Have been asked for advise re Backpacker's Hotel in Pattaya

[lonelywombat]

I am not sure how many received the request for advice on establishing a gay backpackers hotel in Pattaya. My initial reply was I doubted it would survive. His answer was that gays and straights, male and female and married couples with children stay in Europe, in backpackers all the time.
That is a big change from his first request of gay backpackers.
But dormitory accomadation might have some possibilities.

I did a google search and found this site that were mixed dormitories
http://www.hostelworld.com/search?city=Pattaya&country=Thailand

Not sure if this price range is suitable. They start at 250 to 350 baht per night. Still with all the girls available all over Pattaya it might have a chance.[and don't forget the boys]

[Moses]

Normal double room in gay hotel in 20 meters from Jomtien beach and in 300 meters from Jomtien Complex - DD Inn cost 500 Baht. Basic hotel, 2 stars. https://ddinn.wordpress.com/

[colmx]

The only hope a hostel has to survive in Pattaya is for stupid people to stay there!
I had 3 friends who stayed in a 6 bed dorm in Kao San road for a "bargain" 400B each per night...

When I told them that 1200B would get them a really nice 3.5/4* hotel they were confused!
Here in Europe we are used to places charging per person/per night... so they thought they were getting a bargain...

Similarly I see hostels in So Ngam Duplee charging 300B per person per night in a shared dorm... when those people could have the worst triple room in Malaysia hotel for 900 or a guesthouse nearby for even less

Thai hostels only appeal to naive backpackers.... who realise afterwards that they were ripped off!

[colmx]

oh and the Day night Hotel in South Pattaya tried its luck as a 300B per night hostel for a while.

It didn't do too well... especially when the owners realised they could cram 4 Chinese to a room instead and charge 400B each!

[pong]

Its even worse: one can easily find ROOMs (the famous ''prison cells''-just a bed+fan) around that infamous KSR for 200 bt-or less. Dorm beds too-not bookable advance, from 130 bt/bed. 400 bt/nite mostly includes AC and DY-brekkie (toast+jam).
Your idea that these naivies realise afters is also quite wrong: most pre-book their whole trip, get in awful panick when something during the trip goes wrong, but are too shitty scared to even think of the idea that those cheap places are not online and do not do bookings. Many of them also select their clients-yes, thats outright Thai style discrimination.
ALL decent bekpekguidebooks tell all bekpeks that PTY is a very wrong place to go to-its expensive, there is nothing to see/do except for polluted seas and all types of mafia will descend on you.
But then (as I have somehow to follow all those touristy developments) BKK bigtown now boasts soome 300+ hoStels, not just aiming bekpeks, they are spread all over town and about any new place to open is hoStel style. So there seems to be some winning aspect in them. I really am amazed that just round the corner of Boysstreet/soi Hotmale in BKk there are 3 hoStels on RamIV rd.-right beside that male brothel BBB-Inn. What on earth has a bekpekker to do daytime in that area?

[lonelywombat]

Most of the people who backpack are usually in pairs ,often mixed couples. The profile he discussed with me was up to $6 Australian per head per night.
Backpackers usually travel far and wide from where they sleep. The comment what would they do staying near Rama4 is irrelevant. It is just a cheap place to sleep

hostelworld.com minimum prices are double that of Bangkok
This big site does not even mention Pattaya
http://www.goatsontheroad.com/guide-to-backpacking-thailand/

From the ads I have been shown I think an important bonus for Pattay backpackers would be to include travel from Bangkok by bus as an important option

[colmx]

I think Pong points out the most important thing in this conversation though...
all of the backpacker guides (lonely planet, rough guide, south east Asia on a shoe string etc) loathe and abhor Pattaya!

They basically says its a cesspit full of sex tourists and paedophiles!
(as do a lot of tourist brochures)

It will take a lot more than $6AUD rooms to attract backpacking couples to Pattaya!

[{And anyway does Pattaya really need low class more $6 dollar knacker or scumbag tourists... place is bad enough already! :-P}]

Funnily enough my parents are currently planning a trip to Thailand & Malaysia for later this year... My mother knows I regularly visit Pattaya and now that she has started to plan her trip she can not understand WHY I would even dream of going there!

[colmx]

http://www.goatsontheroad.com/guide-to-backpacking-thailand/

I think a bit of dodgy journalism here:


A bottle of Mekhong whiskey only costs about $2 in a store

You can barely get a bottle of Lao Khao (40 Degrees) or Heineken for 55 baht in a 7-11 these days...
Don't know where the authors got their "facts" from... but then again they don't seem like the quality tourists that TAT are hoping to attract!

[lonelywombat]

Just received this email from a recent download march 6,
search "backpackers in Pattaya"
http://www.pattayaunlimited.com/backpackers-guide-to-pattaya/

From observations that many farang are doing it cheap in Pattaya, will backpackers be much below some of the visitors.
Friend was abused for paying 300 baht for massage on the gay beach.
In 26 years price has gone up from 200 baht to in some cases 250 baht.
He thought it reasonable.

[cdnmatt]

They basically says its a cesspit full of sex tourists and paedophiles!

But it is a cesspool of sex tourists. That's why millions of people go there every year -- it's fun.



Funnily enough my parents are currently planning a trip to Thailand & Malaysia for later this year... My mother knows I regularly visit Pattaya and now that she has started to plan her trip she can not understand WHY I would even dream of going there!

heh, I actually brought my mom to Pattaya once. We stayed at Mosaik. She actually loved Pattaya, and thought it was a great place. Granted, I never showed her Sunee Plaza, but we did go for a beer on Walking Street one night, so I'm assuming she figured out the same type of thing exists for the gay community but I just wasn't showing her.

As for the topic, I can think of multiple hotels in Pattaya for 600/night, and nice rooms at that. How much cheaper do people need? If you can't afford to stay at $20/night hotels while travelling the world, then stay at home and get a job. It's like going on Youtube, and watching videos of people in Thailand showing off their $100/month apartment, as if they're proud to be poor or something. I don't get it.

[lonelywombat]

Just received this email from a recent download march 6,
search "backpackers in Pattaya"
http://www.pattayaunlimited.com/backpackers-guide-to-pattaya/

From observations that many farang are doing it cheap in Pattaya, will backpackers be much below some of the visitors.
Friend was abused for paying 300 baht for massage on the gay beach.
In 26 years price has gone up from 200 baht to in some cases 250 baht.
He thought it reasonable.

[a447]

Does Pattaya need more cheap Charlies? The boys certainly don't.

As for the tourist being abused for paying 300 baht for a beach massage, that's just ridiculous. The minimum daily wage is apparently 300 per day so charging that for an hour massage seems over the top.

[lonelywombat]

A447 obviously you work on a salary. The minimum of 300 bpd is for a full day
If a massage boy gets one massage a day or one every 2 or 3 days, do you recommend he gets
a either a daily rate paid by whom? The beach franchise?
b a daily paid by the client
or do you have another plan

[a447]

Yeah, I know it's for a full day. I wrote per day

It's not my job to come up with an income plan for the guys working at the beach (or in gogo bars, for that matter);that's their problem. They are free agents.

When I used to frequent the gay beach I saw the "massage" guys doing a very brisk business indeed. If they can earn the daily wage in just one hour, they've got no reason to complain. And it's certainly no excuse to abuse customers.

It's capitalism at work. They are free to charge what the market is willing to bear. Good luck to them.

[lukylok]

Get real !

6 years ago it was already 300 bahts for a massage on the beach.

In town you will pay at least 200 + tip = 300

And the business is not "brisk" for many.

And nobody forces you to take a massage. If you cannot afford it, you can live without.

And if the masseur can make a good living, that's capitalism.

[a447]

"And if the masseur can make a good living, that's capitalism."

That's what I said.

[Marsilius]

I think Pong points out the most important thing in this conversation though...
all of the backpacker guides (lonely planet, rough guide, south east Asia on a shoe string etc) loathe and abhor Pattaya!

They basically says its a cesspit full of sex tourists and paedophiles!
(as do a lot of tourist brochures)

Yet, given the number of first-time-to-Thailand tourists and others who visit Pattaya every year, it's always struck me as commercially odd that no-one produces a mainstream high-profile guide to the city and the attractions of the wider Eastern Seaboard region - even though that's done for, say, Phuket or "Thailand's islands and beaches".

Aren't such publishers missing a trick here?

[dinagam]

Going by the looks on the faces of non-gay tourists especially those coming from Asian countries, I'm quite certain that the TAT and the tourism industry in general have been successful in drawing tourists to Pattaya. One never fails to observe happy & contented faces whether in Nong Nooch, Koh Lan or elsewhere.