Pattaya to woo visitors with free rooms

[JASONTHAI]

Yes guys that's right free hotel rooms

 

BANGKOK: -- Tourism operators in Pattaya plan to offer free hotel rooms from May 1 to Oct 31 to attract local and international tourists during the low season.

 

Apart from hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will also join the campaign, offering discounts up to 50%. Final details will be decided tomorrow.

 

The seaside resort city is facing difficult times because of the global economic recession and local political problems, said Chatchawal Supachayanont, president of the Eastern Chapter of the Thai hotels Association (THA).

 

"With this campaign, we hope tourists and meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (Mice) activities will be lured back to Pattaya again and tourism sentiment will improve as well," he said.

 

Mr Chatchawal said Pattaya's hotels had about 20,000 rooms and that all operators would join the promotion.

 

"This is the first time we have had co-operation from all parties, aiming to restore Pattaya's tourism image," he said.

 

"Average occupancy was not so bad at around 30-40% after the Songkran festival. But we are very concerned about reservations from overseas, which are not coming yet."

 

Pattaya's image took a hit just before Songkran when red-shirted protesters forced the cancellation of the Asean Summit after they stormed the meeting site, the Royal Cliff Beach hotel.

 

Operators in Pattaya hope that when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva goes abroad he will be able to explain the problems in Thailand and how the government intends to solve them, in order to restore confidence among visitors.

 

 

-- Bangkok Post 2009-04-22

[caltexman]

Son of a bitch !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Sounds good to me......................i might be up for that.

[pampamsam]

Yes guys that's right free hotel rooms

 

BANGKOK: -- Tourism operators in Pattaya plan to offer free hotel rooms from May 1 to Oct 31 to attract local and international tourists during the low season.

 

Apart from hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will also join the campaign, offering discounts up to 50%. Final details will be decided tomorrow.

 

The seaside resort city is facing difficult times because of the global economic recession and local political problems, said Chatchawal Supachayanont, president of the Eastern Chapter of the Thai Hotels Association (THA).

 

"With this campaign, we hope tourists and meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (Mice) activities will be lured back to Pattaya again and tourism sentiment will improve as well," he said.

 

Mr Chatchawal said Pattaya's hotels had about 20,000 rooms and that all operators would join the promotion.

 

"This is the first time we have had co-operation from all parties, aiming to restore Pattaya's tourism image," he said.

 

"Average occupancy was not so bad at around 30-40% after the Songkran festival. But we are very concerned about reservations from overseas, which are not coming yet."

 

Pattaya's image took a hit just before Songkran when red-shirted protesters forced the cancellation of the Asean Summit after they stormed the meeting site, the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel.

 

Operators in Pattaya hope that when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva goes abroad he will be able to explain the problems in Thailand and how the government intends to solve them, in order to restore confidence among visitors.

 

 

-- Bangkok Post 2009-04-22

All I can add to the above report of PM's upcoming overseas trip to "explain" what is happening in LOS and to lure the "MICE" back to their activities in Pattaya.......GOOD LUCK!!!

 

Having said that, I doubt if the country's tourism problems will have too much impact on Pattaya Addicts' activities and plans. Which thai pussy addict is going restrict his activities for any reason except possibly death?

[Mavrick]

I'll be there next month I wonder if I will get a free room ?

[dudebrah]

I hav a hard time believing they will be giving free rooms .

[Pattaya Robbo]

I'm arriving on the 1st May, i'll have some of that, a nice 5 star maybe the Dusit or something for free would be nice

[petermik]

As well as free rooms it would help also if barfines were scrapped for the same period

[Lok Jit]

How can hotels make Money giving away free rooms? I will believe it when I see it..There's a Gimic someplace...

[MrDK]

Don't have a link, but I read somewhere that it is 3 free nights when you pay for (something like) 5 nights.

 

The "expense" is apparently a co-op between ToT and the hotels, so there may be some fine print, such as "Participating hotels only".

 

Anything free is better than cheap.

I received 16,000 baht credit from ToT after the airport closure in December.

[SlickMonkey]

Ill believe it when I see it. Usally they will pick the upper end rooms like Sheraton, Marriott, Dusit, etc which already have high rates. Then they will probally make a deal with you if you book five nights get 1-2 free?

 

I doubt any of the lower end hotels will just give away rooms. If they do they will probally up their rate for the first few days then give you one free room night.

 

Im anxious to see exactly whats so free aboubt the deal???

[texboy]

Definitely sounds like gimmick. Jack up rates and then offer 50% discount or the buy 5, get 1 night free. Seriously ... who falls for that stuff these days. In the end, everyone just computes what they are averaging per day if they stay x number of days.

 

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

[MrDK]

When the government of Thailand announced that they would offer tourists 2,000 baht in compensation per night in December, it sounded too good to be true.

Though it took a long time for the application to get approved and I had all bu written it off, I received the message that the funds had been released to me.

[thatguy750]

Of course it would have to be a buy something, get something free type offer. Otherwise the Marriott and Dusit would be at 100% occupancy, and the downscale hotels would be completely vacant.

[mailman]

Free rooms, sounds good. I'll be interested to see which hotels and what kind of deal they give.

 

We all know the normal summer June-August deals have been going for mid to lower range hotels, like the Soi 7 & 8 hotels. The ones that say - stay 3 nights, get one free, stay 9 nights, get 4 free....

[chris_heaton]

This has been discussed on another forum. The scheme is called Blue Smile. Here is an e-mail about it from the THA Website:

 

TW. 073/2008-2010 1 March 2009

 

 

To : General Manager / Managing Director

Subject : Invitation to participate in the project “Blue Smile Hotels”

 

The Government is very concerned about the economic situation and in its policy has assigned the Ministry of Commerce to play an active role in the recovery of the business during the economic recession and with this purpose has joined Thai hotels Association to promote Thai products and Thai tourism under the project “Blue Smile Hotels”

 

This project is organized with the aims to assist and promote activities of tourism industry and hotels business in Thailand as well as to assist the entrepreneurs to recover their business soonest. At the same time it will stimulate Thai people to pay more attention in the domestic travel. To proceed on this project we would like to request cooperation from participating hotels as follows :

 

● Serve seasonal Thai fruits to your guests in the hotel

 

● Highlight your menu by using Thai products in the market for your food in the

hotel, such as buffet

 

● Put up OTOP Corner in the hotel so that your guests can select the products by

themselves

 

● Promote Thai beverages “Siam Sunray” (Signal drink) as Thai national drink.

Free demonstration on this issue will be arranged for participating hotels

 

● Request five complimentary prize coupons for accommodation or food

effective from 1 April- 30 November 2009

 

Publication of all the activities of participating hotels for sales promotion of this Project are

as follows :

 

1. In the “Hotel Mega Sale 2009” which will be held from 26-29 March 2009 from 10.00-20.30 hrs at the Discovery Shopping Center. This special hotel accommodation package including tourism spots in boutique style will be offered to different target groups.

 

2. Business negotiation in the Ministry of Commerce, and will invite government unit to discuss about their seminars on 1 April 2009.

 

3. Overseas marketing with the Ministry’s Export Department in various places with special rates

 

4. Sales promotion activities with the Ministry of Commerce at Muang Thong Thani from 3-10 April 2009

 

In order to keep this project consistently and accomplish success, THA would like to invite you to participate in this Blue Smile hotels project. Please fill in your information on the Reply Form and return it to THA Office, Fax No. 02 281 4188. Your prompt attention is very much appreciated.

 

Yours sincerely,

Prakit Chinamourphong

President

 

 

As you can see the bit about Free Rooms seems to be just a headline grabber. The only ref to free rooms is:

● Request five complimentary prize coupons for accommodation or food

effective from 1 April- 30 November 2009

 

How many participating hotels do you think will send the 5 vouchers for free rooms? And even if they do, that is not many rooms! But be sure there will be plenty of vouchers for free fruit!

 

Chris

[nightlyf]

shotgun a room at the marriot

[pieman108]

Where do you go to sign up? I want to take part in that. I will be there in July and August. I am bringing a friend. His wife trusts me and said he can go with me. hahaha. I told him "what happens in Pattaya stays in Pattaya" This will be his first trip anywhere out of the US. My plan is to take him all over Thailand from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai to Phuket and Krabi, to Udon Thani and Ko Samui.

I don't know if I can participate in the free room event because I fly standby since I am a retiree from an airline. I never know if I will get there or when. I have to wait for an available seat but most of the time it is a first class or business seat so its worth the wait. I try to never fly economy on any flight over 4 hours.

Life is so hard but I love it

in July

[blue1878]

Now this is very interesting news.

 

I'm going to Pattaya foe 3 weeks in July/August and I've already booked a room at my usual hotel. So far I have no money. I pay on arrival. So I wonder if I send the hotel an e-mail saying that I am thinking of booking a room at an hotel that is offering a free room for x amount of days I wonder if my hotel will then offer me to let me have the room free for the first few days

[Dmanchester]

Definitely sounds like gimmick. Jack up rates and then offer 50% discount or the buy 5, get 1 night free. Seriously ... who falls for that stuff these days. In the end, everyone just computes what they are averaging per day if they stay x number of days.

 

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

 

 

I agree with txtboy. I've been thailand too many times to believe or trust anything Thais say.

Don't get me wrong I love em and the country but the beautiful smles from Thais means Guv me your fukin money.

[kbrainr]

Keep us informed when you get more specific news about participating hotels and other businesses. Thanks for the info.

[hammerman]

A lot of the tour firms in the UK are already offering free nights with their packaged trips in the low season, and have done for many years, pay 7 nights get 7 nights free and so on upwards, would be the high end hotels that, Kuoni, Hayes & Jarvis, Cosmos and Destinology etc deal with.

 

Am taking advantage of a Kuoni pay 7 get 7 free deal to Phuket next month, when booked, the flight with Malaysian, transfers, 14 nights B/B 5* hotel away from Patong, was nearer £900 than a £1000 per person.

 

Something else that may just happen, is that in the terms and conditions small print of this new incentive, are the words, "For Thai nationals only"

 

Or am I being to cynical?

[sdm197]

I received 16,000 baht credit from ToT after the airport closure in December.

 

Hi DK,

 

How did you go about getting the compensation? I have tried my Insurance company they said due to political unrest I was not covered (Direct Line), EVA did not want to know and neither did ebookers.com I wonder if I may be able to take the same route you did.

 

Any advice most welcome,

 

SDM197.

[Woofiee]

Yeah!

 

I'm back there in mid-June, and even if it's the pricier hotels, it might get me to switch up a bit. Can't wait to go shopping for clothes though ... What I save in the stores I'll waste on pussy..

 

Seems fair.

[hazze]

Well i'm over in a month.

 

I'm sure theres a catch in this and it wont' amount to free hotel rooms.

If they were giving tourists free rooms and billing the authorities, every hotel would be booked out with faked vistors as thais do what thais do best.

 

Its encouraging there making an effort and I will keep track of thise, but i doubt it will beat the 550B place i'm planning to stay in Soi6.

[ST4ME]

This project is organized with the aims to assist and promote activities of tourism industry and hotels business in Thailand as well as to assist the entrepreneurs to recover their business soonest. At the same time it will stimulate Thai people to pay more attention in the domestic travel. To proceed on this project we would like to request cooperation from participating hotels as follows :

 

● Serve seasonal Thai fruits to your guests in the hotel

 

● Highlight your menu by using Thai products in the market for your food in the

hotel, such as buffet

 

● Put up OTOP Corner in the hotel so that your guests can select the products by

themselves

 

● Promote Thai beverages “Siam Sunray” (Signal drink) as Thai national drink.

Free demonstration on this issue will be arranged for participating hotels

 

● Request five complimentary prize coupons for accommodation or food

effective from 1 April- 30 November 2009

 

 

This is the typical shit thought up by Thais that would appeal to Thais only. They have no clue what the Farang market wants. Rather then consult an international marketing company, the probably asked some minister's nephew who spendt one semester studing overseas what he thought would work. What a joke!