Why Are Farangs Not Queuing Up To Buy Bars/Restaurants On Ko Phangan

[Scottish Gary]

One of the biggest obstacles of buying a place in Thailand is trying to balance out the disparity in trade between high and low seasons.

In KO Phangan you have a high season every month. Between 10 and 20 000 party animals descending on your tiny island to worship the moon and devour buckets of vodka and lippo can only be a money spinner for the disconcerting bar owner. Bang out some pizzas and other fast food sludge to deal with the youngsters munchies and you will be rolling in it.
You dont even need to spend a wedge making it a classy joint. Just make the kids think they are getting a genuine hippy experience and they will come rolling in.

[Butterfly]

it's all island mafia owned, so no chance for a farang me think

[blue]

I went there years ago ,a couple of weeks away from the full moon ,there's loads of bars there already , all either empty or with one or two backpackers in nursemaiding a can of coke, so they can sit watching some video for the night .
They might be free spending souls these days , but i doubt it .

[nedwalk]

The only time a back packer spends money , is when the piss is cheap, they're tight fisted ferkers and i would hate to stake makeing a fortune off em...but in saying that years ago i set up a little M/C hire business on an island here in ozzie and i could,nt keep up to the demand, but jesus they flogged the guts out of the bikes

[notdavetherave]

The only time a back packer spends money , is when the piss is cheap, they're tight fisted ferkers and i would hate to stake makeing a fortune off em...but in saying that years ago i set up a little M/C hire business on an island here in ozzie and i could,nt keep up to the demand, but jesus they flogged the guts out of the bikes

That was backpackers in ozzie, very hard to to make money of them, I think a shop thats sells everything might be possible

[Scottish Gary]

There is no doubting backpackers are tight fisted bastards. I once watched 3 of them in a restaurant on Phi Phi drinking a bottle of Leo with 3 straws.
However the one time they do loosen the purse strings is when they attend the full moon party. Its their write of passage. The highlight of their trip. Its the one they write on facebook about to their pals back home. This is the night to let their hair down and go for it after months of drinking Leo out a straw
For the rest of the month just feed them a diet of cheap beer, fast food, trance music and movies. You wont make much but hopefully enough to keep you ticking over until the next party.

[setaputra]

Butterfly makes the best perceptive point in post 2

The French chain Carrefour have pulled out of Thailand.

[nedwalk]

The French chain Carrefour have pulled out of Thailand.

why? is there a war looming..

[nidhogg]

. Between 10 and 20 000 party animals descending on your tiny island to worship the moon and devour buckets of vodka and lippo...

Not an area I am familiar with, but are not a lot of them taking drugs such as E? Thought that E users don't really drink as such....but prepared to be corrected...

[Butterfly]

if they are on E, they will be looking for food, not drinks

[taxexile]

arent most of them family owned, not many chances for foriegn owners.

should put this question on thai visa, sbk the ubermod lives on koh phangan, married to a local geezer, the most wonderful man in the history of the universe as she would have us believe , she must know all the dirty little secrets about phangan and its bar owners.

[rickschoppers]

It is hard to believe there are still thoughts of trying to make some money owning a bar here in Thailand. I owned one in a ski resort and it did well only because I turned it into a rugby bar during the summer months when all other bars were closed. I would think the same thing exists during days when there is not a full moon party happening. If you can find a niche for the locals during slow times, that is the key to making money when all others fail.
In general, I do not think any money can be made by farangs in the bar business in Thailand and you probably have to be a Mafia member or a well connected Thai to succeed. May be fun trying, but not my cup of tea anymore.

[sunsetter]

freind has been there 2 years and is creaming it, english bar resturant, says he is flat out all day though, worth it if you can find a nice spot and kep em coming back

[withnallstoke]

Hard to think of a worse way to earn a crust.
Imagine listening to gap year Gary explaining to Mellissa from Berkhampstead how fucking cool India was and how great the full moon party crowd are, just prior to throttling the boring bastard with a bandana left behind by Israeli Iaan when he fell of the barstool sooo pissed on a bottle of Heimekan.

[setaputra]

The French chain Carrefour have pulled out of Thailand.

why? is there a war looming..

Very droll

The reasons were clear in their report. You won't find it on Thai internet though.

[sabaii sabaii]

Not an area I am familiar with, but are not a lot of them taking drugs such as E? Thought that E users don't really drink as such....but prepared to be corrected...

They drink water and don't eat, and get all loved up, er I should imagine

[nedwalk]

i used to drink...ferkin too much always ended up greeting the yella fella

[nidhogg]

Not an area I am familiar with, but are not a lot of them taking drugs such as E? Thought that E users don't really drink as such....but prepared to be corrected...

They drink water and don't eat, and get all loved up, er I should imagine

yeah, that was my understanding. Not a lot of profit on a bottle of water...

[Carterone]

Scottish Gary

There are a few things that could scupper your plans to be rolling in it, by opening a bar. We will ignore the 1000s of expats that go to Spain, Greece etc etc live the dream by investing their life savings in a business they have zero experience of and their pennyless return 1 or 2 years later. Islanders all over the world are a law unto themselves and Koh Panghan is no different, they will gladly trap you into a long term rental agreement for a bar that has made the last 3 or 4 farangs bankrupt. If you have the skills or luck to turn it around, you will start to have the local police visiting ( who are probably related to the Thai owned bar next door) who will start giving you fines for minor indiscretions, if the mood takes them the will tell you to close for the night.
Koh Panghan is dead when its not full moon, and all the bar and restaurant owners I spoke to said that it gets harder every year, partly due to over development and partly due to a dispute between hotel/bungalow owners and Bangkok tour operators who get larger commissions pushing other islands.
As a fellow Scot, and having worked more than 20years in the business I would advise against it, but if your still considering it I would freely give my advice if requested.

[rickschoppers]

freind has been there 2 years and is creaming it, english bar resturant, says he is flat out all day though, worth it if you can find a nice spot and kep em coming back

Good on em.....

[liveinlos]

freind has been there 2 years and is creaming it, english bar resturant, says he is flat out all day though, worth it if you can find a nice spot and kep em coming back

Good on em.....

Phangan is a ghost town when it is not full moon party time. It is so over built, no one is making it flat out every day no matter what your friend says. The full moon party is the only time backpackers will spend anything at all and you cannot make monthly expenses by one party per month spread amongst all the over developed businesses that are located there. Always wild ideas, try a bonafide business plan and I think the numbers you need to break even are impossible. By the time people get to Phangan they have already been scammed to damn death by bus drivers, tour and boat operators etc. Party all night into an unconscious state at which time they are not spending anything at all. If there was a ton of money to be made the locals would have taken it all over for themselves, never letting a farang get established.

Why don't you help your friend out and post his business name here and then we can check it out to see if it is flat out everyday or not? I bet he is hanging on to his ass and one good storm such as we just saw on the other coast will end it all for him

[DrB0b]

Q

Why Are Farangs Not Queuing Up To Buy Bars/Restaurants On Ko Phangan

A

Between 10 and 20 000 party animals descending on your tiny island to worship the moon and devour buckets of vodka and lippo

.....

[buriramboy]

No idea why backpackers get such a hard time, i just put it down to jealousy from old blokes who never had the balls to get up and do it themselves when they were younger, as in set off around the world with next to fok all in your pocket. Of course the average backpacker ain't going to have loads of money to throw around as would sort of defy the logic of backpacking if they could afford to stay in 5* hotels every night.

[taxexile]

most backpackers wouldnt stay in 5 star hotels even if they could afford them, that would defeat the purpose of the exercise, which, in some altruistic way is to go native, or at least to appear to be going native to all the other illusionists they set out to impress, but at the same time make sure that they are never too far away from the creature and electronic comforts from which young people today cannot bear to be separated from.

backpackers and gap yearers carry around so much plastic credit these days and are never more than an i-phone call away from mummy and daddy should they need any help. the myth that they cannot afford decent accommodation is just that, a myth.

the notion that a backpacker is a hard up but well meaning youth exploring the world in order to expand his/her consciousness went out of the window when lonely planet published their second editions.

blame lonely planet for the demise of the "real backpackers", now they are just like a herd of sheep following each other along well trodden paths from one worn out destination to another. where is the adventure, the excitement, the sense of discovery when you know absolutely everything there is to know about your destination before you have even left your living room.

thats why they deservedly get such a hard time from those who did have the balls to do it for real.

[blue]

I done it myself ,and I never liked the other backpackers in Thailand , take the English ones ,most are from southern England and are very clicky and not friendly at all .