torrenova

Where you are is better than the other options you were given. I lived there for a few years.

Not so. Your information would seem to be either incorrect, outdated or both.

I've stayed there when coming down from up country a couple of times as I missed the grub. Decent place, good bathrooms, little on the TV and small beds (like small doubles). Around Bt650/700 a night. OK for a couple of days, wouldn't want a month of it. As I said, in town and good if you like the grub.

Around NEP and Bt1000 ?? Ibis, Dynasty ? I pay Bt1700 or so and stay in luxury. Sod this 1000 max and shit idea.

It is marginally passable but you wouldn't want to have only Sophon. I think the Thais can get all their crap on True/UBC but Jacko is right about some football being on Sophon when I last looked at it (and not on UBC). UBC extra room is about Bt450 extra a month more (separate box and remote and cabling). We have it in the bedroom as well and in Pattaya had Sophon for something like the Bt3000 Jacko states. The thing with Sophon is that they continually changed stuff, cut programmes off before they finished, never started them, deleted them etc. It is a totally amateur service with only old stuff except sports and news. If I was setting up a service now, I'd have a satellite linked to my PC and run everything through that and HDMI to my televisions.

No worries.

Don't stay there or at the Miami either. Don't bother with the Nana either. Years ago it was shit but one of many fewer options than available today.

You could just make it invisible as well.

Don't know if the OP is aware but the website has some issues to sort out.

I have no specific advice but I have no doubt that the guys on Thai Visa have a solution. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Internet-com...cation-f17.html Try a post there.

I'd be interested as well.

Not sure what you mean here. Are you saying, purely as an example, that if you used Bt1000 of things you bought to sell Bt3000 worth, then you would have eaten and drank from that Bt1000 you bought or you would take it from the Bt2000 you made profit, reducing that profit to ??? Bt1500 ??? Not sure how you can do that as some things you don't buy everyday whereas some things you buy in bulk. Are you saying that over say a month, as an example, you spend Bt50,000 and sell it for Bt100,000, giving you Bt50,000 a month but that you don't know day on day how much you make because bills and purchases are not a regular amount ? Just trying to get a grip on whether there really is Bt1500 or so per day profit and how you come to that figure.

Classic Thai ( and in some cases western) stupidity. Open, new fittings and then never spend anything on maintenance nor replacing items. Every single day you have to put something away for refurbishment. If you spend it, there is nothing left and it all goes downhill.

Carrefour will deliver as stated but not perishables. A better bet IMHO is to get a car and driver and tell him that you want to go there, have an hour and come back. Door to door with everything and it should be around Bt300 or so.

I lived of Khao Talo as well and 2 bed houses started at 5k. You would never get them through an agent of course and at 5k, you;d have to be very lucky. Mostly 7k up. 3 bed detached with all new inside and garden for 12k.

So the effective rent is 100,000/12+5500=13,833 or 461 per day This 1500 profit, is that after taking any salary for you and mum ? What are the sales figures ? What are the bills ? Any reason why no TVs ? Is it that they cannot be secured ? or not allowed ?

You contradict yourself in one sentence. If someone is not happy with their profits, then they have profits, which goes against your attitude that most businesses lose money. Most businesses do not lose money. What has happened is that they are not making what they once did and now that level has fallen below what is required for a single small business operator to live comfortably. That means that the value of their business is worth less than before and the risk of losing money is higher, further depressing the true market price but owners cannot get out for a decent price and thus remain, stuck in their business with no means of either selling or earning enough to live comfortably. I'd say that to live comfortably, you need to earn 1.5m at least, preferably 2m a year. My estimate is that bars in 2009 made around 50% of what they did in 2006/7. That makes them worth about 1/3rd to 1/2 of their 2006/7 values.

Chuck your money on black or red, you have at least a 50% chance of doubling it. Or walk away with 100%. You are in over your knowledge threshold with this one I'm afraid.

Indeed. Though I suspect his health failing this past year didn't help when it came to keeping two eyes on the ball. He was a westerner who rented to Thais.

If you have significant other income it can form part of a balanced portfolio but if you have time and want to manage it, then no because the returns are low. High inward costs, you won't get regular Thais paying anywhere near those prices for property of that type unless in very specific areas and even then, unlikely IMHO. You need near 100% occupancy to make a half decent percentage return. There is money to be made in building it, renting it out and selling it at a vastly inflated price to some dumb westerner. Thais build them on land they already own. When you factor in buying the land and building costs, it rarely makes sense. I've visited this idea in 3 towns and a number of locations, including university towns and never got the numbers to come close to making sense. Maybe leasing the land on a very long lease (30 years) at a low price with change of use rights might provide an angle. Getting the land and selling the project during construction might work. Doing a condoesque swap of rooms for building costs could work but very risky and highly unlikely to get it done. I tried to get a university to block lease the units for their students but whilst common elsewhere, it just met with blank looks. Big risk to go ahead without a strong demand from tenants. You have to realise that once the likely resident get an income over a certain level, they can borrow from a bank and build or buy a place. Those who cannot afford that option cannot afford 4.5k but nearer 2-2.5k, maybe 3k.

Some bloke on another forum came on and said he was the MD and majority shareholder of the group which owns Peppermint, Beach Club and Happy. They have just bought Sisterz, will knock it out in a new format (same same I'd guess) and he was a 50% shareholder in Baccara. The Baccara deal seemed a separate one, his personally, rather than the group.

You'd be amazed at what people remember about rooms and why they choose this over that. Reverse the argument for a minute. Would you rather have 50% occupancy without replacing the TVs or full occupancy and "lose" Bt22 per day for the TV ? 1 extra room rented per day more than pays for all the TVs. The hotel business is a marginal game. You need bums on beds. Plasma/LCD tvs, free wi-fi, good beds, top shower, don't use the shittest bog roll available, put in an amenity kit for people who have booked more than a week, it all puts you ahead of the game and crucially, you get repeat business. I go to Marriotts. I am in most other hotel programmes but Marriott suits me better. I get little extras which cost not a lot relative to the room charge and it keeps me happy. If I stay away 1 day when I could have stayed there, they lose say $100 or more a night (in Thailand) for the room plus whatever I spend in the bar and restaurant. They lose in one day far far more than the extras they give me over 20 days. Plasmas are not high end these days, they are expected and you can see that from some of this place's competitor who do have them. They are not losing money at 50% occupancy. Wonder why ?

You cannot get comprehensive insurance on smaller bikes. We had some and dumped them when we could not get realistic cover. The profit on many rental schemes comes from the fact that the insurance is not legit. It is 1st class but not for hiring out the vehicles. Claim and they want you to pretend to be a "friend". On the face of it, renting a truck seems a great business. Near top range, Bt800,000, 20% down and around Bt12.5k a month. You can rent Bt1500 a day or Bt25k a month. Seems like a great deal if you can get more than 50% rentals. Even put down the full 800k, depreciation is 100k over 4 years, you'd only need 4 months rented out plus another 2 for costs so again 50%. Trouble is that unless you can go the whole hog and set it up big style, you are competing against people who rent their truck out on dodgy insurance and can give you it for 18/20k a month which means you need it out all year which is not possible.

I'd be more inclined for the UK to match Thailand's contribution of $20,000. Charity begins at home and the UK doesn't have enough for its own people.

It is a huge disaster but perhaps the bigger disaster was the fact that this tin pot place actually built piss poor buildings that fell down and had near zero infrastructure before the earthquake. The loss of life is terrible but we're not to blame, we didn't fuck the country up. Kobe in Japan had a terrible quake a few years ago and the outburst of woe was rather muted, yet many lost their lives and more lost everything in the economic fallout. In Turkey they build crap buildings because they are all corrupt and when they fall down we are sad but we point the finger and rightly so. Why we cannot point the finger and perhaps blame the Haitians for most of the fallout I don't know. We'll help, donate and assist but they'll fuck it all up again when they rebuild, corruption will rise and eventually it will all come crashing down again. They will then look to us with their hand out as always but never better themselves. Joke ? the joke is the whole country.