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Condo with up to "ten Arabs in a room" raided for illegal hotel operation in Sukhumvit Soi 11


Image: Manager Online

BANGKOK: -- A condo manager in Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, faces charges after a swoop found that the 22 storey Soi 11 building was operating as an illegal hotel with "up to ten people in a room."

Officials found that most of those renting rooms daily and weekly were Arabs in Thailand for health tourism purposes. In twenty rooms they found nearly 100 people who had not been registered as guests with immigration reported Manager Online

The raid was undertaken by government administration officers, land department and revenue officials and Lumpini police after complaints were received that the Liberty Park 2 condominium was being used as a hotel.

Complainants said that they were suffering annoyance and lack of security. The building has a total of 137 units.

Juristic person manager Sakchai Nithiaphapphan, 67, had 48 units under his control in the building. The officials found that 20 were occupied with up to ten in a room and almost 100 people staying in total. They did not discover illegal visitors.

Sakchai admitted that he was responsible for looking after the building and said that most of the people in the units under his control were Arabs in Thailand taking advantage of cheaper health care than in their own coun tries. They were charged 500 baht per person per day and usually stayed for 2 to 7 days he said.

He added: "I have been doing this for decades - lots of other places do the same thing."

He admitted that he had not reported the presence of the visitors to immigration that is required under the law and intimated that this was due to the fact that unit owners wanted to avoid paying tax.

He was charged with not reporting foreigners who were staying in the building to immigration and operating as a hotel without a license and taken to Lumpini police station.

Source: Manager Online


-- 2016-05-13

[trogers]

There goes Airbnb service, on the same route as Grab Bike and Uber...

[zaphod reborn]

If they raid the condos on Soi 13, they would find they are operating as hotels for Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

[HLover]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

[Don Mega]

And the water bill would still have not been more than Bt.180 per month !!

[JAG]

If they raid the condos on Soi 13, they would find they are operating as hotels for Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

They may well have made precautionary "arrangements".

[tonray]

500 baht per person daily ? you can get your own guesthouse room for that......fools

[kingalfred]

There goes Airbnb service, on the same route as Grab Bike and Uber...

haha you wish . Airbnb and Uber bigger than you know!

[taony]

Why is this guy the one getting charged when its the unit owners asking for it, allowing it to happen, and avoiding tax?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As many as 10 people per unit, at 500 baht per night. Some condo owner/manager was doing quite well...

But it kind of begs the question, if you were a wealthy person from an Arab country coming to Thailand for medical treatment, why in the world would you put up with that kind of accommodation?

On the other hand, if you were relatively poor and paying everything you had for treatment at a nearby expensive private hospital, I could see trying to minimize your accommodation expenses.

More high quality tourism at work???

[donnybay]

There goes Airbnb service, on the same route as Grab Bike and Uber...

haha you wish . Airbnb and Uber bigger than you know!

AirBNB may be big, know one is doubting that, but its possible owners of condo units in Thailand are breaking the law using the unit as a hotel, how many register their guest with immigration as they should?

Long thread about it here

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/762826-thai-condo-law-question/

[tagalong]

Ratcatcher............What a hilarious response to the article.... I cannot stop laughing...You sure brightened-up my day....

[GeorgesAbitbol]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

Quite a racist post !

[dageurreotype]

As many as 10 people per unit, at 500 baht per night. Some condo owner/manager was doing quite well...

But it kind of begs the question, if you were a wealthy person from an Arab country coming to Thailand for medical treatment, why in the world would you put up with that kind of accommodation?

On the other hand, if you were relatively poor and paying everything you had for treatment at a nearby expensive private hospital, I could see trying to minimize your accommodation expenses.

More high quality tourism at work???

Exactly. They would've gone to India. Closer and a LOT cheaper. More kee kwai ..

[macksview]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

Quite a racist post !

i totally agree, but he could be c**rect.

[Mook23]

500 baht per person daily ? you can get your own guesthouse room for that......fools

I've stayed in neat hotel with ac, hot water, tv, no fridge though, in bkk, that charged 1500/week. I have also stayed long term in other hotel that charged me 6000 month all in. Fridge. Coffee. Etc. 500/night is ok for a room occupied with 2. These people made tenfold...

[Mook23]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

Quite a racist post !

i totally agree, but he could be c**rect.

Many Thai think farang smell too. Sure ure one of the good smelling ones ?

[macksview]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

Quite a racist post !

i totally agree, but he could be c**rect.

Many Thai think farang smell too. Sure ure one of the good smelling ones ?

mrs has it sorted.

after my compulsory 12 showers a day, she follows me with a 25 litre backpack sprayer of perfume, spraying my every step.

i don't want to upset kitti and som at shop as they drink their lao khao after 10 hours work at the local piggery.

if we don't have the backpack, i have to speak in an english accent.

[Mook23]

I wear one of those toilet Refreshers around my neck and tell people it's a Buddhist amulet. ?

Edited May 13, 2016 by Mook23

[singhajim]

_{So the building manger take the fall and not the unit owners!!!}

[mankondang]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

If so, can't understand why the Arabs didn't complain to the management about their neighborhood farangs creating these emissions.

[N2it]

Why would Arabs come to Thailand for medical services? Medical services in almost every M.E. country are free and many first class. Saudi having one of the best medical programs in the world. Qatar has free medical for foreigners working in their country as well. Most of the doctors and staff have been educated in European or American medical schools.

Something quite wrong about this hotel business for Arabs seeking cheap Thai medical services. No doubt the real story will never be told in public.

Edited May 13, 2016 by N2it

[N2it]

The smell and noise emissions from the building must have been amazing.

Quite a racist post !

Take a break SJW...this is called humor, remember when that was possible?

[bubba1]

Why would Arabs come to Thailand for medical services? Medical services in almost every M.E. country are free and many first class. Saudi having one of the best medical programs in the world. Qatar has free medical for foreigners working in their country as well. Most of the doctors and staff have been educated in European or American medical schools.

Something quite wrong about this hotel business for Arabs seeking cheap Thai medical services. No doubt the real story will never be told in public.

It's a huge part of the business for some of the hospitals in Bangkok and Pattaya serving Arab medical tourists. The rich saudis go to the USA.

Like in the UK the only ones that use the NHS are the poorer people without any other options such as private insurance

Edited May 13, 2016 by bubba1

[Squeegee]

How about the "annoyance and lack of security" of a billion other things they don't give a damn about.

[NextStationBangkok]

500 baht per person daily ? you can get your own guesthouse room for that......fools

Primary problem is discrimination by some walk in guest house owners, who refuse to take Arab looking guests. Secondly they try stay close to Bamrunrad and other hospitals where their relatives taking treatment. Lack of English, and lack of Arab food. Some are strict Halal diners. Some are afraid that they can be arrested because they are Arabs, though they have money, they are afraid of police raid and take their money. Here the middle man owner takes care police issues if any. So, all takes a toll and forced them to stay like this. These business operators takes advantage on these people.

[mesterm]

I read "ten arabs in a room" and wondered if they were doing each other... hehe

Edited May 13, 2016 by mesterm

[pkspeaker]

the condo building i live in has increasingly been on the tear about the building being used as a hotel, signs posted in lobby warning about making the units hotel rooms and stay must be at least 1 month with a lease. but i still notice people coming in with luggage all the time like they were checking into a hotel.. how to stop airbnb? i also noticed some of the rooms have switched to sophisticated looking electronic locks.. crossed my mind-i'll bet they have locks now where you can issue a 'temporary' card key, and when the guests days are up, the key can be invalidated via internet..

[Kerryd]

Gandhi was quite the racist as well but people try hard to ignore that part of his history.

After working in the M.E. for just over 10 years this story doesn't surprise me too much. They don't mention which countries most of the people were from, just that they were "Arabs". In places Westerners would feel cramped at 2 per ISO (prefabricated, multi-purpose containers that look similar to a sea container and are usually the same dimensions - 8' wide, 8' high and 20' long - often used as offices, accommodations, work spaces, shops, etc, etc), a lot of people from places like India, Nepal, Nigeria and even Thailand could have 6-12 people in the same space and not mind too terribly much.

I've seen pics of some of the construction camps in Dubai and other places in that region - hundreds of ISO containers with 6 sets of bunk beds in each with the occupants cooking and eating on the floor between the beds. I've heard that in some of the American bases set up in Iraq, sub-contractors not only had their TCNs living 12 per ISO, but were "hot bunking it" so in effect they had 24 people living in one unit (12 working, 12 off shift).

In Kandahar one businessman had opened a Thai Massage Parlour on the "Boardwalk". Normal Thai massage only (and supposedly anyone asking for a happy ending would be reported to the MPs). The Base Medical staff did a Health & Safety inspection on the place (like they did to every shop and restaurant and public facility on the base). They found the 6 women employed as masseuses were living in a single ISO unit, with 6 Thai guys from one of the construction companies on camp ! That was the end of the massage parlour ! (About a year later someone else opened up a KFC outlet in the same building - no idea if anyone asked for a happy ending with their crispy chicken.)

Obviously these people are being taken advantage of. You can still find cheap rooms where you can stay (alone) for 250 baht a night (well, maybe not in Bangkok). However, as I've seen before as well, there is no shortage of people willing to take advantage of their fellow countrymen. If it happens that those fellow countrymen aren't well educated, can't speak/understand the local language and are almost totally dependent on you, then all the better ! As others have noted, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

[DrDave]

Why is this guy the one getting charged when its the unit owners asking for it, allowing it to happen, and avoiding tax?

Your assumption is that the juristic manager was doing this on behalf of the unit owners. He could have been renting out rooms unbeknownst to the unit owners and pocketing the rent.

There are a lot of crooked juristic managers out there - it's quite possible the guy was scamming the owners.