Thailand and apart from a few things the uk is a lot cheaper. Thailand just keeps on milking the golden calf and each year more expats leave or die and they are not being replaced at the same rate. Thailand still only has sex, sea, and sand however the sea is full of raw sewage, pastic waste , beaches are full of wild rabid dogs and as for sex, we'll that is also changing with the likelihood of being rolled robbed and maybe even beaten to a pulp ever more likely. If we did not still have family and a house in Thailand we would never come back here. I personally would love to start holidaying in Vietnam. Thailand will never ever attract High end travellers I'm sorry but the middle east has that well sown up.

21 minutes ago, Shocked farang said:

Like the dynamic pricing for flights, you enter the plane and you don't know who paid what, if you ask a few people you would be astonished to know how different they paid for exactly the same product. 

Maybe a good question next time for chatGPT, let it figure out where the best price is.

2 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

It is true. 

 

Despite the low season rhetoric - Thailand is on course to attract 40 million tourists. Almost record breaking. 

 

They need to weed out low spending cheap tourists, especially those who whinge alot that things aren't cheaper. 

 

Quality tourists don't want to be visiting Thailand with masses and masses of cheap tourists around blocking everything up. 

associating money with quality is laughable

27 minutes ago, kingstonkid said:

That is actually an easy question to answer.

 

Thai hospitals can claim part of the costs to treat Thais and get reimbursed through the health care system.  

 

There is also the money issue; these hospitals used to lose money from Farang tourists who did stupid things and could not or would not pay.

My experience is that since the tsunami some private hospitals, and especially one that has several hospitals across the country has raised its prices in an absurd manner, and as I had to use these hospitals from time to time, I can confirm that those high prices have always remained, and as I mentioned earlier you even had to negotiate for a lower price.
Totally ridiculous.
How could that be anyway.

 

This double tier  pricing has been going on for years 

The Tourists don't care if they did they would go  else where 

It's the expats who live and work in Thailand complain 

This Subject has been flogged to death bottom line if you dont agree don't pay 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, shackleton said:

This double tier  pricing has been going on for years 

The Tourists don't care if they did they would go  else where 

It's the expats who live and work in Thailand complain 

This Subject has been flogged to death bottom line if you dont agree don't pay 

 

OK, but expats/ long stayers can complain

17 minutes ago, BritScot said:

So arrogant! So ill informed. Thailand built its tourism on American military; Pattaya for Grunts and Phuket for the officers. Thailand needed both then as it does now. After the Americans came the backpackers, hippy types and from there it grew. I first came here in 2002, lived in Thailand while the last two coups and what I've observed is Thailand during that time has not progressed and sometimes regressed. In the bank yesterday with my wife and as the bank was using two systems electronic and paper just the same as in 2002. The computer system still looks like the original Unix system or maybe dos. We now live back in the uk since 2019 so can see and compare and the difference is massive. Even with all the problems the uk has at the moment it is far better than Thailand and apart from a few things the uk is a lot cheaper. Thailand just keeps on milking the golden calf and each year more expats leave or die and they are not being replaced at the same rate. Thailand still only has sex, sea, and sand however the sea is full of raw sewage, pastic waste , beaches are full of wild rabid dogs and as for sex, we'll that is also changing with the likelihood of being rolled robbed and maybe even beaten to a pulp ever more likely. If we did not still have family and a house in Thailand we would never come back here. I personally would love to start holidaying in Vietnam. Thailand will never ever attract High end travellers I'm sorry but the middle east has that well sown up.

Then how you explain the spectacular development ? Luxury malls, condos , thai have much more money now. They improve a lot

Went to the Taj Mahal while India ages ago.  You had to buy a ticket, like in a movie theatre, app. 10 US cents.  No pedigree checking.

Seems they took care of that!  (90 rupees ~US$1)