A friend told me it is a great time to visit Phuket as all the accommodation places are hurting with empty rooms, no tourists

So the Thai wife and I decided to go

But the prices are still the normal shoulder season to high season prices and double that of low season

we are looking for a nice quiet 3 star on the beach, we have stayed at the Bann Boa Resort before for bout 1200 bhat

but they want 2400 now and the place is empty

Can any one tell me what is happening down here

Or reccommend a good place to stay that need tourists in the rooms, and is not asking stupid high season prices with an empty hotel

We are still fully booked.

It's difficult to say to be honest and clearly varies from place to place. Mrs CM works for a boutique hotel that has 46 rooms and currently only has five guests but the charges are circa 4k Baht per night. A friend who owns a smaller hotel that sells rooms circa 1,500 baht per night is almost full but is seeing repeated requests for steep discounts from would be guests. Driving down Beach Road each day I sense that tourists are not in great supply currently, best bet is to come here on spec and try to negotiate a good rate in person rather than any other means.

It's difficult to say to be honest and clearly varies from place to place. Mrs CM works for a boutique hotel that has 46 rooms and currently only has five guests but the charges are circa 4k Baht per night. A friend who owns a smaller hotel that sells rooms circa 1,500 baht per night is almost full but is seeing repeated requests for steep discounts from would be guests. Driving down Beach Road each day I sense that tourists are not in great supply currently, best bet is to come here on spec and try to negotiate a good rate in person rather than any other means.

What makes a 'boutique' hotel?

£80 a night?....crivvens, must be summat pretty special for that sort of lolly..

It's difficult to say to be honest and clearly varies from place to place. Mrs CM works for a boutique hotel that has 46 rooms and currently only has five guests but the charges are circa 4k Baht per night. A friend who owns a smaller hotel that sells rooms circa 1,500 baht per night is almost full but is seeing repeated requests for steep discounts from would be guests. Driving down Beach Road each day I sense that tourists are not in great supply currently, best bet is to come here on spec and try to negotiate a good rate in person rather than any other means.

What makes a 'boutique' hotel?

£80 a night?....crivvens, must be summat pretty special for that sort of lolly..

What makes a boutique hotel? Agreed it's an overly used term that most times doesn't seem to fit properly so apologies for using it in the first place. Having said that the term does fit in respect of where my better half works, it's a rare find. Visually very appealing, lots of thought has gone into the design, layout and finish. A wonderful steak restaurant and all their own live aboard dive boats. The (French) owner knows all about customer service and he's a good man manager as well. Not part of a large chain where you expect them to get most things right, this hotel has around 46 rooms and 90% of the customers are repeat, says a lot. Oddly he chooses not to charge guests for unexpected overnight visitors because as he says, that's one of the reasons male tourists come to Phuket so why should their hotel penalize them financially for enjoying their holiday! Sorry to rave about the place but I've stayed in hotels worldwide at many times the cost and not been anywhere nearly as impressed. One last example: a few weeks ago there was a problem with the mains water supply and the hotel couldn't get a water supply through no fault of the hotel - the owners response was to not charge any guest for that nights stay because of the inconvenience.

Re luxury hotels and the Phuket / Phangnga area:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/travel/11phuket.html?hp

ok, so patong is not a great indicator, but walking on the beach the other day, I'd say the beach chair use was at 75%. Bangla is full at night but in the last few days, I noticed numbers thinning as tourists went home. I reckon, the real indication will be in the next 2 weeks. If it's what I expect it to be, I wouldn't want to be an innkeeper.