Thread: Hey all! New here. Interested in opening a resort. Advise please.

As a last resort, there's always suicide

There's maybe an idea in that... a niche tourist venue for euthanasia enthusiasts, called "the last resort"... have all sorts of one-way ticket rides... a shark tank, a bear pit, and a sparkling shower... not to mention the piéce de résistance, the "jumping jack" "swinging sally" ...or possibly smelter skelter with a furnace at the bottom of the slide.... how about the hara kiri sushi bar, with various delicacies - puffer fish, irukanji, and bilharzia bisque, the bubbleslash bath... the possibilities are endless...

Seen lots of these type posts over the years, some are trolls, others are real believers in some sort of fairytale dream, but I have had dreamers, friends and people off the net come and meet me about how to live the alleged dream.

All wanted to be in the money, within 6 months of laying out a Mil Baht, if I could go to the UK, US, OZ with $40,000, buy into a business and get paid to drink beer and sleep for the rest of my life, I'd be on the next plane.

On the other hand, know guys that have played the long game, usually over 10 years in the making, that have made the jump from working stiff in thier home country to Millionaire, US dollar status here, few and far between I admit, but some do make it.

OP wants to open a resort, I have legal land at the end of now where, big green jungle off the tourist route, 10 years from now, it could be on the back packers plans, local government is pushing green tourisn out here and the BKK government is helping with grants and assistance.

No money returns for years maybe, but tomorrow who knows.

Get your "green" resort/retreat reviewed and published in the backpackers bible the "Lonely Planet" and you've pretty much cracked it.

Don’t know about the hardcore stuff like gangbangers or drug dealers but bureaucracy, in general, isn’t hard to deal with. Again, I’m just speaking in general. Could be different with Thailand. Reason I think it shouldn’t be too hard dealing with bureaucracy in Thailand is I’ve seen and hear a lot of foreign investments in Thailand.

So about the original post. Maybe I couldn’t explain what exactly I was After in Thailand, so following’s a listing to give you an idea the kind of thing I’m looking for. The start up cost should be far from ‘Millions’.

https://uae.businessesforsale.com/em...-for-sale.aspx

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

Get your "green" resort/retreat reviewed and published in the backpackers bible the "Lonely Planet" and you've pretty much cracked it.

Wish it worked like that, friend of mine has a resort down on the Cambo border, pushbike trail, Ubon to BKK.
Dry season. maybe 100 over the next 5 months, stay the night, don't drink much, or eat much and are on thier bikes at sun rise the next day.

He's on all the web sights, great revunes, but guests are few, same out my way, want to go green, see the real jungle, law says 2 soldiers at all times.

If business doesn't pick up, you could always downsize it to a gogo bar. If business still doesn't pick up, at least you get to drink for free and play endless games of pool with the staff.

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Dry season. maybe 100 over the next 5 months, stay the night, don't drink much, or eat much and are on thier bikes at sun rise the next day.

Yet TD folklore has it that it's only the Chinese who don't 'play the white man' by stuffing themselves, then getting trolleyed and laid with a ho.

Originally Posted by Shah

So about the original post. Maybe I couldn’t explain what exactly I was After in Thailand, so following’s a listing to give you an idea the kind of thing I’m looking for. The start up cost should be far from ‘Millions’.

https://uae.businessesforsale.com/em...-for-sale.aspx

have you got a pin number to send the 500,000 deposit? why not exchange it for some ethereum? best rates in this sector of the galaxy!

Originally Posted by Simon43

Sorry, just found this thread.

Anyway, my advice is to keep your money in your bank. For a few good reasons that I'll list:

1) IMHO, you have 'missed the boat'. There are thousands of hotels and guesthouses all over Phuket. Many of these are 100% owned by Thais who have built on land that they own - their running costs are minimal and they are prepared to offer cut-throat room rates just to turn a few baht in profit. You can't seriously compete with these 'hobby' hotels.

2) The demographics of tourism has changed drastically in Phuket over the past few years. It used to be a popular holiday destination for well-heeled Scandinavians, Ozzies etc. Now it is a popular destination for skinflint mainland Chinese who will try to cram the whole family into one guest room for no extra cost , will spit on your tiles and smoke in the guest rooms.

3) Thanks to the rise of Airbnb, there are many illegal (unlicensed) hotels and rooms for rent (unlicensed means that their running costs are lower 'cos they don't need to pay hotel tax or license registration fees etc).

4) As has been mentioned, if you lease an existing hotel building, the standard operating practice for the Thai landlord is to let you look after the place and improve it, then double the rent, which either reaps them an increased profit, or forces you out, leaving the hotel ready for the next dumbfcuk to line up with his key money. I avoided this problem by leasing bare land and building the hotels myself. But that still left me open to the final problem of.....

5) Rampant corruption in Phuket. From police to land office to landlords to lawyers to ... You will get NO help if you have a problem with Thai people (and at some stage you will have a problem). I finally tossed in the towel when my profitable little hotel (the 4th that I built) caught the eye of a druggie who invaded my property, physically forced me out with threats, then got the local police to support him as well (they were his primary customers for his drugs), and then topped it all off by advising the 'heavy' drug dealers in the area that I'd shopped them all up to police HQ in Phuket Town (I was the local tourist police volunteer, so was well aware of who was dealing in the area). I had to flee Phuket in fear of my life.

Apart from all those above reasons, you should do just fine

Update:
Just to comment that I believe that my model of leasing land and building a small resort is STILL a viable business model, provided that the risk of 4) is minimised (which is a challenge in Thailand).

But this wouldn't fly in Phuket. One needs to perhaps think of an adventure camp, boot camp, fitness camp, nature camp etc etc, in somewhere like Kanchanaburi, close to nature, and where the bare land rent is cheap.

But I don't advise a 'newbie' to try to do this - to minimise the risks, you really need to speak Thai, have local building skills knowledge, know the ins and outs of the hotel business, understand Thai leasing law etc etc.

Interesting points, Simon43. About the first point. I wasn’t specifically looking at Phuket. Mentioned Patong just to give members some idea as to what I was looking for. With regards to profit, I think it takes a while. The immediate goal is to break-even, brand building, familiarizing with the local business culture and learning some tricks of the trade.


Second, very interesting point. Think I may have observed it firsthand. Let me elaborate. So the first time I went to Thailand on New Year’s Eve 2015, there were mostly young people from Europe , Australia and some from the U.S. Very little Asians. I had to a blast so went back again in June of 2015 and not exactly sure what changed so soon but there was a lot of Chinese and Indians.


About the third point, not sure if resorts have the same target audience as Air B’nB. Yes, the fourth point is a little tricky. I see a lot of people advertising for a 9 year lease based on 3+3+3, which based on my research, the owner doesn’t have to register with the authorities. So do none of the owners offer a long term lease if one is interested in leasing the property with an already built structure? I mean, building from scratch sounds like a lot of work even for someone with local experience.


Point 5 would indeed be a deal breaker(well, point 4 too actually). Is there some way to deal with this? Like keeping a local police officer on your payroll or befriending an influential local, et cetera?


The language barrier and access to quality staff seem to be the biggest challenges even after your business is up and running. However, that too can be dealt with if you’ve a reliable working partner, preferably someone already managing a hotel or resort in Thailand.

Originally Posted by Shah

Think I may have observed it firsthand. Let me elaborate. So the first time I went to Thailand on New Year’s Eve 2015, there were mostly young people from Europe , Australia and some from the U.S. Very little Asians.

I think it's the diet. Asians don't eat as much meat as Europeans, Americans and Australians. Not so much red meat anyway. Perhaps it's a DNA thing too.

Like I said, give us all your money, and we'll make all the magic happen... How dim are you? This is not even an interesting broken english troll thread...

Originally Posted by Shah

, hiring the best management under terms favorable to the establishment, provide a general policy, vision and goals both short term and long term, supervise remotely, promote the business both online and offline, et cetera.

That's the job BB, on offer that Fluke would excel at.

If you want to end up as a millionaire after investing your money, You better have more than ONE to begin with.

^Pretty sure that ancient relic has already been dusted down and exhibited.

If Shah opens this resort and offers TD members a 75% discount, a whole bunch of us could turn up and have a party, with the proviso that we all do facebook check ins, put reviews on Tripadvisor, Thai Visa and Lonely Planet, each make a video blog, and hand out flyers around Soi Cowboy and Nana.

Only 75%? I expect free flights and a taxi pick up from and to the airport, as well as sushi served on the backs of fresh young contortionist maidens.

Wonder if it's crossed his mind to be affiliated with a couple of gogo bars in case he attracts the 'wrong' type of tourist
But seeing as he's hardly spent any time in the Kingdom, I can imagine some grizzled old mamasan promising a lot more than gets delivered

If Shah opens this resort and offers TD members a 75% discount, a whole bunch of us could turn up and have a party, with the proviso that we all do facebook check ins, put reviews on Tripadvisor, Thai Visa and Lonely Planet, each make a video blog, and hand out flyers around Soi Cowboy and Nana.

Think it’s called ‘Guerilla Marketing’. There’s a website for it as well. Influencers.ae

Easy with these ‘Millionaire’ posts. Never claimed anything like aiming to be a millionaire off a small resort.

Why not spam a few forums for investors? Ease the financial burden.

Must be a few idiots about

Any news on the Grand Opening?...What's happening, Shah?...