Hi

Does anyone know the most economical places to stay/holiday in Thailand with regards bagging a decent quality hotel for a good price.

Are the room rates pretty much standard wherever you visit or are there cheaper places of interest/regions that are more reasonable than others.

Lonely Planet guides are your friend.

Lonely Planet guides are your friend.

So are internet message boards.

Common sense should tell you that "tourist" areas are going to be more expensive than NON tourist areas...duh !

Use a guidebook as suggested.

Best advice I can give is travel in low season.

For the rest places away from mayor cities and/or tourist attractions.

Yermanee

Chiang Mai can be fairly cheap. Pattaya too if you avoid certain umm attractions.

Koh Phangan has cheap accommodations if you don't mind a crappy room. Great beaches there too.

As said...maybe Koh Chang....the one near Ranong I mean....very cheap out there.

Lonely Planet guides are your friend.

as is google

If you're on a budget, travel during lean seasons. Try to find an all in package with accommodation and airfare and compare rates if you will be booking everything by yourself. Research as well over the net.

Good luck!

Just found an useful website and hope it is useful for those who are looking for cheap hotel.

It searches 100's of booking sites to find the best deals on over 300,000 hotels worldwide.

HooiWeng Travel - Best Price Guaranteed

Guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Rough Guides etc.) are not the best places to find out this information, for a few reasons:

1) guide books are researched one year, published the next usually, so most often the prices listed were for the year the research is done. By the time you purchase your guidebook, and actually employ it in practice, the pricing information is usually 2 or 3 years old. Just check the publishing date inside the front cover (or often, the last page in the book for like the Lonely Planet).

2) guide books are extremely limited in the amount of pricing information they contain. Detailed books - the thick ones covering a single country only - offer at most 2 or 3 listings in a price range, when in fact, there might be literally dozens available.

3) guide books cannot reflect new restaurants and accommodations built as - or after - the information was being researched. A lot of people like to stay in new, rather than old and dingy.

4) a lot of guide books are using fraudulent practices - researches not visiting and updating based on actual visits, but pulling stuff off the internet, making very cursory visits of formerly listed places (getting price updates only) and not inspecting the facilities to see how they've been maintained, asking others about their experiences.

5) a lot of places of accommodation work hard at getting listed in Lonely Planet et. al. - once listed, they stop trying to impress and let things go to hell. They've got the reputation - its in the book! - so no need to try anymore

The best thing about guide books is that they are indeed "guides". Features and places to see and visit don't really change that much, so they are invaluable for planning out 'what to do' - not where to stay, where to eat. And they contain good information about travel within the country.

They also give you an idea within a large city, where the cheap, medium priced, and deluxe places to stay are located. A lot of other places, unlisted, are found in the same area (s). They direct you to a place to start looking.

I traveled several years through Central and South America and Africa on a motorbike. My primary interest in a place of accommodation was safe, secure parking. Price and other conditions were always secondary. I don't remember a single reference to parking at any places of accommodation; indeed, many budget places designed for backpackers - the Lonely Planet types - had no parking at all, never mind safe or secure. I used Lonely Planet to tell me where to start looking in a city, based on what I wanted to do once I checked in (where I wanted to play tourist).

The internet is a bit better in these regards, although photos never reflect reality - or at least to me, the places are always older and trashier than the pictures. How come my bed coverings are always faded and stained and the mattresses sagging, the furniture looking like it was reclaimed from the dumpster?

Anyway, you do get more up-to-date prices on the internet, since most places now allow you to select and book rooms online. Guidebooks - the printed prices are always less than current prices.

anywhere u go u can find cheap accomodations. Even here in Phuket u can find rooms from 6,000 baht/month up and as low as 200 baht if u can handle staying in a fan dorm room.

Was up in Surin in August and had a very very good large hotel room for 400 baht/night

www.agoda.com is the best hotel room finder.

Everywhere in Thailand the rooms can be cheap if you want cheap.

Common sense should tell you that "tourist" areas are going to be more expensive than NON tourist areas...duh !

Nonsense, at least for accommodation needs.

Tourist areas tend to have a larger range of accommodation, and competition in the accommodation market means better prices.

Thailand is a prime example of this.

I have often found that in non tourist areas - especially smaller towns - a lack of hotels and guest houses has meant that the prices on the one or two hotels can be outrageous, as there is no other choice.

If you're on a budget, travel during lean seasons. Try to find an all in package with accommodation and airfare and compare rates if you will be booking everything by yourself. Research as well over the net.

Good luck!

Good tips by this writer. Here is a little more details

1-book slow season, mid April up to maybe June, July. Slow season, rates reduced by hotels, no crowds. Drawback-hot part of year, can be oppressive

2-Go to travel site that posts many hotels in man arears and different price ranges, expensive to cheap. Sawadee.com is one with many listing and details.Pick hotels you might like. Google web for that hotel and book direct through hotel. Most hotels you can do that. If you book through travel agent, they get money, you pay more for room. Direct hotel booking is almost always best.

3-Stay away from agents back home. Most list the more expensive hotels-why?-they make more money per room.

4-Your first trip may not be in close relationship to where you want to be. Some are quite a distance and you need expensive travel costs to get where you want to go.

5-If you plan to go back to that country, spend some time in area looking at hotels, prices, size rooms, extras like internet, location and price of room you like and season, high and low-cost and dates.

6-Avoid any mode of taxi type transportation that hang around in or outside your hotel. There cost can be up to 4 times what it costs you if you just get taxi a short distance away from hotel and wave taxi down. ALWAYS ask price.

7-If you may like some company in your room while you are in hotel, check hotel, many add on your price, sometimes quite a bit, for you to bring someone to your room. If you have hotel room already, if you complain loud enough, some make exceptions. I moved out of one hotel to another when they pulled thatjunk on me.

8-In Pattaya where I live, if you come for a month or two, check out Condo rental. Off season, large studio or 1 bdrm will cost up to 50% less on a monthly rate. Do not rent from agent at Condo, in this case, go to local travel agent to get price and have him drive you around to check out some Condo's

You can save a huge amount of money, easy 50% if you follow these tips. After 3 years, I cut costs about 70% for myself.

As many above have mentioned,.....non Tourist places are the best for prices. There are cheap places in Isaan or South of bangkok along the Gulf. I live in Ranong which is very cheap.....eg A/c rooms in hotels approx 500 B, Thai food from 25 B, Beer 30 B etc.etc.

Common sense should tell you that "tourist" areas are going to be more expensive than NON tourist areas...duh !

Use a guidebook as suggested.

+1

What is your budget?

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anywhere u go u can find cheap accomodations. Even here in Phuket u can find rooms from 6,000 baht/month up and as low as 200 baht if u can handle staying in a fan dorm room.

Was up in Surin in August and had a very very good large hotel room for 400 baht/night

Hotel name in Surin please ? I have to go there soon

I think;

Maneerote Hotel , its like 2 blocks from the night food market off Lak Muang road

You want to travel to Thailand. What do you want to see and do? What is your interest in Thailand? What is your age? What is your price range for accommodation? How many people are travelling? A little more info and there may be be some more specific answers.

Thais travel a lot too and most are keen on good value. Everywhere in Thailand is cheap as chips once you have got here if you look around. If you are on a very very tight budget go to Cambodia!

You want to travel to Thailand. What do you want to see and do? What is your interest in Thailand? What is your age? What is your price range for accommodation? How many people are travelling? A little more info and there may be be some more specific answers.

Many thanks for all that have submitted constructive ideas,suggestion and even the offer of accomodation.

RipStanley,Thanks for your interest, It was a general question I'm not looking for anything specific whilst I stay during my visit apart from thaivisa members overall suggestions and experiences

Edited November 5, 201213 yr by spacedcowboy

Chiang Mai is a decent place and is fairly inexpensive in regards to accommodations, food, and other stuff. You can get get here from Bangkok via air travel or train from Bangkok's Hua Lamphong Station. They have overnight trains where you sleep the trip away. You can choose to go by bus but I would recommend air or train instead.

Kanchanaburi is another destination that is fairly inexpensive with a number of attractions. If you are into history, there is the "Bridge over the River Kwai", several Commonwealth War Cemeteries from WW2, a museum on the "Death Railway", next to the Kanchanaburi Cemetery, and the Museum and memorial at Hellfire Pass. There are also waterfalls and caves at national parks, and some other attractions.

Common sense should tell you that "tourist" areas are going to be more expensive than NON tourist areas...duh !

Use a guidebook as suggested.

When I left Pattaya, I was suprised at the rent increases and that was nearly five yrs ago. Pattaya had huge number of flats, most of which were built for farang, long stays. Pattays is a pretty poor value in long stay accomadation now compared to bkk. Chaing Mai also overbuilt but nobody likes the place so accomadation remains constantly empty. All.the tourists go, but nobody stays. Maybe its the annual.fires or pollution??

I really dont understand the question though...you want a cheap flat or hotel room in Thailand regardless of location? Just cheap? Well that is simply crazy. Find a shack in Issan.

Im allergic to guidebooks. Whatever they say, do opposite.

Edited November 5, 201213 yr by bangkokburning