Thailand

Retyred · #1 21-07-2006, 14:09

Hi everyone. My first post. Currently living in Oz, house on the market, extracting wife from somewhere on my back & looking to make a fresh start to a better life in the brave new world of smiles. Hoping to ply some much important knowlege from you guys. Would love to pay for any free advice with free beer/food/ girls with you guys! Any hotel owners BM's? Have visited many times, with & without wife, & now looking for a business so I can semi-retire. Is this possible? Can locals be trusted to carry on unsupervised at times? I have been researching Hotels/Resorts for sale & know of a few for sale with a portion of vendor financing. Registered company etc. Vendor financing is quite common? Only when times are tough? Are times that bad over there? The current real estate prices seem stretched. Are they very negotiable? Are farangs difficult to deal with in these situations? Lots of Q's!! You guys know the things that I need to know, anything you would like to add would be important & appreciated. Will ask many more Q's i'm sure. I play golf, dive, fish, drink, eat & have fun. Hope to do them with you all soon!!! Cheers, Al.

DanBlack · #2 02-08-2006, 13:26

Been there, did that. When are you coming, I will have a beer with you and give you the benefit of my limited knowledge.

Retyred · #3 02-08-2006, 14:54

Hey Dan. Great to hear from someone! I was thinkin I asked either the wrong Q's or too difficult ones. Maybe its like golf in that the good players don't share cause they had to learn on their own? More like it's just not an interesting topic. Home/business is on the market & I will be there soon as! Want to take it easy, soak it in & look & learn. Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated. What are you up to? Is life GOOD or what? Looking forward to movin on. Cheers, Al.

floppy · #4 02-08-2006, 16:40

hope it all falls into place for you!!.Probaly not a lot of response because if we had the answers we would all be doing it..goodluck and keep us all posted on your progress

stevem · #5 03-08-2006, 08:50

Very few folks on here have ventured into the hotel/GH business side of things, so best that your not getting much response. If its bars your after then there is a wealth of knowledge, both good and bad on here.

Retyred · #6 03-08-2006, 10:11

Hi Steve. Yeah, looks that way. I was hoping to also get a general sort of feel about business conditions at the moment. There are travel agents sprouting that accommodation levels are currently only around 10-15%. Thanks for your interest anyway buddy.

Insomniac · #7 03-08-2006, 11:45

What kind of hotel are you looking for?? Rooms? restaurant... Do you want to do a proper hotel or a simple guest house with small restaurant?? I know the owner of the Nirvana hotel/spa is selling, he just built the place. Small looks nice from the outside. Decent price as well, i think he's asking 22 - 25 mil baht for it. www.nirvanaphuket.com IMHO he's asking a pretty fair price compared to other people. Although no swimming pool and its about a 15 min walk to the beach. There are many other hotels/guesthouses for sale but some are just asking for ridiculous prices.

Ever since Kingdom holdings paid a absolutely crazy amount for the karon beach hotel i think it was prices have been going up... If you have a TON of cash to spend, the owner of the diamond cliff wants to sell but he's a REAL MAD MAN... Wants 2.5 billion baht for it... I think he needs his head examined... Well i'm working in hotels and development is you have any q's...

Oh, prices are always negotiable. In high season the hotels are running a pretty high occupancy, at the moment being low season some hotels are doing really well example Twin Palms (occupancy last week 99%), some hotels are not doing well example Andaman White Beach although a GREAT hotel (occupancy last week 15%) Not too sure about the patong hotels though. I'm guessing anywhere between 20 - 55% occupancy. So really its not that bad.

Retyred · #8 06-08-2006, 07:10

Thanks for your help Insomniac. I imagine a lot of acc. owners have had a very lean year & are looking to sell for a high price to make up for it a little. Prices have gone up a lot in the last couple of years. Do you think sellers are starting to become more realistic though? Cheers, Al.

Insomniac · #9 07-08-2006, 09:37

Well its sort of 50/50 if you ask me... There are MANY hotels/motels/guest houses for sale... I'd say about 50 % are completely crazy, 20% are pushing it and the other 30% are being resonable. The numbers i've pulled right out of my **** by the way, so don't use them as exact statistical numbers, just my approximation. There are good deals / decent deals around, you just have to dig and find them.