My wife and I will be arriving in Thailand beginning of Jan 2014 on retirement visa's non O-A which we already have from the Thai embassy in london.

My question is we just saw a great deal on a website for a hotel in hua hin for Thai residence only.

But as we have retirement visa's and will be living in Thailand permanently we'll also have Thai driver's licence as well, would we be able to get this deal or would the hotel just laugh and charge us the full price ?

Thanks for your help.

In situations where there is a discount for locals, I have found they usually honor it if you have Thai license.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Even you are officially not a Thai resident they will honor the Thai resident discount in most cases.

This is my experience when i using this discount and show my Thai DL.

In most cases, hotels create this 'resident' rate structure to tap into the local expat market, which is more rate sensitive and price savvy than tourists/business travellers, and also protect them from 'price dumping' accusations from overseas-based travel agents and hotel booking systems.

Outside of peak periods, hotels will usually (and very happily) give you the resident rate if you have a Thai driving licence, say you are a regular visitor to Thailand, or that their published rate is unfortunately not in your budget, and is there a better price available?

Lastly, beware of the two '++' (plus plus) symbols (service+tax) which will add nearly 20% on top of the quoted rate.

I wish you a very happy retirement!