Pattaya To Woo Visitors With Free Rooms

[Sisaketmike]

Pattaya to woo visitors with free rooms

BANGKOK: -- Tourism operators in Pattaya plan to offer free hotel rooms from May 1 to Oct 31 to attract local and international tourists during the low season.

Apart from hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will also join the campaign, offering discounts up to 50%. Final details will be decided tomorrow.

The seaside resort city is facing difficult times because of the global economic recession and local political problems, said Chatchawal Supachayanont, president of the Eastern Chapter of the Thai Hotels Association (THA).

"With this campaign, we hope tourists and meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (Mice) activities will be lured back to Pattaya again and tourism sentiment will improve as well," he said.

Mr Chatchawal said Pattaya's hotels had about 20,000 rooms and that all operators would join the promotion.

"This is the first time we have had co-operation from all parties, aiming to restore Pattaya's tourism image," he said.

"Average occupancy was not so bad at around 30-40% after the Songkran festival. But we are very concerned about reservations from overseas, which are not coming yet."

Pattaya's image took a hit just before Songkran when red-shirted protesters forced the cancellation of the Asean Summit after they stormed the meeting site, the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel.

Operators in Pattaya hope that when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva goes abroad he will be able to explain the problems in Thailand and how the government intends to solve them, in order to restore confidence among visitors.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-04-22

Who's paying the hotal owners? Of course the people will work for free too........Som Namna

[Jonathanpattaya]

Has anyone heard of the website: pattayabemyguest.com ?

It was mentioned by Howard Miller on Pattayaone News on Friday but I cannot connect to any such link.

[ultramann]

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?

No idea why they do this but to support your comment, I came back from Indo last week and bought an Oishi green tea drink on the way out of Suvarnabhumi for the ride home like I do everytime I return home. This item is about 25 baht give or take in the city and it used to be 39 baht at the airport; but now it's 90 baht. Over a 100% increase in 4 months. Let the gouging begin! or have they (thai's) learned that all western airports also rape travelers.

[samgrowth]

S C A M

[cutter007]

whenever the supermarkets have a two for one,why does the price double? and when the promotion is over the price of a single item goes up .

just got some small toms from carefour ,cost originally 21 baht ,two for one promotion 36 baht. do they think we dont notice?

Crefour is French company not thai

Ha ha ha, that was pretty funny, yeah like Tesco has the same quality of service in Thailand as in Britian.

I went in the other night, and they had already put the bread, vegetables, and meet products away, it was 9:45pm and they were closing

at 11pm.

This is the case with hundreds of brands in Thailand, the service is terrible because it is provided by Thai's, it's not all there fault

it's the system, commercial sales is so monopolistic in Thailand that customer service is a joke.

Honestly I don't think that 95% of the Thai's do notice the scams where they mark up the price from 21 baht to 36 baht and then

tell you it's half off. But I can tell you most of the foreigners notice it.

For the most part Thai's education levels are quite low, whether they are rich or poor, most of them don't have much common sense,

and are easily fooled by things like this.

Although there does seem to be a rising level of common sense in the middle class that I have never seen before, people that earned there

money with an education and by working for it.

[pattayaGaz]

Pherhaps the Thai Tourist Authority can bring back the Amazing Thailand television promotion that they were using last year, but this time show the footage of the various coloured shirts running around waving the national flag trying to prove who is the more patrioric Thai and not giving a <deleted> about their image around the world, and lets face it, why should a piss poor farmer from Issan care about tourists anyway? , even if all this bull***t about free rooms is true it's not going to have any impact on the number of tourists comming to Pattaya, TAT have been encouraging the really big spending Asian and Eastern European tourists lately anyway, you know the ones who come on prepaid package tours and are herded around like sheep from tacky tourist attraction to cheap shopping mall, stop the traffic on beach road for 5 minutes and then wander up and down walking street all night buying copy T-shirts, I personally couldn't care less if this low season dies a death, maybe it will thin out the over the top number of bars overcharging for drinks, and knock some sense into some of the GoGo and Coyote dancers who are trying to bring Bangkok prices to Pattaya, but as I drove past the new 24 hour MC'D on 2nd rd last night and they are building another beer bar complex next to it, I guess not.

Edited April 30, 2009 by pattayaGaz

[NanLaew]

Honestly I don't think that 95% of the Thai's do notice the scams where they mark up the price from 21 baht to 36 baht and then tell you it's half off. But I can tell you most of the foreigners notice it.

For the most part Thai's education levels are quite low, whether they are rich or poor, most of them don't have much common sense, and are easily fooled by things like this.

Although there does seem to be a rising level of common sense in the middle class that I have never seen before, people that earned there money with an education and by working for it.

OMG!!! Not ANOTHER farang loo maahk!

[bunple]

Has anyone heard of the website: pattayabemyguest.com ?

It was mentioned by Howard Miller on Pattayaone News on Friday but I cannot connect to any such link.

that address is also quote in the Pattaya Mail but it don't go anywhere.....

[bartender100]

Anyone heard anymore about the free room offer? i coming over in late May, emailed the TAT, but no reply of course

[kerr17]

Anyone heard anymore about the free room offer? i coming over in late May, emailed the TAT, but no reply of course

Anyone knows of any good deals at the moment?

[Ohio]

Anyone heard anymore about the free room offer? i coming over in late May, emailed the TAT, but no reply of course

Anyone knows of any good deals at the moment?

Yep , in Malaysia , Philippines , Vietnam & Cambodia

[Humphrey Bear]

Anyone heard anymore about the free room offer? i coming over in late May, emailed the TAT, but no reply of course

Anyone knows of any good deals at the moment?

As I have stated previously, the 'free' rooms are not free. Book a certain amount of rooms and you will receive a 'free' room.

It's just a discount to tour organisers - either official or the local golf club outing.

[thaimate]

free rooms are available to any pensioners over 70 if accompanied by their parents.