Beer Bar Owners - Is It Worth It?

[fullwhenempty]

I see many foreigners running beer bars and I always wonder why. I can understand the initial 'perks'... the ladies, cheap beer and the business visa and a relief from boredom yet there must be hassles that detract from the experience.

Visits from the local Police. You drink all your profits. The location may be poor so few customers, causing the best girls to go elsewhere. Obnoxious drunks.

Is it worth it?

[Morden]

I see many foreigners running beer bars and I always wonder why. I can understand the initial 'perks'... the ladies, cheap beer and the business visa and a relief from boredom yet there must be hassles that detract from the experience.

Visits from the local Police. You drink all your profits. The location may be poor so few customers, causing the best girls to go elsewhere. Obnoxious drunks.

Is it worth it?

That's an interesting question.

In Korat there are several farang bars and none seem to offer much of a return. Two are known to be for sale. Some owners want to move south to the resorts where they think that business is better but are they merely seeing the grass as being greener?

Perhaps these problems are confined to Korat where the farang population is small, cliquey and gossipy. Perhaps the owners don't know what to offer customers to entice them to visit. Whatever the reason, the result is long hours, periods with no customers, frustration, bar fights and poor profit margins. enough to make a young man grow old quickly!

[PhilHarries]

No, absolutely not!

Running a beer bar is not how many people see it. Most people go to, say, Pattaya on their holidays usually high season. What they see is a 24/7 party, what they do not see is the realities of the low season.

Unless you have a Thai partner/wife/gf or mamasan who you can trust 100% and then some you will have to be there 24/7 or the staff will rip you off something rotten. It's probably great fun in the high season when there are customers-a-plenty (assuming you have sorted out the most important factor - LOCATION) but sitting there all day, no customers and no income, gets to be a grind very fast. Even if two farang mates decide to run a bar one of them always has to be there. This then leads to arguements and a falling out over who has put in the most time on duty. I've seen brothers at each others throat over just that issue. You may be lucky and have a large circle of mates who go to Thailand on holiday and will patronise your bar. All too often some of them will turn up 9 oclock morning for a beer, after all they are on holiday, and insist you join them, couple of hours later more turn up same script and by 2 oclock afternoon you are blooted.

Financially, supposing you have everything sorted out, you will be lucky to break even. Most of the bars that do well are owned and run by Thais but even then there are more than a few that barely scratch out a living May to November.

Those couple of issues are merely the tip of the iceberg of reasons not to run a bar in Thailand. Sure some make a go of it but for every one that does there must be a hundred that bail out having blown their funds. Also be wary of farang bar owners claiming to be making a small fortune, chances are they are looking for business partners.

No, I love drinking beer in bars/pubs but I know my place and that is streetside of the bar where I can leave anytime I like.

[stander]

My wife's family owns several properties in Hua Hin which they lease to "Bar Owners". The have been doing this since the early nineties and in that time some of these bars have changes hands more than 10 times,

The "Bar Owners" seem to be more taken with the lifestyle, than having any serious business plan.

They just seem to like to struggle along and then complain when the rent is increased.

[LeungKen]

Another thing to bear in mind is that any non-Thai "working" behind a bar would need a Work Permit. Not being able to pour a beer in your own establishment might sound crazy, but if some bastard wants to drop you in the sh*t then all ramifications must be considered.

[zorro1]

As Phil Harris said you got to be there 24/7. Regardless of how successful it is as your regulars expect you to entertain them, give them the local goss etc. I know 3 owners very well in Bkk all chronic drinkers. One of the few totally professional guys I have seen are the ones running the soi 8 bar. Extremely professional and very successful ,just try and get a seat Friday or Saturday nights.

[wolfmanjack]

Another thing to bear in mind is that any non-Thai "working" behind a bar would need a Work Permit. Not being able to pour a beer in your own establishment might sound crazy, but if some bastard wants to drop you in the sh*t then all ramifications must be considered.

Yes and there are falang that work with the police to help catch bar owners doing this.

[12DrinkMore]

Yes and there are falang that work with the police to help catch bar owners doing this.

dam_n traitors.

Interestingly enough the Thais would never shop their own in Farangland for working illegally, running gambling rooms and prostitution. In fact, they go out of their way to make sure the newcomers are fully informed of all their rights and how to extract the maximum from the system, and indeed, to a certan extent from their husbands!

[gymshark]

As Phil Harris said you got to be there 24/7. Regardless of how successful it is as your regulars expect you to entertain them, give them the local goss etc. I know 3 owners very well in Bkk all chronic drinkers. One of the few totally professional guys I have seen are the ones running the soi 8 bar. Extremely professional and very successful ,just try and get a seat Friday or Saturday nights.

Agreed, compare those guys to the fat drunken slobs in football shirts drinking themselves to death in Suk 22 in a poxy little place with 4 stools and a corrugated tin roof. Quite a sad existence. When I used to do the bars in Pattaya years ago I knew a few that were like virtual prisoners in their bars and making enough to pay the rent and get pissed. "K" from a bar on Yamato drunk himself to death. RIP.

[britmaveric]

Go in with the attitude that you will make little or no dosh then all is well.

[lazeeboy]

there are some sucess stories out there ,most of the sucessfull owners were sucesses in there own country in business,i started one of the most sucessfull bars in samui in the mid ninties ,still going ,known all over the world now ,move and try it again ,no way hard graft ,to many problems with the bib........

[klikster]

If you don't have experience running a bar or pub in your home country, what makes you think you could be successful running one in Thailand .. where you will find any number of additional issues to deal with?

[Jimjim]

My opinion: I doubt it's worth it for a large majority.

[RAZZELL]

there are some sucess stories out there ,most of the sucessfull owners were sucesses in there own country in business,i started one of the most sucessfull bars in samui in the mid ninties ,still going ,known all over the world now ,move and try it again ,no way hard graft ,to many problems with the bib........

What bar?

RAZZ

[Gary A]

I know one guy from Jomtien who had a good idea. He needed a place to live and at that time anyone could rent a shop house in Jomtien for 9,000 baht per month. His then girlfriend wanted him to buy a bar. He leased the shop house and told her that the bottom floor was her bar. He paid to make it a bar and told her that it was rent free and that he would pay the utilities. He told her that whatever she made was hers and all he wanted was free beer. He would get drunk everyday and crawl up the steps to his apartment above the bar. After she found out that he could drink more beer than her profits could pay for she left. That was no problem for him. He easily found more girls to run the bar to his terms. He finally drank himself to death and I have no idea what happened after that. Obviously he was beyond caring.