Phuket Hotels Not Happy With THAI Airways

[webfact]

Phuket hotels not happy with THAI Airways

PHUKET: -- Fears of Phuket hotels being forced into a massive price war are already being realised with THAI Airways International “cordially inviting” hotels contracted under its Royal Orchid Holidays (ROH) program to offer 50% discounts.

TTR Weekly reports that as part of its tourism recovery program THAI's ROH last week sent out a draft contract to selected hotels in Phuket, Bangkok and other tourist destinations, asking them to sign on to a package under which tourists would get one night free for every night booked between July1 and December 31 this year.

The draft contract also says “ROH reserves the right to select the hotels” and to give preference to those which “extend the offers in accordance with our requirements.”

This is exactly what many Phuket hoteliers had been hoping to avoid on the grounds that it will merely lead other major tour operators and online booking portals to follow suit, TTR says.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-06-01

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[gotlost]

Yes that is what they want. Economy is bad so lets raise the price.

[on-on]

The unanswered question hanging in the air there is whether THAI is also planning on giving away a free flight for every flight booked (obviously not, but whether they're planning any structured promotion). It'd have been nice for the reporter to have asked the obvious question there and done a bit more story on the context - if only to report on the squirming THAI representative's response to the questions.

Edited June 1, 2010 by on-on

[Guest]

THAI very recently up its prices for routes in and out of Phuket, which makes this a double insult.

[PoorSucker]

One night free for every night paid.

Just double the price for the first night.

[krakatoa]

Yes that is what they want. Economy is bad so lets raise the price.

that's the usual Thai business reaction isn't it

When you consider labour costs here in the realm, the prices have been exorbitant anyway.

Edited June 1, 2010 by krakatoa

[steelepulse]

I'm still waiting for thai air to lower their prices to fall in line with competition. The best I've seen is a local phuket based thai air site http://thaiairwaysphuket.com where they advertise a special one way ticket for AS LOW AS 3165 THB. I saw the sign at phuket airport, but the website in question doesn't allow any direct bookings via thaiair and requires you to go to an agent. Here's a jpeg of what I saw at the airport http://thaiairwaysphuket.com/images/pic/Ar...030SEP10%29.JPG

[Jimi007]

It is rather amusing that Thai Airlines raised their rates from BKK to HKT (Bangkok to Phuket) by 46% last month, but are now demanding hotels reduce their rates or they won't book rooms through their Orchid Thai packages. Amazing logic!

[tfc]

Yes that is what they want. Economy is bad so lets raise the price.

This is reason I stay at places that have farang management - they are better business people and know that lowering the price will give them more money in the long term.

[Payboy]

Thai Airways pricing, sigh.

Paris - Bangkok - Paris TG business class = Baht 126,000 with 15 y.o. aircraft and 60 y.o. hags serving on the upper deck

Paris - Bangkok - Paris QR business class = Baht 65,900 with sparkling new aircraft, excellent service, great stewardesses and 5-star menu / drinks list.

Go figure!

[coconutmonkey]

Thai airways.....

Thai police.....

When there's no news, you can always count on one of these to do something to deter improvement in Thailand...

[animatic]

It is rather amusing that Thai Airlines raised their rates from BKK to HKT (Bangkok to Phuket) by 46% last month, but are now demanding hotels reduce their rates or they won't book rooms through their Orchid Thai packages. Amazing logic!

Amazing arrogance!

[givenall]

Yes that is what they want. Economy is bad so lets raise the price.

ANTI Economy 101

[blanco]

Sigh Airways

[tb86]

yeah thai airways ,, well if you look at air asia they are starting to offer 699 baht tickets,,, no joke just booked 10 round trip tickets to samui.....like 15k all in not too bad

[Wolfie]

yeah thai airways ,, well if you look at air asia they are starting to offer 699 baht tickets,,, no joke just booked 10 round trip tickets to samui.....like 15k all in not too bad

Air Asia doesnt fly to Samui

Do you mean Surat Thani, or do you mean Bangkok Air?

[prism]

Just checked online for airfare for BKK to HKT round trip leave 20th June 2010 return 24th June. Thai Air: 8,500 baht. Air Asia: 3,010 baht. Maybe Thai Air should reduce their fares first.

Edited June 2, 2010 by prism

[bangon04]

Yes that is what they want. Economy is bad so lets raise the price.

ANTI Economy 101

It must be a core session of the MBA at all Thai universities:

If volume of sales goes down - increase prices.

All foreigners are rich - so they can afford it.

Thailand is the best country in the world - there is no competition

It is a privilege to spend money here.

Thai Airways is not a business, it is a political reward system.

[QED]

yeah thai airways ,, well if you look at air asia they are starting to offer 699 baht tickets,,, no joke just booked 10 round trip tickets to samui.....like 15k all in not too bad

Air Asia doesnt fly to Samui

Do you mean Surat Thani, or do you mean Bangkok Air?

As the thread is about Phuket then you are a little off topic - give yourself a posting holiday

[KunMatt]

Just checked online for airfare for BKK to HKT round trip leave 20th June 2010 return 24th June. Thai Air: 8,500 baht. Air Asia: 3,010 baht. Maybe Thai Air should reduce their fares first.

In 2005 we booked a one way flight from BKK to Phuket at our hotel's travel agent for the NEXT DAY and it was about 1000 Baht each. I'm sick of seeing all these "promotional" rates for domestic flights in Thailand which are really just the normal price and an excuse to jack the price up by 2 to 3 times as the date of the flight gets nearer.

The draw to Thailand used to be that it was so cheap and easy but now a lot of things here are costing more than Europe and 99% of the time for much lower quality.

I hope that the lack of tourists now forces the Thai airlines and hotels drop their prices to a more reasonable rate and keep them there but I expect they will probably hold them as they are and then raise them even more when the tourists start flocking back to make up for their loss of profits during this time.