More "FIT" tourists - so let's put the prices of hotels up!

[Oxx]

2 hours ago, darren84310 said:

Hoteliers don't need to be told to raise prices. They're the ones best placed to know if or when to adjust rates.

 

I don't know whether you've ever seen the US TV series "Hotel Impossible" which is about an acknowledged expert advising struggling hotels.  Oh so frequently one of the major issues is that the hotels don't get their pricing right - usually charging far too little, and not raising enough at peak season.  So, yes, many hoteliers do need to be told to raise prices when appropriate, because they are generally rather clueless lacking commercial acumen.

[impulse]

I'd support the price increase if (*) it meant the hotel and restaurant and business owners would invest at least some of the increase into the quality of the resource.  Like cleaning the beaches, fixing the open sewers that flow everywhere and improving safety on the roads and on their properties.

 

In fact, I don't know how anyone posting here expects to see any improvements in the Thai tourist resources (or even slowing down the decline) without price increases per head to pay for the improvements.  And, sadly, price increases to reduce the number of tourists to reduce the wear and tear from over-use and under-maintenance.  We can't all have an exclusive experience.

 

That's a big "IF (*)".  Still, I'd love to see them experiment on one island, implementing a minimum of, perhaps 5,000 baht per day, with 1/4 of that earmarked for maintaining the facilities.  It would be interesting to see if the overall experience improves.  I know I generally prefer places that charge more to Cheap Charlie digs.  When I'm in the mood for a Cheap Charlie experience, I'd just have to pick a different island.  Just like I don't choose the Ritz in Southern California.

[impulse]

46 minutes ago, hdkane said:

One reason for the Thailand's popularity is that it is affordable, compared to London and other places...seems stupid to undermine one of the reasons tourists come here in the first place...

 

That's like the mantra "We lose a little on each transaction, but we make it up on volume..."

 

It's way past time to undermine a business model that's seen the resource going to crap -perhaps irreversibly by now- while most hotels race each other to the bottom of the perpetual price wars to get any reasonable occupancy numbers.

 

Edit:  Maybe if they're successful at taking a lot of the estimated 450,000 illegal hotel rooms off the market, the legal owners stand a chance of making money AND reinvesting in the resource so their kids and grandkids can also make money.  Or, they can just keep eating their metaphorical children by appealing to the low budget brigade.

Edited December 7, 2016 by impulse

[Brer Fox]

1 hour ago, MAMMartin said:

comments from the armchair warriors that have never run a hotel - gotta love 'em

Pearls of meaningless wisdom from newbies are just as entertaining.

[Thaidream]

Thailand - especially Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya are in a constant declining tourist spiral. There are way too many hotels trying to entice a limited number of tourists. Raising prices is the worst thing one can do in a down market. They need better advertising and good marketing. ONe of the problems is that the powers to be are taking all the charm out of  the tourist areas. Not allowing the vendors to sell ; taking away all the beach chairs; and turning the hotels into chain hotels is turning off potential  visitors. In addition, bringing in more Western fast food outlets and the American bar chains-like  Hooters or British and Irish Pubs- is a symbol of continued decline. Why travel halfway around the World to eat fast food at Western restaurants; stay in Western themed hotels and God forbid- drink beer at Hooters. If I wanted all this I would have stayed in New York or London. They have literally killed the golden goose.

[geisha]

Due to the economic downfall and threat of terrorism , most hotels , all over the world, have put their rates down !

[impulse]

16 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Why travel halfway around the World to eat fast food at Western restaurants; stay in Western themed hotels and God forbid- drink beer at Hooters. If I wanted all this I would have stayed in New York or London. They have literally killed the golden goose.

 

Good points, but if you hop in a car and/or plane in Bangkok, you can be on a nice tropical beach by driving a couple of hours off the beaten path.  From New York or London, there's no tropical beaches and all of the paths are beaten.  

 

Thailand still has some mysteries because mass tourists just don't want to work that hard (or get too far away from the cheap sex.)  Thank goodness for laziness and the lure of lust.  

[Thaidream]

Very true- but let's not tell the masses where these places are. 

[Yann55]

I know of a Thai lady who had a shop in a Pattaya mall that had been quite successful for many years but was going down because of recent competition.

 

Her shop had been doing well for quite a few years, but then the sales slowed down because less people were coming to the mall.

In order to 'compensate' for the loss, what she did was increase the prices of all items by 10%. When that failed to generate the expected income, she increased the prices by 20% and then 30%.

 

After a few months, of course, her shop was totally deserted and she had to close it.

 

She explained to my friend (who also had a shop there) how surprised she was that her price policy had failed and blamed everything and everyone except, naturally, herself. Guess what, she's a 'hi so' Thai, born and bred in money, like so many shop/hotel/restaurant/etc owners here.

 

And there you have it : the mix of abysmal stupidity, arrogance, self-satisfaction and self-deception of the rich. To realize that they own 98% of the businesses in this country is the key to understanding why so many of these businesses look eerily like ships with donkeys at the helm.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Yann55

[dcsw53]

So the plan is to turn FIT into ROUTED. Ripped Off Until They Exit Dejectedly.

[AlphMichaels]

The reason I love Thailand..., that thing they do...., time & time again.     

[impulse]

5 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Very true- but let's not tell the masses where these places are. 

 

I'm not talking...

[LomSak27]

5 hours ago, madmitch said:

I'm really not sure of the logic here as if hotels lose their tour group income they will be fighting amongst themselves for independent guests to fill their now empty rooms, therefore I'd anticipate seeing lower prices!

 

Logic may not be the key word here. last year about week from Christmas I was down in Bangkok in Siam Square the hotel basically vacant, 100 rooms renting out maybe a dozen. And what did they do, you guessed it high season so increase that rate!   

 

Nothing new here.

[rjwill01]

Let me understand this?  Raise hotel prices so visitors have less money to spend on shopping. So, shoppers spend 40% of their expenditures in other Countries and only 22% in Thailand. Raise hotel prices 10 % so this lowers the number in Thailand spent on shopping to 12%.  Makes sense to me???

[Moonmoon]

Bad idea. they r coming cos its cheap. up the price and theres alwayss cheaper n better alternatives.

[impulse]

13 minutes ago, Yann55 said:

And there you have it : the mix of abysmal stupidity, arrogance, self-satisfaction and self-deception of the rich. To realize that they own 98% of the businesses in this country is the key to understanding why so many of these businesses look eerily like ships with donkeys at the helm.

 

Seems like she was being done in by the typical Asian phenomena where everyone piles in when they see someone doing well, combined with the decrease in traffic from the mall's decline.  Not her fault, really.

 

Probably didn't matter what she did, increase prices, drop prices, or keep them the same.    Hardly seems like stupidity or arrogance.  Just a typical Asian small business.  Her only viable options were to sell out earlier to a sucker who didn't see it coming, or change her product offering completely, then sell out quickly to a sucker before everyone piled in.  

 

Just out of curiosity, what would you have done in her situation?

[Thaidream]

Find out what the competition is selling and how much- match the prices and also determine the amount of traffic the competitors are getting.- advertise and market like crazy. Selling out may be the best ting to do. If there is just too much competition- someone has to go.  

[Bangkok Barry]

5 hours ago, madmitch said:

Independent travellers already pay more than tour groups.

 

I'm really not sure of the logic here as if hotels lose their tour group income they will be fighting amongst themselves for independent guests to fill their now empty rooms, therefore I'd anticipate seeing lower prices!

 

Perhaps they raise the price then offer an even bigger percentage discount.

 

Logic 

[humqdpf]

6 hours ago, Saastrajaa said:

I just arrived for a six week visit on Saturday, and my anecdotal experience so far is that tourism is WAY down...I'm staying in the heart of a tourist area, too (Sukhumvit in the 20s).  strangely, though, I got a price on my room that's 300 lower a night than what I paid last December!

I took a flight recently from Vientiane, Laos to Bangkok (Subarnabhrumi) - only 20 on board a flight leaving late morning. There were more returning but the plane was far from full. I could put some of this down to the fact that it was impossible to book online (Bangkok Airways website) at least from Laos, but this would be a typical tourist flight (late morning on a Tuesday). The price was still $260 return, including 20kg luggage allowance.

[bark]

3 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

I am not complaining. I am not a Thai taxpayer who funded the visa discount. If Thai taxpayers want to give their money to hotels via TAT I am happy for them.

It is 1,000 baht only. Cost of meal for two people.

[Bangkok Barry]

24 minutes ago, humqdpf said:

I took a flight recently from Vientiane, Laos to Bangkok (Subarnabhrumi) - only 20 on board a flight leaving late morning. There were more returning but the plane was far from full. I could put some of this down to the fact that it was impossible to book online (Bangkok Airways website) at least from Laos, but this would be a typical tourist flight (late morning on a Tuesday). The price was still $260 return, including 20kg luggage allowance.

 

For two or three years now I've been on full flights from Europe but only 50-100 were collecting bags. The others were in transit to somewhere else.

[natway09]

Digbum I am going to play devils advocate here,,,,, having managed hotels in 5 countries & stayed in 4 star hotels in another 20 + countries the prices  are way below the average in Thailand (forget about the +10,000 Bht a night upper end) & give on most instances give much better service.

Your comment that you cannot compare is rubbish as I judge the hotel from the service they offer & room comfort.

What is going on outside is outside the hotels control.

You choose to go & stay where you want,,, the service in the hotel YOU choose to stay in is the important issue here.

Well overdue for an increase in price as is the flag fall on taxis

 

 

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, MAMMartin said:

comments from the armchair warriors that have never run a hotel - gotta love 'em

 

What's your experience in the business then? Enlighten us to what the Thais are doing.

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Thailand - especially Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya are in a constant declining tourist spiral. There are way too many hotels trying to entice a limited number of tourists. Raising prices is the worst thing one can do in a down market. They need better advertising and good marketing. ONe of the problems is that the powers to be are taking all the charm out of  the tourist areas. Not allowing the vendors to sell ; taking away all the beach chairs; and turning the hotels into chain hotels is turning off potential  visitors. In addition, bringing in more Western fast food outlets and the American bar chains-like  Hooters or British and Irish Pubs- is a symbol of continued decline. Why travel halfway around the World to eat fast food at Western restaurants; stay in Western themed hotels and God forbid- drink beer at Hooters. If I wanted all this I would have stayed in New York or London. They have literally killed the golden goose.

 

Have you seen the business these places do? If they weren't successful then they wouldn't be there. Very often I struggle to find a seat in some of the pubs. Sometimes people enjoy home comforts when they're away and don't want to eat Thai every meal. You might not want to eat or drink in western-themed places, but plenty do. Including Thais.

[paulbj2]

2 hours ago, Oxx said:

 

I don't know whether you've ever seen the US TV series "Hotel Impossible" which is about an acknowledged expert advising struggling hotels.  Oh so frequently one of the major issues is that the hotels don't get their pricing right - usually charging far too little, and not raising enough at peak season.  So, yes, many hoteliers do need to be told to raise prices when appropriate, because they are generally rather clueless lacking commercial acumen.

 There is a similar series on television in the UK and I booked one of the hotels that had been on the programme as I had to go back to my home town for a funeral. It was absolutely the worst hotel I have ever seen in the UK and God knows I have seen some sh1tholes! Nothing worked properly, the jacuzzi style bath was broken, the water pressure was so low, it was all but impossible to take a shower, the lock on the door was broken so it couldn't be locked, all in all it was absolutely tragic. A number of hotels where I have stayed in Thailand have had similar issues. The thing that hotel management needs to learn is to set standards and stick to them, raising prices is a great idea if standards are maintained, a piss awful idea if they are not. Over here, generally they are not maintained!

[nong38]

Thai business methods are just like the country amazing! More and more hotels competing for fewer customers, so lets put the prices up to try and beat last years figures, they just dont get it do they, there 190 other countries in the world to go to they dont have to come here, you need to attract customers not turn them away!

[sambum]

6 hours ago, Caveat Emptor said:

Flimsy excuse to raise prices so what will they do when it doesn't work out because the figures aren't there.

Just revert to the usual Thai practice to raise prices anyway to make up for the customers they don't have ?

I've seen bars have to close because the regulars moved on when the prices went up because the owners weren't making the money they expected but did nothing to attract more custom. The regulars didn't wear it.

Par for the course here, I'm afraid! A few years ago, there was a small complex of about a dozen bars in the tourist resort where I live. They were charging 100 baht for a beer whereas every other bar in the area was charging 65 - 70 baht. I enquired "Why do you charge so much?" The answer (at the time surprisingly, but now no surprise at all!) was "because we have no customers" So I said, "But if you put your prices down, you will have more customers!" And the answer was "But if we put our prices down, each customer will spend less" I just shook my head, finished my drink and walked away, and never went back. (Pointless saying that if you have no customers, you will have no income!) Needless to say, that little complex is no longer there! I believe the expression is "Som num na"? 

[paulinbkk111]

Love it.

When facing more (better) competition, and customers with more choice, they decide to bump up prices.

 

This place cant be any more complacent.

[Americano555]

HaHahhaha.......Just came back from Malaysia 3 weeks.WAY cheaper than Bangkok and Thailand......The only reason I come to Thailand is for business.

Used to stay here 5-6 months a year.

Now that will be down to 2 weeks.

My money and quality of food overwhelmed Thailand.

 

[Johpa]

Anytime the Sino-Thai elite in Bangkok recommends raising prices in hotels you know tourism is down significantly.


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