Condo renting in Thailand

[Moses]

Gentleman,

technically we have possibilities to deploy special section for to posting announcements for to rent or to let to rent houses/condos/rooms (lets say: in Thailand). Anybody is interesting in such section?

Also any other ideas what additional services for community we can add to forum/main site?

[cdnmatt]

If you mean allowing private condo / home owners to list properties for rent, then personally, I'd say it's a waste of time and resources, as we'll probably all just continue to use things like ThaiVisa and word of mouth.

Now if you mean listing hotels / properties strictly in the gay areas, and either, maybe getting us SGT members a deal, or at the very least some ad revenus for you and Surfcrest, then I'd say it could be a excellent resource. In reality, the only people who are going to use that section are those who either, have never been to or are new to Thailand. Majority of us experienced folk already know our way around, and have our connections, so a resource like that probably wouldn't be overly helpful.

Just my $0.02. Gear it towards the newer tourist, and I think it could be quite beneficial, and hopefully get you and Surfcrest some ad revenue. Would be nice o see your guys' hard work begin to pay off.

[Moses]

In fact it was mostly idea to give our members-expats who own condos and are "experienced members" mentioned by you a chance to create ads in special section and to let condos to rent: we have a lot of visitors who are lurking around without registration, most of them are newbie to Thailand. They reading forum and they may be interested to rent a condo. For now ratio members/visitors is about 1/10, i.e. to each 10 visits of members we have 100 guests here.

[Dodger]

I think it is a great idea especially when considering the ratio between visitors and actively participating members. If this is intended to be a separate forum there really is no down side.

I think this would provide great resource for the gay traveler to Thailand, regardless if he is visiting for his first short holiday, or has plans to stay longer or possibly retire here. Obtaining this type of information from within the gay community would be much better aligned to a gay persons needs as compared to just scanning the property classified ads in the newspapers. Sites like Thai Visa cater primarily to str8 people who are not the least bit interested in residing in a gay-friendly environment.

[francois]

Good idea Moses.Try it out and see what happens.

[Moses]

Good idea Moses.Try it out and see what happens.


First I want to hear from owners :) Cuz if here are no owners - then section will die with 100% :)

[Tobi]

I honestly don't think it will work Moses, what would make me use this site? Whether I'm renting or letting, I can use any number of other major established websites, most of which have some form of diary booking and payment system in place, for example AirBNB. Sorry!

[Moses]

I honestly don't think it will work Moses, what would make me use this site? Whether I'm renting or letting, I can use any number of other major established websites, most of which have some form of diary booking and payment system in place, for example AirBNB. Sorry!


By such logic there are no place in world for small shops and caffee cuz exist McDonald+KFC and Wallmart + Carefour . But small shops still exist cuz they offer unique service or just location "next door". Which of "big sites" offer you to rent condo and make filter "gay owner"? Or where you can rent condo from person whom you know at forum already 5 years?

The only fail is real if here are no owners of condos :) If here will be offers - then here will be renting :)

[Tobi]

By such logic there are no place in world for small shops and caffee cuz exist McDonald+KFC and Wallmart + Carefour.

I think you'll find that supermarkets long ago replaced small shops like greengrocers, bakers, fishmongers, butchers, etc. I believe the last indie coffee shop I went to was Bar Italia in Soho; Starbucks, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee et al have certainly displaced the majority of local owner-run high-street cafes. Oh, and you have heard of Amazon, right?!



Or where you can rent condo from person whom you know at forum already 5 years?

Yeah, because the owners of condos here are just gagging to rent their homes for a few nights a year to someone like Latin, huh?!

[cdnmatt]

Personally, I'd only do this for ad revenue for you guys. So, it'd either be A or B:

a) Negotiate with various hotels to offer SGT members a discount. If all goes well, your memership numbers go up, meaning traffic & posting volume goes up, meaning you have more profitable ad space to sell in the future.

b) Simply sell listing to hotels / condos / private owners at a monthly price.

Aside from that, I think it would be a waste of time. It's definitely a good idea, but just having people throw up a message saying, "I own a condo at Soi Yenasabi (or whatever it's called) and is for rent", most likely isn't going illicit much interest at all.

[Moses]

Personally, I'd only do this for ad revenue for you guys. So, it'd either be A or B:

a) Negotiate with various hotels to offer SGT members a discount. If all goes well, your memership numbers go up, meaning traffic & posting volume goes up, meaning you have more profitable ad space to sell in the future.

b) Simply sell listing to hotels / condos / private owners at a monthly price.

Aside from that, I think it would be a waste of time. It's definitely a good idea, but just having people throw up a message saying, "I own a condo at Soi Yenasabi (or whatever it's called) and is for rent", most likely isn't going illicit much interest at all.

cdnmatt, I'm very glad what you are in this discussion and I'm very happy what you offer your ideas. Thank you. But such ways just doesn't work as expected in Thailand. At least point a). It worked in past when booking.com not allowed to owners to advertise gay-hotels. But now almost all aggregators allow to do it.

I know it cuz long time past since I made and own website what has been made for the same things - look at my http://angkorhotelsguide.com/
Just 7 years ago it was very profitable site, now it is just about nothing (still profitable, but just a little bit more than to cover yearly expenses). Since owners of hotels got possibility to work directly with big booking companies as gay-hotels I lost almost all traffic.

That why I don't think about hotels here at forum. It is marketing: each business has strong and weak sides. I lost positions in Cambodia cuz lost my strong side - exclusive possibility to advertise gay-hotels (exclusive I meant against big companies who declined such advertising) and still have weak side - traffic flow is much lower than have booking companies.

Forum has the same weak side - it has traffic much lower than big companies, but forum also and still has strong side - trust: we can offer to members and visitors chance to book condo or villa or house from our members whom we know: big companies never will have such strong side and every time even with booking via big companies you can meet risk: just 3 days ago I had call from friend who was in Prague and owner of booked via AirnB condo just not appears in time and his phone has been switched off. So I made help to him - I have few very good contacts in Prague in small guesthouses (family hotels).

By this topic I don't research if it can be profitable business or if we have demands from people who want to rent via forum. First thing I wanna know is - if here are members who want to let to rent their condos. If so - we can do it even in nonprofitable way - just to help members of community. If no - then I will drop this idea. Cuz if I will want make money with forum - I will do it without putting private ads: I will just join booking.com or agoda's affiliate program and just earn commission with very vary offer of hotels.

So once again: question is - is here somebody who wants to let condo/house/villa to rent via forum? If so - we can do it for to help community, if not - then I will drop this idea.

[francois]

Actually I am a renter and I do look for condos or houses for rent so, for me, it is a good idea. I suppose if I lived in KK for years on end and was content as a clam then it would make little sense. I would prefer to rent from someone in the community here in Pattaya.

[goji]

I honestly don't think it will work Moses, what would make me use this site? Whether I'm renting or letting, I can use any number of other major established websites, most of which have some form of diary booking and payment system in place, for example AirBNB. Sorry!

If trying to do that kind of booking operation on a serious commercial basis, you're unlikely to succeed unless there is a multi million dollar marketing budget. The existing players will keep all the business.

For gay specific, there is a long standing German business I have used for bookings in Berlin (ebab), although I've not idea how well they compete with all the big internet sites now.

If you just want to have a small section for people to advertise in, added at no cost to you, why not give it a go ?

[Tobi]

For gay specific...

The issue is that if I'm renting out my condo, I don't care whether those staying are gay or straight, I want access to the largest potential market possible. Also, all the major players these days such as AirBNB make it clear they don't permit discrimination of any kind, so if you rented a property via them and the landlord made difficulties about your sexuality, they'd no longer be able to use the AirBNB platform going forward.

[francois]

Recently a member of the gay community posted his house, in Pattaya, for rent on another of the gay forums. He was looking for someone he knew of and could be trusted and offered a special price; it only took a short, short time for him to find a renter. So, for him, advertising on a Gay Forum was productive.

[Tobi]

He was looking for someone he knew of and could be trusted...

So, not here then?! :P

[frequent]

Gentleman,

technically we have possibilities to deploy special section for to posting announcements for to rent or to let to rent houses/condos/rooms (lets say: in Thailand). Anybody is interesting in such section?

I always use the gay Air BNB if I'm looking for that sort of thing https://www.misterbnb.com/