Pattaya To Woo Visitors With Free Rooms

[draggons]

Lots of deals going around now. We have reps coming in past the office every day trying to give us deals with their hotels.

[ChiangMaiFurnishedApts]

Its not only the city of Pattaya that should be considering incentives to get people to come and stay. I have never seen Chiang Mai so quiet in all of my time here. The hotels have barely occupancy, I have seen alot of foreign owned restaurants fold because they have no customers and the people in the night market here are just sitting around watching tv all night.

Its getting people to come to Thailand in the first place is the problem, those who have cancelled or chosen somewhere else will not change their mind over a few promotions sadly.

[midasthailand]

OK since no one else has bothered to explain "Balloon Chasers" I will do so for the uninformed. It is normal practise for bars that are having a free BBQ or some special deal to put balloons up outside the bar. It is not unusual in places like Pattaya (with thousands of bars) to have several bars putting on free food because it's the owners birthday or some other auspicious event. Often when bars do this they find themselves invaded by "Balloon chasers" whose only motivation is to indulge in a free meal/cheap drinks or both.

Cheers

[lor]

I think the Free Rooms is just a promotion headline. If you read the e-mail posted earlier in this thread it looks that they are asking each Blue Smile participating hotel to offer "5" free vouchers for EITHER rooms or food!

That makes a good headline FREE ROOMS but I think the amount of rooms they have to offer will be gone within the first few minutes of starting the promotion, if they get any at all!. But I think they may have lots of vouchers for Free Fruit.

Chris

Edited April 22, 2009 by lor

[taxin]

Lots of deals going around now. We have reps coming in past the office every day trying to give us deals with their hotels.

Yes, they are called timeshare touts !!

[petercsea]

It's a reasonable strategy.

The statement is that there have been no foreign bookings since Songkran. Free rooms are most likely to grab the attention of some travellers looking at Pattaya as a destination. It may just push them into making that decision. Once there and they have a safe and enjoyable time, the work has been done. The word will begin to filter again. The issues of economy etc are all separate and very speculative issues and really not related to this strategy.

[ignis]

You have already stay x amount of nights and get 1 or 2 nights free...... you already have Companies offering up to 75% off........ so it is just another way of putting it... Advertising ploy... You have and have had for years already from Airline cheaper flights with the 1st 3 nights free Hotel rooms to Thailand

Very few will be a bargain...... has been the same for years all over the world, sure there are some very good bargains but most of these are also linked to a full package, flights, transfers, hotels etc...

For years theirs been stay 14days and get 7 nights free, right up to stay 3months get the 4th month free [don't think Thailand was in this] a lot of these you pay full price for the 1st 14 days then get just the room free for the next 7..... But often it is much cheaper to use a full package 3 week holiday...

eg: From UK I have had in the past some wonderful deals, 3 weeks in Malta, 4* hotel full board flights and transfers 99 GBP

3 weeks in a 4 or 5* hotel in Tunisia 199 GBP full board, same in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Spanish Islands often with a few free Tours thrown in, + many other places...... I used to go away for 2 - 3 weeks twice in the Winter for years, it was cheaper than staying at home just Heating and food would come to far more than 3 weeks in the sun waited on and cooked for... these work out far far cheaper than the stay 14days and get 7 nights free.

Edited April 22, 2009 by ignis

[kurtgruen]

Its not only the city of Pattaya that should be considering incentives to get people to come and stay. I have never seen Chiang Mai so quiet in all of my time here. The hotels have barely occupancy, I have seen alot of foreign owned restaurants fold because they have no customers and the people in the night market here are just sitting around watching tv all night.

Its getting people to come to Thailand in the first place is the problem, those who have cancelled or chosen somewhere else will not change their mind over a few promotions sadly.

Still some tourists running around Chiang Mai, but a lot of the local Expat crowd is gone or leaving quickly. Most of them I talked to, just don't have the monthly income anymore, to sustain them here. Some lost their money in the stock market, some are getting wiped out by poor exchange rates, others are watching their businesses fail either here or back home. Others are tired of the visa rules, etc. and have found Cambodia to be more friendly towards foreign tourists.

I think that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Thailand is going to fall hard this time. And I agree with other posters on here....Som Nam Na (they get what they deserve)

[12346]

We were thinking to buy us a house in Thailand for to spend the last time of our lives

there but when we get to know that you can not buy your land only lease it we change our mind and decided to buy in oanother country where you are allowed to own your plot.

We can not understand why the thai goverment not allowed foreigners to own a pice of land for to build a house. As we can understand it will gives a lot of work for the constructionscompany when people build their houses.

Now we will se whats happened.

[Lancelot]

Why change a winning formula? Thailand is the success story of SE Asia (serious comment) and I've read in the BKK Post the there will be no recession here, so:

1 Admission to Grand Palace, National parks, etc. increased to B800. If that goes down ok, double again to B1,600.

2 More vendors selling overpriced trinkets.

3 More pick pockets.

4 Police redouble their efforts to shake down farangs for more money.

5 Pattaya songtaew drivers beat up more farangs who object to being grossly overcharged.

OK, enough already...

Seriously though, Thailand is like a name brand and in the near term, I wouldn't be suprised to see tourisim bounce back, and maybe even increase.

Longer term the constant ongoing political turmoil and the mind set of some of the Thais in the tourist industry will take its toll.

Disagree? OK, but have you heard of General Motors, the one time giant of the auto industry? Now even die hard GM customers are not buying their cars. What goes around, comes around.

I will be delighted to be wrong and see Thailand prosper; however, from what I am seeing now, their future does not look too rosy

[Tyke]

Never ever had anything really free here.

And I agree, who could rent out something for FREE...it makes no sense.

And 50 % discount in shopping malls? Remains to be seen for what!

Why do people on here start ranting about what is free or not as soon as they read a BKK Post article - why don't u wait and see what they mean by 'free' before raving about why it is not really free or not. I've had more freebies in Thailand than i have ever had in the UK, eg. free electricity in my condo when i have spent less than a minumum for at least 1 year so far - not paid anything for electricity - they wouldn't give that away in the UK. Loads of freebies handed out at the BTS and shopping malls in BKK, 5% tourist card, various 2 for 1. Ok argue that things like this are not really free - well a room at half price gives you half a days' use of a room for free. 7 days pay for 5 gives you 2 free days in a room - or a free room for 2 days - however u may spin it, don't argue until you know the full facts.

[12346]

Why change a winning formula? Thailand is the success story of SE Asia (serious comment) and I've read in the BKK Post the there will be no recession here, so:

1 Admission to Grand Palace, National parks, etc. increased to B800. If that goes down ok, double again to B1,600.

2 More vendors selling overpriced trinkets.

3 More pick pockets.

4 Police redouble their efforts to shake down farangs for more money.

5 Pattaya songtaew drivers beat up more farangs who object to being grossly overcharged.

OK, enough already...

Seriously though, Thailand is like a name brand and in the near term, I wouldn't be suprised to see tourisim bounce back, and maybe even increase.

It´s their own foul. They want farrangs money but not to have them in the country.

Longer term the constant ongoing political turmoil and the mind set of some of the Thais in the tourist industry will take its toll.

Disagree? OK, but have you heard of General Motors, the one time giant of the auto industry? Now even die hard GM customers are not buying their cars. What goes around, comes around.

I will be delighted to be wrong and see Thailand prosper; however, from what I am seeing now, their future does not look too rosy

[aussiechick]

Every year in low season (01 May - 31 October) the Hotels have always had "free rooms" stay 4 pay 3, stay 7 pay 5 etc. This is certainly not anything new!

[Trickcyclist]

And who will benefit?

Suspect our local "Cheap Charlie's"/balloon chasers will soon find a way of milking the system, genuine tourists will not get a look in.

Free room conditional on having 2 meals per day in house system has been around for years in the UK, plus taxes. Nothing wrong with it if accommodation and co-guests are ok and you want to eat in all the time.

[notime]

You probably have all noticed this before but 50% off just means they wil increase the retail price by 50% before giving the 50% off bargain! There are no consumer enforced laws in Thailand for such scams and so I see it all the time. There are really never any decent bargains, I found that cheap shoes are even cheaper back home in New Zealand! And the person who wrote about the Thai business trend of "increasing" prices is dead right. I have given up a few of my luxuries because of this! Anyone have a serious answer as to why they do this?

This is exactly my observation as well. I recently visited Australia and found myself shopping all the time because the choice and quality was great comparing with Samui where I live and prices for many items were actually cheaper giving into account the good discounting.

Why do they do this? I think firstly because many small businesses here don't have bulk buying power of larger chains stores overseas and the products they buy cost them more. The positioning of large chains like Tesco or Big C reflects their high costs due to inefficient operations which makes them not much more competitive.

Secondly because of the prudent business sense that tells them that at the time when there are no customers lowering prices will only reduce their takings. With most of businesses servicing tourists this is actually the case. In sectors that sell to Thais lowering prices could induce more sales but mass consumerism is still at a very early stage in this country and would require strengthening of consumer laws among other things.

Thirdly because of greed and an acute sens of the world owing them the living that has build up over the years of Farnag just keep coming to Thailand and spending easily no matter what. This altitude will be difficult to change and things may need to become much worse for many Thais to realise the value of self improvement based on education as a way to financial betterment.

[DMasut]

FREE ROOMS...but still have to pay local and tourist taxes...which will 'temporarily be increased 500% until Oct 31st.

[webfact]

Every year in low season (01 May - 31 October) the Hotels have always had "free rooms" stay 4 pay 3, stay 7 pay 5 etc. This is certainly not anything new!

remember something similar happened back in 1997/98. Lot of hotels had special offers i.e. "pay 1 week get 1 week free" or something like that.

Saw these offers in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Cha Am, Koh Samui.... almost everywhere. Success? Never made public as far as I remember.

So nothing new with this new/old super promotion.

[notime]

jeez.......i have never come across a more miserably negative group of bloggers in my lifetime! piss and moan....piss and moan is all you guys ever do.....ever think about moving back to your home country? I will continue to travel to Thailand (it is hardly 'unsafe' in comparison to most countries with more 'stable' governments) and I will even go to Pattaya next month and spend my money.......

You are welcome! Please spend as much as you can and you may make some of us feel better. But if you want an answer to your question notice that many of us live here as against "travelling to Thailand". Maybe that has something to do with the ammount of winning we have to do to cheer ourselves up :-) And as a matter of fact many of us think a lot of going back to home countries, many already did and many will although we don't necessary feel unsafe here as well and still enjoy "occasional" visit to the bar or some other touristy ativity ;-)

[DMasut]

Maybe the police will also join the scheme, reducing normal no receipt fines by 50% for those who do not break any laws!

Sorry, THose fees must be increased to pay for the new "Thai Police Stimulus Fund".

[traderjm]

And the person who wrote about the Thai business trend of "increasing" prices is dead right. I have given up a few of my luxuries because of this! Anyone have a serious answer as to why they do this?

I own a few retail businesses in BKK, one place was getting so busy I could not manage it along with all the other locations myself so I hired a manager to oversee that one location on a daily basis. I would drop in weekly to empty the safe, deal with anything that needed my attention. In all our locations we sell things like flash drives, memory cards, plug adapters, stuff like that. I noticed my super busy location was still doing well over all but sales of those items had come to a stand still. Next time in that shop I had a peek at the display case and noticed that ALL the prices had been change and had like 200% margin on them. Where as we generally run between 30 and 35% at our other shops. I asked the THAI Manager what the heck was going on?

He said with straight face that sales had slowed down a bit, so he raised the prices, so that we did NOT have to sell as many to make good profit. I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious...

I tried to explain to him that I had capital tied up in the purchase of that stock and the longer it sat there, the cheaper I could replace at a lower price, and that if things aren't selling we LOWER the prices, which might in turn decrease our margins, but it allows us to turn the stock over more quickly and thereby take advanatage of the cheaper purchase costs for ourselves. I would rather make 25% on 20 items than 200% on one...

He simply and honestly could NOT understand why I would think lowering the price made sense, no matter how examples I gave him and no matter how many times I tried to explain it differently. So we made a deal he would allow me to set the prices for the next month and not touch them, and at the end of then month if I did not turn over all the items at least once he could set all the prices from then on.

Of course I lowered the prices to 20% margin and we turned the whole display over TWICE...

To this day he STILL does not get it, and firmly believes I had friends come in to buy the items to make him lose face... he quit shortly after the end of that month.

Every time I tell that story to a Thai, they stare like a deer in the headlights when they hear the words "lower prices" every farang says, well of course you're exactly right..

[wrecker]

It is hard to believe that Pattaya's image took a hit when 50 protestors could walk freely into a high profile meeting. The hit was taken by deputy PM Suthep responsible for security. He is still clinging on to power, so no hits are taken. The only hit Pattaya possibly could have had is that it suddenly looked like a clean city without the entertainers.

The hit Thailand has taken is that of soldiers on a rampage (whereas in any civilized country, riot police would do the trick), but that hit is only measurable after 9 months. It is therefore far more likely that the current unrest is a godsend for this government. The problem of empty hotel rooms is after all to blame on the airport closure from the yellow shirts. After that fiasco lots of tourists did not book a trip anymore. This government seem to have a lot to learn about causes and action and about time lags in the economy. On top of the disastrous airport closure you have a creditcrisis which slowed travel down with up to 15% and in 6 to 9 months we will see the effect of the cowboy action from the army.

The bottom line is that this government can explain what it wants to the outside world but they lack credibility, after all how do you explain that a man who called the airport closure fun has to do the explaining as a minister of foreign affairs?

[balo]

How about you pay for the Room but get the bargirl for FREE ?

A much better bargain imho.

[DMasut]

It would not be surprise me if the brilliant promotion is valid for Thai nationals only...

That's a POINT !!!! i can 1000% agree with you ! They will never give FREE rooms to Farangs, never ! And about the bargirls, really sad, most of them are without a job now ! But at the other hand most of them still have a monthly income from several boyfriends oversea......

Another point : This is again a typical example that in Thailand they first ACT and later on they THINK, mostly when it's too late ! They will NEVER learn !! Somnamnaa

PLEASE!!!! We all know that those poor girls that worked bar and now lucky enough to quit when they met their 4-5 farang boyfriends that send them monthly cash for their phone calls, sick mother, dead water buffalo, etc......NO REALLY!!!

But I can never figure out how they met the other 3-4 boyfriends if they quit working bar after the first one!

BECAUSE I KNOW THEY WOULD NEVER TAKE MONEY FROM ANYONE IF THE LIED..RIGHT?!

About slow Bar Girl Businesses...does that mean those farangs that speak a little Thai can negotiate even BETTER PRICES!?!?

I guess thats incentive enough for people to sign up with WALEN Thai Language Schools which are also running lesson special discounts!!! SEE!! IT ALL WORKS OUT!!! GENIUS I TELL YA!!!

[DMasut]

How about you pay for the Room but get the bargirl for FREE ?

A much better bargain imho.

BY JOVE!!!... I THINK HE'S GOT IT!!! YOU MUST BE A MENSA MEMBER!!!

THE BEST IDEAS ARE ALWAYS JUST RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES!!!

[notime]

We were thinking to buy us a house in Thailand for to spend the last time of our lives

there but when we get to know that you can not buy your land only lease it we change our mind and decided to buy in oanother country where you are allowed to own your plot.

We can not understand why the thai goverment not allowed foreigners to own a pice of land for to build a house. As we can understand it will gives a lot of work for the constructionscompany when people build their houses.

Now we will se whats happened.

Why? Because we are aliens who would pack up the land and take it away on our spaceships. This is obviously not an option for Thailand although pretenses are made to make you "buy" whatever as long as in the end it can be taken back and your money is gone. It reminds me of a story of someone selling a Warsaw bridge to a newcomer from the countryside. Welcome!

[ozzieman05]

Pattaya has been going on now for years about being family city and wants to get away from the sex image

So It would be a logical step to give free room or even a pay for 4 and get 3 free in the better quality hotels to families

What is a family

A couple with a child or children under the age of 15

Puts a stop to the sex tourist getting free accommodation

Maybe your right and no one will take them up on this

But you have to be in it to win

[SoiGirlHunter]

I was on soi walking last night and not many people, lightest i have seen it. Gogos sparcely populated.

BGs were certainly more friendly, less attitude

Like i said before i think its gonna tank bigtime, and this is a good indicator i am right. I dont have a horse in the race

but i kinda monitor it as it could get more dangerous (crime) living here if economy gets really bad.

[PAUL1774]

maybe they should make the flights to thailand cheaper

[kurtgruen]

jeez.......i have never come across a more miserably negative group of bloggers in my lifetime! piss and moan....piss and moan is all you guys ever do.....ever think about moving back to your home country? I will continue to travel to Thailand (it is hardly 'unsafe' in comparison to most countries with more 'stable' governments) and I will even go to Pattaya next month and spend my money.......

You are welcome! Please spend as much as you can and you may make some of us feel better. But if you want an answer to your question notice that many of us live here as against "travelling to Thailand". Maybe that has something to do with the ammount of winning we have to do to cheer ourselves up :-) And as a matter of fact many of us think a lot of going back to home countries, many already did and many will although we don't necessary feel unsafe here as well and still enjoy "occasional" visit to the bar or some other touristy ativity ;-)

Yes, I have thought about it long and hard and my one way ticket out is for May 4th (12 Days from now). I am taking my wife and daughter with me (on a one way ticket as well). I have lived in Thailand for about eight years now and had nothing but good things to say about Thailand the first couple of years I was here. My views have changed since. There are still many good things here, but the negatives outweigh the positives for us.

As for safety, it was never a concern of mine. I still think that Thailand is one of the safest countries in the World to live in. Cost of living is fairly low, if you live by Thai standards, but if you like your Western Food (and drinks), like me and if you like a proper Sealy bed to sleep in and an automatic washing machine and dryer, etc. etc., you will find the cost of living to be actually higher in this country.

At 50 years old, living in a bamboo hut, just doesn't have the same romantic appeal anymore, as it had 30 years ago.

Thailand is still a paradise for single men (or those who live like they are single), but those days are over for me and to be honest, I don't miss them.

So what would hold me here? Certainly not the beaches filled with plastic and garbage, the smog and burning in Chiang Mai, from December until April, the unfriendly visa laws, the double standards and pricing for foreigners, the $5 ATM charges from both ends, the poor exchange rates, mechanics and builders who know little but pretend to know everything better than us, the land ownership and business laws restricting foreign ownership, the poor quality of Asian made appliances, (or the high duties on the quality ones imported)....

Yes, if I was younger, I would probably be putting up with it all and thinking it was fun. After all, I used to enjoy living on the beaches of Tulum in a bamboo hut, or hanging my hammock between two mango trees for $2 a day, but I am not that young anymore and the fun has gone out of it. As for the backpackers, who still enjoy these things...well guess what....Thailand doesn't want them...they call them "Farang Khii Nok" Farang - That's you, the foreigner Khii = SH*t and Nok = Bird.

So, as I see it, they are shooting themselves in the foot. They are biting the hand that has been feeding them for many years now.

As for the Auto Industry, lets get realistic...The US and Canada aren't going to dump trillions of dollars into bailouts, to see the jobs go to Asia. These bailouts are a way to get around Global Free Trade. They help North America to re-tool and revamp the whole auto industry and to become competitive again.

Overall, I think we will see a lot more global Protectionism. I think the times of Western Money flowing so freely into Asia, in order to buy sub-standard products from Countries like Thailand, will come to an end soon.

Even in my own business...most of my textiles are now being produced in Indonesia, because it was just too difficult to have consistent quality come out of Thailand. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it's hard to find and hard to maintain here.

So yes, aside from the occational visit to my wife's family every few years, there is no reason for us to return to Thailand any time soon. This was my last year of production in Thailand. All of my operations are now in Indonesia.

I am just one of the Expats leaving. I'm sure we could start a thread about it and you will see hundreds of posts. Maybe different stories, but the same end result. More people are leaving Thailand than there are moving here and this is not a good trend for Thailand, because Baby Boomers are looking for a place to retire and a lot of them are looking right now.

I'm an Expat, not a tourist, but in the years, I lived here, many tourists came to visit us, as a result of us being here and saying nice things about Thailand. I think for every Expat leaving, you can count on at least one or two new tourists a year, not coming here.

[SoiGirlHunter]

>>>..does that mean those farangs that speak a little Thai can negotiate even BETTER PRICES!?!?

thats what i am seeing, and no thai speaky needed