Joiners' Fees vs Guest Friendly

[Evil Penevil]

Some quick questions-and-answers about one of the most enduring (but hardly endearing) topics on the LOS-related boards.

What's a joiner fee?

It's a fee that some hotels impose if one or more unregistered guests stay overnight in your room. Depending on the hotel, the fee can range from several hundred baht to several thousand. While you can enounter joiner-fee scams, a joiner fee isn't always a rip-off. It's a policy decision by the hotel to encourage or discourage guests who are likely to bring back P4P providers to their rooms.

What does "guest friendly" mean?

To be considered "guest friendly," the hotel must allow your unregistered guests to stay overnight without extra charge. Moreover, you must be able to change guests every night or even several times in the same day. Please note the abbreviation "GF" or "G/F" can mean either "guest friendly" or "girlfriend."

Lists of "guest friendly" hotels are frequently posted on the boards, but many punters misunderstand hotel regulations, local law and joiner's fees. You do not have an absolute right to bring back an unregistered guest even if you have paid for a double room. Whether an UNREGISTERED guest can stay the night with you is always at the discretion of the hotel, no matter what country you are in. Some of the misunderstanding stems from experience with U.S. motels (motor hotels), where it's standard practice to charge the same price whether one or four guests occupy the room. That practice doesn't usually apply at hotels, where the fee is almost always based on the number of people occupying the room.

Just avoid those hotels that aren't guest-friendly, but don't worry too much about it. Some guys go to great lengths to try to get the hotel to commit in writing to never charging a joiner fee. That won't happen, either. Virtually all three-, four- and five-star hotels that are considered guest friendly still retain the right to charge a joiner fee, even if they never do so in practice. That's to prevent extreme cases, in which someone - not necessarily a punter - allows five or six people to sleep in a room in which two or three are registered. More guests in a room than have been paid for is an everyday problem in hotels around the globe and doesn't relate directly to P4P all the time.

One of the managers at a international Suk hotel told me that while joiner fees aren't a regular policy, they are sometimes used as a dsiciplinary measure when punters get too carried away, i.e., four or five people are staying in a room for which two are registered, or too much rowdiness late at night. So while a hotel can be guest friendly, it doesn't mean it welcomes wild partying. If you know that you'll be taking several girls back to your room each day as well as drinking heavily, you want to make sure you get a monger-friendly as well well as guest-friendly hotel.

Evil

[nelsonone]

good for newbs to know EP....might also be worth a sticky under accommodation

[Spector]

Good info and well written. If someone has done the slightest bit of research on this board then they should never be surprised by their hotel policies.

[iglesia]

When do you find out that you've been charged a joiner fee? Is it that night, the next morning or at the end of the stay?

I'm planning on staying for 2 weeks, so I'd like to know if I'm going to get hit with 20 joiners before the last day if possible.

[MrDK]

Originally Posted by iglesia

When do you find out that you've been charged a joiner fee? Is it that night, the next morning or at the end of the stay?

I'm planning on staying for 2 weeks, so I'd like to know if I'm going to get hit with 20 joiners before the last day if possible.

Send them an email and ask, then you will know before you go. If they say that there is no fees, print a copy of the email.

In general they will advise you when you go to the front desk to deposit the girls ID, they may even have you sign.

[snakebite911]

Originally Posted by iglesia

When do you find out that you've been charged a joiner fee? Is it that night, the next morning or at the end of the stay?

I'm planning on staying for 2 weeks, so I'd like to know if I'm going to get hit with 20 joiners before the last day if possible.

Depends on the Hotel, where I was staying, one of the girls at the desk just started writing a bill for 1000 bath when I showed up with my friend.
I've also read somewhere on the board about someone just getting a few thousand extra on their bill when they were checking out.
If uncertain, just ask at the desk, they have probably heard it all before anyway.