Bargaining Room Rates

[SailingHome]

Hi, all,

I'll be ex-pat'n for at least a year and saw some decent monthly rentals on line. The rule I used for hotels was 30-40% off the quoted price or rack rate. Does that work with montlies too? I never thought of it, but I imagine I should be bargaining for food at the street stalls too, eh?

Thx,

- J

[angiud]

Sure, you can bargain 7 Eleven too. LOL

[MisterMan]

Do you really think it is necessary to bargain on a 25 baht dish of food? or a 10 baht chicken skewer. I think you may find Phuket is to expensive for you as it is the most expensive province.

[SailingHome]

Wow... Maybe I should have pointed out that the food part was a joke . On a more serious note, I do tend to get 35% off the "rack rate" of hotels when I ask, so I am wondering what the experience is on monthly rooms.

[stevenl]

On a more serious note, I do tend to get 35% off the "rack rate" of hotels when I ask

Have you tried this on Phuket? I am asking, because, with the exception of the cheaper guesthouses, in general the hotel booking websites are cheaper than the hotels themselves, and walk in rates are a lot higher, and bargaining options are very, very limited.

[Andyman]

Wow... Maybe I should have pointed out that the food part was a joke . On a more serious note, I do tend to get 35% off the "rack rate" of hotels when I ask, so I am wondering what the experience is on monthly rooms.

My advice is try Pattaya, it's cheaper.

[Peterocket]

My advice is try Pattaya, it's cheaper.

I would prefer to spend the extra than try anything in Pattaya

[SailingHome]

On a more serious note, I do tend to get 35% off the "rack rate" of hotels when I ask

Have you tried this on Phuket? I am asking, because, with the exception of the cheaper guesthouses, in general the hotel booking websites are cheaper than the hotels themselves, and walk in rates are a lot higher, and bargaining options are very, very limited.

Nope. Not been to Phuket yet. On the 35% off, try calling or emailing the hotel, ask for the rack rate, then tell them you will give them Bxxx (calculate 40% off). Even when cheaper on a hotel site, remember that the site gets at LEAST 10% of that. The hotel will gladly book directly with you and not need to wait a month or more for the money to come from the site

BTW, all, it's not the price that bothers me. $200/mo is nothing compared to any place in the States. It's the part of "When in Rome..."

[stevenl]

Nope. Not been to Phuket yet. On the 35% off, try calling or emailing the hotel, ask for the rack rate, then tell them you will give them Bxxx (calculate 40% off). Even when cheaper on a hotel site, remember that the site gets at LEAST 10% of that. The hotel will gladly book directly with you and not need to wait a month or more for the money to come from the site

BTW, all, it's not the price that bothers me. $200/mo is nothing compared to any place in the States. It's the part of "When in Rome..."

that does not work on phuket.

Secondly, 'when in rome', thais do NOT negotiate on prices, that has only come to thailand with foreigners.

[Peterocket]

that does not work on phuket.

Secondly, 'when in rome', thais do NOT negotiate on prices, that has only come to thailand with foreigners.

Would that not be because generally prices are increased for foreigners?

[LivinLOS]

Nope. Not been to Phuket yet. On the 35% off, try calling or emailing the hotel, ask for the rack rate, then tell them you will give them Bxxx (calculate 40% off). Even when cheaper on a hotel site, remember that the site gets at LEAST 10% of that. The hotel will gladly book directly with you and not need to wait a month or more for the money to come from the site

BTW, all, it's not the price that bothers me. $200/mo is nothing compared to any place in the States. It's the part of "When in Rome..."

Thats not how it tends to work here.. Hotel rates are usually much higher than the online booking sites and often wont discount to even the online rate let alone 35% off.. The online sites block book rooms to resell so get far cheaper rates.

I had a buddy managing 2 hotels for a hotel group here.. He was going to get me a flash room at their Chiang Mai hotel last year, and even a manager working on the front desk people, couldnt get it as cheap as asia rooms (he could comp it, but I wasnt pushing for that kind of help).

[stevenl]

that does not work on phuket.

Secondly, 'when in rome', thais do NOT negotiate on prices, that has only come to thailand with foreigners.

Would that not be because generally prices are increased for foreigners?

That is a different discussion, I would suggest to not even go there in this thread. Many threads on this subject already.

[evanson]

Secondly, 'when in rome', thais do NOT negotiate on prices, that has only come to thailand with foreigners.

You're kidding right? They at least try, to negotiate on everything from Homepro to hospitals

[stevenl]

Secondly, 'when in rome', thais do NOT negotiate on prices, that has only come to thailand with foreigners.

You're kidding right? They at least try, to negotiate on everything from Homepro to hospitals

That is not my experience. Thais accept given prices, it is the westerners who want to negotiate everything.

[MyphuketLife]

That is not my experience. Thais accept given prices, it is the westerners who want to negotiate everything.

I almost fell out of my chair... You have never been to an open market? I saw it every week when we would shop for our local produce. I had a Thai friend tell me if I ever needed the hospital to be sure as try to discount the price... I was shocked and tried and guess what, the Thai was right... Phuket International does indeed discount.

Honestly the only place I have not seen a Thai try to negotiate was 1. at the movies, 2. food stalls, 3. national parks (not that they need to they already get in 10* cheaper).

You must roll with HI-SO's that pretend money doesn't matter, while they are maxing out their CC's to look rich.

[stevenl]

I almost fell out of my chair... You have never been to an open market? I saw it every week when we would shop for our local produce. I had a Thai friend tell me if I ever needed the hospital to be sure as try to discount the price... I was shocked and tried and guess what, the Thai was right... Phuket International does indeed discount.

Honestly the only place I have not seen a Thai try to negotiate was 1. at the movies, 2. food stalls, 3. national parks (not that they need to they already get in 10* cheaper).

You must roll with HI-SO's that pretend money doesn't matter, while they are maxing out their CC's to look rich.

Strange, whenever I or my wife go to the market we get good prices, which she accepts straight away. As does everybody else in the market. Unless you talk about the tourists market like Otop in Patong?

Oh, and at national parks I always get the Thai price. But now we're on the track of dual pricing again, which is not the topic of this thread.

And I am not a Hi-So, on the contrary. Strange conclusion you come to, just while we do our shopping at the same places as the Thais (no cc's accepted BTW).

[LivinLOS]

You're kidding right? They at least try, to negotiate on everything from Homepro to hospitals

That is not my experience. Thais accept given prices, it is the westerners who want to negotiate everything.

I would agree with you.. Mostly price is accepted unless theres a bit of wiggle room on buying a few kgs of whatever it is..

Also Thai bargaining is less an arab carpet sale with low / high and more a 'pleading for discount' where the buyer has to subjugate themselves a bit to the benevolence of the seller.

[evanson]

I wish I had a hundred baht for every time I've heard a Thai shopkeeper or salesperson complain about how their fellow Thais want a discount on absolutely everything.

[MegaMik]

On a more serious note, I do tend to get 35% off the "rack rate" of hotels when I ask

Have you tried this on Phuket? I am asking, because, with the exception of the cheaper guesthouses, in general the hotel booking websites are cheaper than the hotels themselves, and walk in rates are a lot higher, and bargaining options are very, very limited.

I succeded to bargain with long term rent for my house in kamala, down from 25 000 a month to 18 000 TBH.

Once in December 2007 I even got a room in a hotel in Karon for 1000 TBH/night from the walking in rate of 2700 TBH.

Edited July 21, 2010 by MegaMik

[evanson]

Strange, whenever I or my wife go to the market we get good prices, which she accepts straight away. As does everybody else in the market. Unless you talk about the tourists market like Otop in Patong?

Oh, and at national parks I always get the Thai price. But now we're on the track of dual pricing again, which is not the topic of this thread.

And I am not a Hi-So, on the contrary. Strange conclusion you come to, just while we do our shopping at the same places as the Thais (no cc's accepted BTW).

You're familiar with price of a kilo of pak/bpla/gai/moo then? Or is it that as so many farang here you don't understand/speak a word of Thai except 'nueng Chang' (you don't know the noi, please. part) and just let your Thai wife (who also thinks, 'what the hel_l, s'all cheap to him) get on with it at the market whilst you smilingly hand over your 500 bht for a kilo of cabbage.

Edited July 22, 2010 by evanson

[stevenl]

Don't insult me please.

Oh, and next time try to get the quotes correct, so I can answer you with the quote as well.

[TravelerEastWest]

We just rented a new house and received a discount of around 12% from  the asked monthly rate. We also had the stairs made child proof and changed a number of other construction areas.

[LivinLOS]

Renting a house by the month and discounting on an already discounted internet rate.. Not exactly the same thing tho ??