Ideas wanted for Walking Street Guest House! Thanks!

[hamlek]

Hi everybody!

 

Ever since I wrote here http://www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum/topic/199825-50-sqm-condo-for-sale-in-the-base-on-2nd-road/ that I want to free up some cash for another project I've been getting questions about what it is. Happy to see so many of you read my posts and are curious individuals

 

Sorry I've not been able to tell you what it is but we've not had a deal in place, until now. As some of you know we have rooms upstairs from Sweethearts called Walking Street Guest House. The last 5 years or so though we've only used them for short times as the demand have been quite high but we still keep getting a lot of requests for overnight stays as many people like the location and price and the fact that we take pretty good care of the rooms I think.

 

I'm very happy to tell you that we've now been able to rent the 3 floors above the new Palace A Gogo and will make more rooms there so will hopefully in a couple of months be able to start renting rooms for longer periods than 2 hours again and that's what I need to free up the cash for.

 

Now to my question; 3 of the rooms will be a bit bigger (the front room on the 2nd floor and the back rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floor). What would you like us to use that extra space for? A sofa with a coffee table? A small kitchen? A pole? Jacuzzi? Bigger and nicer bathroom? Anything you wish hotels/guest houses had but you can't find? All realistic ideas welcome.

 

I appreciate if you want to help! Thanks!

[COLD SODA]

7 star super luxury 10,000 baht a night , 3 bedroom Penthouse with private lift .

[hamlek]

7 star super luxury 10,000 baht a night , 3 bedroom SPAM WORD with private lift .

Hahaha! Thanks Ray  Good to hear from you, been a while. How are you doing?

[COLD SODA]

I am serious .... You will at least have one ( me) three months in a year in the penthouse and there are no super luxurious penthouse in Pattaya ...

[hamlek]

I am serious .... You will at least have one ( me) three months in a year in the SPAM WORD and there are no super luxurious SPAM WORD in Pattaya ...

I believe you and I appreciate your booking but I think I'd need to sell more than my condo to build a place like that.

[vimto66]

In recent years i`ve booked rooms with a sofa,so that would be my no1 choice,you can always put it to good use too,a bit of variation is always welcome... nudge nudge, wink wink,  .

A nice bathroom never goes amiss either,with a seperate enclosed shower!

[jeetyin]

 A pole or Jacuzzi..... bec most people will use short time or overnight.....

 

if you want to rent for 10days or 2weeks  then build a nice bathroom.....

[robert69]

A pole or Jacuzzi..... bec most people will use short time or overnight.....

 

if you want to rent for 10days or 2weeks then build a nice bathroom.....

a photo studio, ok seriously cinsidering the location i would put an open area jacuzzi build in with some nice mirrors for great views and not bother with a bathroom. make it all open plan or glass walls. people that want privacy will book elsewhere

 

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

[whitespider - RIP]

Nice to see an owner conducting research. Seen so many busineses here fail becasue owners are convinced their own ideas are "right".

 

In terms of your direct question re the space - I think making sure it has a good quality bathroom would be my personal preference.

 

I also think that there is a high chance you will appeal to the WS lovers i.e. to those who like to stay in the WS vicinity for longer periods. This is not to say you can't appeal to others but it would seem sense to (again) target/encapsulate that market.

 

That makes me think that providing "daytime" space is a must as opposed to simply concentrate on the bed/sleeping element i.e. your (likely) customers will probably be in bed at 4am, up at 4pm, need something to do until WS wakes up at night. In room entertainment would therefore seem to be a must - decent TV, DVD player, music system, decent wifi, sofa etc.

 

On the "overall" theme I would like to suggest as follows

 

Firstly, consider marketing it as a "mongers" choice. I know that cuts out a large part of the marketplace but it can also encaspulate a market also, especially via forums such as PA. With the possible exception of The Vault this is lacking here, ar at least it is lacking in the ways they are marketed.

 

With that in mind

 

Comfortable bed - GOOD quality matresses i.e. not hard but capable of taking a bit of a pounding

 

No silly restrictions on the numbers (or type) of "guest". Sensible restrictions are fine but I feel "one guest" RULES are off putting.

 

Decent TV system, larger flat screens ideally, and visible from the bed if there is only one.

 

Good size bathroom with a shower head that can fit more than one person at a time. Jacuzzi in maybe one or two rooms as a pricier option.

 

Have the food delivery menus on hand and ensure their mocy boys know where you are.

 

I could go on but I am sure there will be enough debate and ideas in this thread anyway.

[deathlay]

Nice bathroom,sofa,good t.v,stero,good bed and i think a kitchen is good but dont think it is worth the money and i doubt it would add much value to what you charge.Last thing is if they have a balcony i would get a nice table and chairs

[Clark2355]

My vote is on a bunch of mirrrors. For an adult playground, I'm always surprised how hard it is to find a room in Pattaya that has several well placed mirrors that give you different viewing angles from the bed.

[hamlek]

Thank you for the feedback guys, much appreciated.

 

Leaning towards a slightly bigger and nicer bathroom with an enclosed shower and a sofa and coffee table. Mirrors is definitely something we can look at and not just for these three rooms. These three rooms will have balconies with 2 chairs and a table. All our rooms have decent mattresses, 32" LCD TVs, Wi-Fi and we have a couple of dvd players in the reception if someone wants to borrow. No restrictions on guests, within reason. 

[Nws]

I'd actually go for a wet room with glass walls, something a bit different & always nice to watch the girl shower !

 

Also sound proofing due to the location

[COLD SODA]

Wow ..... This would be nice as a permanent ST room on WS ... What a nice idea , stay in a nice penthouse on Soi Diana and have a nice room on WS ... Like it ...

[hamlek]

I'd actually go for a wet room with glass walls, something a bit different & always nice to watch the girl shower !

 

Also sound proofing due to the location

That's an interesting idea, will need to do some research on that.

 

Yes, we'll do our best to make the rooms quiet. The old rooms are quiet as they don't have any windows or balconies but we wanted to make that on the new rooms so will be a bit more difficult but I think the rooms on the side and back will be ok but the rooms facing Walking Street I'm not sure about to be honest.

 

Wow ..... This would be nice as a permanent ST room on WS ... What a nice idea , stay in a nice SPAM WORD on Soi Diana and have a nice room on WS ... Like it ...

Sounds like a good plan Ray!

 

Not finished yet but we now have a way to get from the reception to the new rooms

 

[Nws]

If you want some research have a look at a couple of places 1- The Crazy Bear in High Wycombe UK completely OTT porn star / Rock star rooms, but give you ideas, their wet rooms have a velvet curtain from the rest of the room & bathes that fill from the ceiling in the main room, but theyre like £400 a night rooms !

 

Or for the glass wet rooms have a look at a place called The Mont Calm in London.

 

If you want PM and might be able to give you some more " different " ideas

 

Feel I owe you as had many a decent night with Viking in the last 12 months

[jpmelville]

 

Leaning towards a slightly bigger and nicer bathroom with an enclosed shower and a sofa and coffee table. Mirrors is definitely something we can look at and not just for these three rooms. These three rooms will have balconies with 2 chairs and a table. All our rooms have decent mattresses, 32" LCD TVs, Wi-Fi and we have a couple of dvd players in the reception if someone wants to borrow. No restrictions on guests, within reason. 

 

I think for the average punter this is the best way to go. If the rooms are big enough maybe sofa set instead of the lone sofa and the small kitchen table with 2 chairs for eating and computer stuff. Also small makeup table with chair is nice(you can use your imagination the ways to utilize that one ) Maybe a dividing wall between bed and "living room" to create the feel of separate "bedroom".

 

Huge room with too much empty floor space feels very cold and boring.

[boxershrimp]

I have no idea about what "most" people would want, so this is what I want:

 

* Has to be clean. Making sure cleaning staff take their job seriously goes far before any and all clever fittings in the room. I fucking hate roaches.

* Good bed, of decent size but not ridiculous. 150 cm wide is enough, 180 nice, and 250 just plain useless. A little too hard is better than much too soft.

* Safe

* Nice enclosed shower.

* Free WiFi. Doesn't have to be super fast or anything, just enough to browse PA without dying.

* Fridge

* Decent (but not so loud) sound system one can plug into without being forced to join the Apple cult.

* Coffee maker

* A TV, I guess, just because the girls would probably kill me otherwise.

 

Quite nice to have but not neccessary:

* Small kitchen with seating and a table. The breakfast choices around there are not uplifting to the spirit. I'd be happy with just a hot plate and a sink, enough to fry a sunny side up or two.

* Small desk and a chair. (If you have the above, this is not needed.)

* One's own washing machine would be excellent. But probably impossible to install as an afterthought. Maybe some coin operated ones in a central location?

 

Thing I don't care much about:

* Bathtub. Nice sometimes, but not neccessary. Especially the tub + shower combo is much worse than just a shower.

* Jacuzzi. While nice in theory, is just a pain when you get home drunk and totally can't be arsed to run that water for 30 minutes in order to fill it.

* DVD player. Doesn't everyone use their computers for that nowadays?

 

[xyz123]

Whaeva nevr ever hire a jetski ...its a scam...chk the jetski scam pattya on youtube...happened with me too !

[insider]

Good wifi, TV with a usb slot for catching up on my episodes (i bring a couple flash drives with music and tv shows to use on 10" tablet)

Decent coffee maker with more than 1 sachet of coffee.

No joiner fee for 2nd guest.

if putting in a bath make it one thats quite low to the ground so it's easy to step in and out.

Maybe a card in the room with the phone numbers of some good takeaways, massage places that are nearby that deliver to the room.

[Bunky]

Three of the rooms will be a bit bigger. What would you like us to use that extra space for? A sofa with a coffee table? A small kitchen? A pole? Jacuzzi? Bigger and nicer bathroom?

 

My first choice would be a small galley kitchen. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a sink, perhaps a burner or two (and/or a microwave) and a refrigerator with some tiny amount of storage. Kettle for coffee or tea. If that's too much for your construction budget, at least have a wet bar with a smaller refrigerator. I recommend this because it's nice to have a "standing height" counter area to fix snacks, wash up, recharge electronic devices, etc.

 

Second choice would be a sofa and coffee table. (I see the original poster is leaning this way.) I hate sitting on the bed when I watch television. You can increase the usefulness of the coffee table by getting one that has an adjustable-height top. That way somebody sitting on the sofa can use the coffee table as a desk. For this to work the sofa has to be firm and feature a rather upright seating position. It won't work if the sofa is one of those where you sit semi-reclined and six inches off the floor. One more sofa-related point: Make sure the sofa is, for lack of a better description, punter-sized. Those tiny contemporary pieces look cool in the catalog and they seem fine when you put them in the room. But they are woefully inadequate when a tall and/or heavy guy actually sits on them. I am not that tall or that heavy, but I'm consistently uncomfortable on miniature Thai sofas and chairs. If your rooms feature a sofa it should be of substantial, comfortable design.

 

Finally, in today's wired world you'll need as many electrical outlets as possible. They don't have to have a big amperage capacity, but they need to be all over the room. If there were an outlet in the bath that could be switched to 110/120 volts then people could use hairdryers, shavers, etc. from other countries without needing a voltage converter.

 

Bunky

[hammerman]

I am on the better the bath/shower room option

A large top quality shower space with adequate and unfaultering hot n cold water pressure.

Plenty of ways to flash this up and turns a good quality room to so much more.

Free good quality wifi, also.

[JAI DEE MAK]

A lot of very good advice and opinions from the BM here.

 

I believe most if not all have been covered so really Its down to budget and profit margin planing on your part.

 

Personally... I firmly believe that a Jacuzzi  ( the same size that is installed in China  Gardens hotel). would be a deal maker on renting.

 

His rooms are mostly fully booked and and are very popular with many tourists who are looking for that something special at a good price.

 

I suspect this would work well on WS as those who are happy to pay the big Bar fines and big escort rates,  are also prepared to pay a little extra for accom and having a little fun in the jacuzzi before bed would be a bonus.

 

Clearly this would rack up the cost of fitting them out however it would be something not offered by many establishments and IMO is therfore more likely to rent in these  difficult times when all are completing for consumers with basically the same facilities. the down side is it would take longer to recoup your investment on the rooms altho as you are aware empty rooms provide no income. 

 

It may be prudent to fit out one of two with a Jacuzzi and test the water ( no pun intended Ha Ha ).

 

What ever you chose to do I am sure it will be successful.

 

JDM

[hamlek]

Thanks again everybody for your help and for taking the time to reply!

 

If you want some research have a look at a couple of places 1- The Crazy Bear in High Wycombe UK completely OTT porn star / Rock star rooms, but give you ideas, their wet rooms have a velvet curtain from the rest of the room & bathes that fill from the ceiling in the main room, but theyre like £400 a night rooms !

Or for the glass wet rooms have a look at a place called The Mont Calm in London.

If you want PM and might be able to give you some more " different " ideas

Feel I owe you as had many a decent night with Viking in the last 12 months

Thanks! Love The Crazy Bear and would love to stay there!! Think the whole place would have to go in that theme and be more upscale for it to work but I'll definitely keep that idea for when I win the lottery and can build a hotel.

 

I think for the average punter this is the best way to go. If the rooms are big enough maybe sofa set instead of the lone sofa and the small kitchen table with 2 chairs for eating and computer stuff. Also small makeup table with chair is nice(you can use your imagination the ways to utilize that one ) Maybe a dividing wall between bed and "living room" to create the feel of separate "bedroom".

 

Huge room with too much empty floor space feels very cold and boring.

That is what we'll go for I think. Can't fit a sofa set unfortunately but we can squeeze in a small kitchen (well a sink, microwave and kettle at least, don't really want people cooking in there tbh) and a small kitchen table with chairs. Yes, all rooms will have a make-up table. Been going back and forth between making a separate or semi separate bedroom and making it open, leaning towards making it open at the moment as I think it'd be a bit claustrophobic in the bedroom if we closed it off. These three rooms will be a bit bigger than our other rooms but at 27 sqm they are by no means huge. 

 

I have no idea about what "most" people would want, so this is what I want:

 

* Has to be clean. Making sure cleaning staff take their job seriously goes far before any and all clever fittings in the room. I fucking hate roaches.

* Good bed, of decent size but not ridiculous. 150 cm wide is enough, 180 nice, and 250 just plain useless. A little too hard is better than much too soft.

* Safe

* Nice enclosed shower.

* Free WiFi. Doesn't have to be super fast or anything, just enough to browse PA without dying.

* Fridge

* Decent (but not so loud) sound system one can plug into without being forced to join the Apple cult.

* Coffee maker

* A TV, I guess, just because the girls would probably kill me otherwise.

 

Quite nice to have but not neccessary:

* Small kitchen with seating and a table. The breakfast choices around there are not uplifting to the spirit. I'd be happy with just a hot plate and a sink, enough to fry a sunny side up or two.

* Small desk and a chair. (If you have the above, this is not needed.)

* One's own washing machine would be excellent. But probably impossible to install as an afterthought. Maybe some coin operated ones in a central location?

 

Thing I don't care much about:

* Bathtub. Nice sometimes, but not neccessary. Especially the tub + shower combo is much worse than just a shower.

* Jacuzzi. While nice in theory, is just a pain when you get home drunk and totally can't be arsed to run that water for 30 minutes in order to fill it.

* DVD player. Doesn't everyone use their computers for that nowadays?

- I hope we have the clean part down after running the short time rooms for so long. Those of you who use them I hope you let me know if that is not the case.

- The beds are 150 cm wide in all our rooms.

- All our rooms have safes.

- These three rooms will get closed off showers, the other rooms not.

- The whole guest house (and sweethearts) has wifi.

- All rooms have fridges.

- The TVs have USB ports and you can play music on them.

- These rooms will have a kettle and coffee and tea.

- These rooms will have two TVs, one for the bed and one for the sofa, the other rooms one TV.

- We're looking at putting a sink, microwave, small kitchen table and two chairs in these rooms. Not sure about a hotplate with the fire hazard, smell, extra stuff needed (cooking utensils etc) and extra cleaning required.

- Yes, the kitchen table or the make-up table should be ok for most people to put their laptop on I think.

- I don't think we'll be able to put washing machines in the rooms, sorry. Plenty of places around that'll do a weeks laundry for you for 100 baht or something though.

- I agree with you regarding both bathtub and jacuzzi plus Galaxy Suites around the corner have nice jacuzzi rooms already.

- We'll have a couple of DVD players in the reception if someone wants to borrow but yes, I think most people use their computers or a disk or memory stick.

 

Good wifi, TV with a usb slot for catching up on my episodes (i bring a couple flash drives with music and tv shows to use on 10" tablet)

Decent coffee maker with more than 1 sachet of coffee.

No joiner fee for 2nd guest.

if putting in a bath make it one thats quite low to the ground so it's easy to step in and out.

Maybe a card in the room with the phone numbers of some good takeaways, massage places that are nearby that deliver to the room.

We have wifi and all the TVs have/will have usb slots and at least these rooms will have a kettle and will have more than one sachet of coffee.

No joiner fee within reason.

Doesn't look like we'll be putting a bath or jacuzzi in the rooms.

Absolutely, menus from American Pizza Factory, Door2Door, Devils Den etc will be there.

 

My first choice would be a small galley kitchen. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a sink, perhaps a burner or two (and/or a microwave) and a refrigerator with some tiny amount of storage. Kettle for coffee or tea. If that's too much for your construction budget, at least have a wet bar with a smaller refrigerator. I recommend this because it's nice to have a "standing height" counter area to fix snacks, wash up, recharge electronic devices, etc.

 

Second choice would be a sofa and coffee table. (I see the original poster is leaning this way.) I hate sitting on the bed when I watch television. You can increase the usefulness of the coffee table by getting one that has an adjustable-height top. That way somebody sitting on the sofa can use the coffee table as a desk. For this to work the sofa has to be firm and feature a rather upright seating position. It won't work if the sofa is one of those where you sit semi-reclined and six inches off the floor. One more sofa-related point: Make sure the sofa is, for lack of a better description, punter-sized. Those tiny contemporary pieces look cool in the catalog and they seem fine when you put them in the room. But they are woefully inadequate when a tall and/or heavy guy actually sits on them. I am not that tall or that heavy, but I'm consistently uncomfortable on miniature Thai sofas and chairs. If your rooms feature a sofa it should be of substantial, comfortable design.

 

Finally, in today's wired world you'll need as many electrical outlets as possible. They don't have to have a big amperage capacity, but they need to be all over the room. If there were an outlet in the bath that could be switched to 110/120 volts then people could use hairdryers, shavers, etc. from other countries without needing a voltage converter.

 

Bunky

Except for the burners that is exactly what we're looking at doing, sink, microwave, kettle, small kitchen table with chairs, sofa and coffee table. I think we'll leave the sofa for relaxing as it in my experience is difficult to get one that works well for both and put a couple of sockets at the make up table and near the kitchen table so either of those can be used for working. Yes, at 192 cm I'm with you on that, they'll be full size 2 seat sofas. Agree, should always be plenty of sockets around, will have to look into the different voltage ones though as I don't know how they work.

 

I am on the better the bath/shower room option

A large top quality shower space with adequate and unfaultering hot n cold water pressure.

Plenty of ways to flash this up and turns a good quality room to so much more.

Free good quality wifi, also.

Agree with you 100% and I think we have a good setup for the water pressure and the water heaters normally work pretty good. Will talk to the builders about what we can do to flash up the bathrooms without compromising other things.

The wifi is ok and free, at least until one guest starts downloading torrents or something.

 

A lot of very good advice and opinions from the BM here.

 

I believe most if not all have been covered so really Its down to budget and profit margin planing on your part.

 

Personally... I firmly believe that a Jacuzzi  ( the same size that is installed in China  Gardens hotel). would be a deal maker on renting.

 

His rooms are mostly fully booked and and are very popular with many tourists who are looking for that something special at a good price.

 

I suspect this would work well on WS as those who are happy to pay the big Bar fines and big escort rates,  are also prepared to pay a little extra for accom and having a little fun in the jacuzzi before bed would be a bonus.

 

Clearly this would rack up the cost of fitting them out however it would be something not offered by many establishments and IMO is therfore more likely to rent in these  difficult times when all are completing for consumers with basically the same facilities. the down side is it would take longer to recoup your investment on the rooms altho as you are aware empty rooms provide no income. 

 

It may be prudent to fit out one of two with a Jacuzzi and test the water ( no pun intended Ha Ha ).

 

What ever you chose to do I am sure it will be successful.

 

JDM

Definitely!

 

True, a lot of people like jacuzzi rooms but the way we started thinking was that there are also a lot of people doing jacuzzi rooms, and doing it very well, like you say China Garden, Galaxy Suites, Swiss Food, Destiny etc but not so many nice rooms on or near Walking Street with a small kitchen, sofa etc. Time will tell if it was the right decision

 

Thanks for your support JDM!

[boxershrimp]

- I hope we have the clean part down after running the short time rooms for so long. Those of you who use them I hope you let me know if that is not the case.

- The beds are 150 cm wide in all our rooms.

- All our rooms have safes.

- These three rooms will get closed off showers, the other rooms not.

- The whole guest house (and sweethearts) has wifi.

- All rooms have fridges.

- The TVs have USB ports and you can play music on them.

- These rooms will have a kettle and coffee and tea.

- These rooms will have two TVs, one for the bed and one for the sofa, the other rooms one TV.

- We're looking at putting a sink, microwave, small kitchen table and two chairs in these rooms. Not sure about a hotplate with the fire hazard, smell, extra stuff needed (cooking utensils etc) and extra cleaning required.

- Yes, the kitchen table or the make-up table should be ok for most people to put their laptop on I think.

- I don't think we'll be able to put washing machines in the rooms, sorry. Plenty of places around that'll do a weeks laundry for you for 100 baht or something though.

- I agree with you regarding both bathtub and jacuzzi plus Galaxy Suites around the corner have nice jacuzzi rooms already.

- We'll have a couple of DVD players in the reception if someone wants to borrow but yes, I think most people use their computers or a disk or memory stick.

 

Excellent! Where do I book?

Even if you don't hit all of my wishes, you make a good case why some of them are unreasonable at that location. (Which is a pretty damned good one.)

 

And do you think you could have them ready for Christmas and New Years? Surely you must be planning for that, wouldn't want to miss that time of the year when renting out living space in Pattaya...