A longtime expat told me that prices in Pattaya haven't changed that much outside of gogo girls and the most in demand real estate. Everything else has tracked inflation for the most part.

Why is that? Tourism has boomed over the last 20 years. I would expect Pattaya to have surged in cost from this boom.

Probably competition.

If you have, literally, hundreds of bars within walking distance from yours, it ain't too smart to charge, say, 10 baht more than them for a small beer.

Food Prices Have Doubled...

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

restaurants

Yes, restaurant prices have increased a lot. Jumps of 20% at a time are not uncommon. I see no obvious reason why this should be as street food prices have increased much less, as mentioned (though they have also increased and portions have got smaller). Eventually restaurants here may price themselves out of existence. Many already charge more than they would in Europe. There are still bargains to be had, of course, but you have to know about them to benefit from them and most tourists probably dont know.

Hotel prices have also gone up quite a lot, as has alcohol in bars and shops. Alcohol also often costs more here than it would in many parts of Europe.

I think that Thai hookers priced themselves out of the market decades ago, but many clients seem to think that they are still worth paying for.

How about hotel rooms for the long time travelers? (I know only of apartment prices, and only from less than 1 year experience)

Most restaurants dont own there property and when the landlord sees a place doing well he steadily increases the rent. Many small places are on a year to year lease as well......

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

10 years ago I could get a roast chicken for 80 baht but not in town

How about hotel rooms for the long time travelers? (I know only of apartment prices, and only from less than 1 year experience)

My rough wag is average hotel room prices have gone up ~ 50% since 2004 when I first started coming. Places like flipper lodge/hotel, Eastiny Place, D mansion up off soi Bukhao, etc. This is for weekly rates. Monthly discount rates have not gone up quite as much.

>>I think that Thai hookers priced themselves out of the market decades ago, but many clients seem to think that they are still worth paying for.<<

At this stage they would have tp pay me lol.

Yes, restaurant prices have increased a lot. Jumps of 20% at a time are not uncommon. I see no obvious reason why this should be as street food prices have increased much less, as mentioned (though they have also increased and portions have got smaller). Eventually restaurants here may price themselves out of existence. Many already charge more than they would in Europe. There are still bargains to be had, of course, but you have to know about them to benefit from them and most tourists probably dont know

.

I disagree having just had my 50th Birthday with celebratory meals of equal and good quality in both the UK and Pattaya the restaurant here was only about 60% of UK prices. Where in the UK could you get 300g of Wagyu beef ribeye for £20 to name just one item. I agree a hell of a lot of the local cheap charlies would have a coronary at 1000฿ for a steak but in comparison with like for like places in the UK it's far cheaper here.

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

10 years ago you get Khao Pad Kung for 30 Baht. Now it's 40.

The difference: 10 years ago you had 10 shrimps in your dish, now 3-5.

Yes, restaurant prices have increased a lot. Jumps of 20% at a time are not uncommon. I see no obvious reason why this should be as street food prices have increased much less, as mentioned (though they have also increased and portions have got smaller). Eventually restaurants here may price themselves out of existence. Many already charge more than they would in Europe. There are still bargains to be had, of course, but you have to know about them to benefit from them and most tourists probably dont know

.

I disagree having just had my 50th Birthday with celebratory meals of equal and good quality in both the UK and Pattaya the restaurant here was only about 60% of UK prices. Where in the UK could you get 300g of Wagyu beef ribeye for £20 to name just one item. I agree a hell of a lot of the local cheap charlies would have a coronary at 1000฿ for a steak but in comparison with like for like places in the UK it's far cheaper here.

You clearly do not understand.

The Thai minimum wage is 300baht/day, whereas in the UK it is more than 300baht equivalent an hour!

So your 60% of UK prices for good restaurant food is VERY EXPENSIVE!!!

Most restaurants dont own there property and when the landlord sees a place doing well he steadily increases the rent. Many small places are on a year to year lease as well......

Customers always cop it up the back side [wallet], in almost all facets of business in relation to price rorts, and in this instance starting from greedy landlords.

What can you do but shop around.

Place in BKK we use to eat, cheapish prices, good servings. 2 years later, smaller portions and and decent increase in prices over the past 12 months.. Syanarah!!!!!

Yes, restaurant prices have increased a lot. Jumps of 20% at a time are not uncommon. I see no obvious reason why this should be as street food prices have increased much less, as mentioned (though they have also increased and portions have got smaller). Eventually restaurants here may price themselves out of existence. Many already charge more than they would in Europe. There are still bargains to be had, of course, but you have to know about them to benefit from them and most tourists probably dont know

.

I disagree having just had my 50th Birthday with celebratory meals of equal and good quality in both the UK and Pattaya the restaurant here was only about 60% of UK prices. Where in the UK could you get 300g of Wagyu beef ribeye for £20 to name just one item. I agree a hell of a lot of the local cheap charlies would have a coronary at 1000฿ for a steak but in comparison with like for like places in the UK it's far cheaper here.

And the average wage is 10+ times more than the average wage in Thailand, apples to oranges.

God, I'd hate to be on even a 20,000 baht a month wage in this country.

Yes, restaurant prices have increased a lot. Jumps of 20% at a time are not uncommon. I see no obvious reason why this should be as street food prices have increased much less, as mentioned (though they have also increased and portions have got smaller). Eventually restaurants here may price themselves out of existence. Many already charge more than they would in Europe. There are still bargains to be had, of course, but you have to know about them to benefit from them and most tourists probably dont know

.

I disagree having just had my 50th Birthday with celebratory meals of equal and good quality in both the UK and Pattaya the restaurant here was only about 60% of UK prices. Where in the UK could you get 300g of Wagyu beef ribeye for £20 to name just one item. I agree a hell of a lot of the local cheap charlies would have a coronary at 1000฿ for a steak but in comparison with like for like places in the UK it's far cheaper here.

You clearly do not understand.

The Thai minimum wage is 300baht/day, whereas in the UK it is more than 300baht equivalent an hour!

So your 60% of UK prices for good restaurant food is VERY EXPENSIVE!!!

I made no mention of salaries and made a straight comparison of similar meals requiring similar quality ingredients and Thailand was cheaper, what I spend in the UK is also considerably above the average persons reach there but that wasn't the issue. The restaurant here is not aimied at average locals.

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

Hm I was gonna post that it was 20 baht not long ago but then I realized the year 2000 was actually 16 years ago!!

Man time really does fly!

Are you serious? You must never go near supermarkets, barbers, restaurants, bars, taxis, other transport, etc etc.

Wake up from your coma and smell the roses.

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

restaurants

Eating foreign food in a restaurant maybe yes it doubled, eating Thai food in a Thai restaurant no, street food no, making your own food no, so on average the answer to your claim is no.

Bangkok prices have increased a lot quicker. Cheap Charlies on soi 11 has their cheapest beer at 80 baht! You can still get 50 baht beer every where in Pattaya and the breakfast buffets are Still available for 99 baht, were they ever cheaper?

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Some places raise their prices for high season and conveniently forget to lower them

Yet many Thai places seem to be very reasonable still.

I disagree having just had my 50th Birthday with celebratory meals of equal and good quality in both the UK and Pattaya the restaurant here was only about 60% of UK prices. .... in comparison with like for like places in the UK it's far cheaper here.

So I should hope!

As others have pointed out, wages here are barely 10% of what they are in the UK so staff costs are correspondingly much lower. Not to mention VAT being three times higher there, all other taxes and social security payments being many times higher there, building rentals and fitting services being many times more expensive there, advertising and printing and decoration also being way more expensive there and, last but not least, compliance with the law being much more onerous there than it is here (when was the last time the kitchen of your Pattaya restaurant was given a serious inspection by the local public health people?).

No, many prices are much higher here than they should be by any sensible yardstick.

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

restaurants

Most of the Pattaya tourists are looking for good restaurant food. Not the market stuff. Yes, the prices in most tourists buffets and restaurants have doubled in 10 years. I would say the beer has doubled as well....in the posher night venues.

Bangkok prices have increased a lot quicker. Cheap Charlies on soi 11 has their cheapest beer at 80 baht! You can still get 50 baht beer every where in Pattaya and the breakfast buffets are Still available for 99 baht, were they ever cheaper?

I vaguely remember eating the breakfast buffet at the Lek Hotel on 2nd Road when it first opened (must be 25 years ago) as my father stayed there at one point. At the time the building was much smaller and the restaurant was a small room well above the ground floor. I think they served proper juice at that time and I seem to remember paying about 50B, maybe less, but that equated to well under GBP1.

That old memory aside, I dont think that anyone is suggesting that the cheaper Thai places here are not still quite cheap. My objection is more to some of the farang-run places which are now often nearly as expensive as places in Europe, and that applies to fairly mediocre places and not just the really top-end ones. A pint of local beer and a boring bar platter can easily cost 400+B here, and that's GBP8+.

Food isn't that big of a cost compared to real estate/rents. How much you spend on rent completely blows everything else out of the water.

Also there's a hell of a lot more noteworthy entertainment options in Pattaya beyond restaurants.

I disagree having just had my 50th Birthday with celebratory meals of equal and good quality in both the UK and Pattaya the restaurant here was only about 60% of UK prices. .... in comparison with like for like places in the UK it's far cheaper here.

So I should hope!

As others have pointed out, wages here are barely 10% of what they are in the UK so staff costs are correspondingly much lower. Not to mention VAT being three times higher there, all other taxes and social security payments being many times higher there, building rentals and fitting services being many times more expensive there, advertising and printing and decoration also being way more expensive there and, last but not least, compliance with the law being much more onerous there than it is here (when was the last time the kitchen of your Pattaya restaurant was given a serious inspection by the local public health people?).

No, many prices are much higher here than they should be by any sensible yardstick.

Convenient of you to forget the huge duties applied to imported products which most of the quality ingredients at a good restaurant here are, and I won't start at the excise/taxes on alcohol, swings and roundabouts. As to health and hygiene you get what you pay for, the kitchen of the restaurant I was in is actually glass fronted so you can see what's happening. You stick to your re-heated or kept warm for 4 hour buffets for 500฿ and I will stick with my restaurants.

The price of LK Metro GoGo's bar fines doubled over the Christmas- New Year break.

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

So, it's off the kebobery to save a few satang and erode inflation!!

I'd be inclined to agree with the rapid escalation of food prices but not 100%

Overall, the average weekly shopping bill for the 3 of us has gone from TB2,800 in 2014 to TB3.800 with the noticeable increase in Q1-2 of 2015

Take to day, a trip to the largest Big G (geriatric) in Pattaya saw the price of a pack of Apple Jass (NZ apples in a pack of 8) pre-yultide was TB89 today only 109 discounted from 149!!!

Food Prices Have Doubled...

I was paying 30 Baht for a bowl of Thai food on rice in the market

10 years ago now I pay 35-40 Baht...

10 years ago a whole roasted chicken was 110-120 Baht now a

whole roasted chicken cost 150-160 Baht...

10 years ago I think a kebob was 50 baht now 60 Baht...

Food prices have double ?? I do not think so....

So, it's off the kebobery to save a few satang and erode inflation!!

I'd be inclined to agree with the rapid escalation of food prices but not 100%

Overall, the average weekly shopping bill for the 3 of us has gone from TB2,800 in 2014 to TB3.800 with the noticeable increase in Q1-2 of 2015

Take to day, a trip to the largest Big G (geriatric) in Pattaya saw the price of a pack of Apple Jass (NZ apples in a pack of 8) pre-yultide was TB89 today only 109 discounted from 149!!!

3800 Baht a week grocery shopping for 3??

Man you guys are living high on the hog.That

is what I call EATING...