|
Many people are shocked and genuinely upset when they pay for the hotel accommodation over the Christmas eve or All New Year's Eve periods and find that they must pay for a Gala diner on top of the normal high season or peak season rate. Our company does not approve of the Gala Dinner or peak season practice and asks customers to compare hotels to ensure they get the best available deal for the location they have decided upon.
Thailand has a large number of hotels from five star to simple ones star guest houses and apart from the really big names, hotels has their own individual pricing strategy. The five star hotels tend to follow the accepted norms of international travel throughout Thaialnd but there is a large variation of pricing strategies and policies.
The Marriott Resort And Spa Bangkok, Peninsula Bangkok and the Shangri-la Bangkok are three examples of Bangkok 4 and 5 star hotels that do not force customers to pay for Gala Dinners on Christmas or New Year's Eve dinners. They do not have a peak season prices for these periods. In Bangkok where there is a lot of competition for customers this is the norm.
In the southern islands of Thailand four and five star hotels offer a mixed picture. In Phuket, hotels like Banyan Tree Phuket, The Racha do not impose a new year's eve surcharge but, for example, the five star Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket does. On Samui the stylish X2 Resorts Koh Samui, Amari Palm Reef Resort and Cabana Grand View Hotel And Spa all charge for the New Year so you need to be very careful when you book.
Interestingly there are a growing number of hotels in up and coming locations like Phi Phi Island where the 3 star Phi Phi Hotel, PP Palmtree Resort, and the popular 2 Star PP Casita do not charge for the Gala diners or have a peak season.
What is a Gala Diner?
The Gala Diner in Thailand is often a buffet meal put on by the hotel or resort. Sometimes the hotel will also put on some entertainment such as Thai dancing or a floor show. The term Gala Diner has now been understood by hoteliers in Thailand to mean the meal and entertainment on the Christmas and New Year's Eves nights.
What is the Thai Peak Season?
The peak season refers to the time when the hotels are at the busiest and in the majority of areas in Thailand that is from about the twentieth of December until the fifteenth of January. This is the time when a large percentage of the traveling population of the world will take their holiday. This is the period when the hotels and resorts charged with their highest rates for rooms. When you look at the year as a whole you understand that the hotel goes through many seasons and in the low season prices are often cheaper and there are more deals for the customer. Click here to see the best deals in Thailand.
Be aware that Thailand has three New Year's! The 31st to December is the western New Year's Eve. Chinese new year happens on the weekend during the second full moon (February or March ) and finally the Thai Buddhist new year is the week around the Thirteenth of April. Some hotels have peak season rates for all these separate New Year's.
The other major exception is the full moon party on Koh Phangan. The island fills to bursting every full moon and so many hotels and resorts price this monthly peak season into their rates.
When is Thai High Season?
The high season in Thailand varies from destination to destination depending on the weather, festivals and yearly events. The tourist destinations on the West Coast have a different weather pattern to those on the East Coast. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival and the Kings Cup Sailing Regatta on Phuket starts the high season in November whereas the high season in Koh Samui will start towards the end of November.
What is a surcharge?
Some hotels have a high season rate but then have a surcharge for the peak season like Baan Haad Ngam Boutique Resort in Chaweng Beach. In this situation The surcharge is about the way the rates are displayed. All hotels have different ways of promoting themselves and some like to be more up front about it than others./p>
All information for hotels mentioned in this article was correct according to
hotelatm.com as of November, 2008.
|
"Use the menu below for more travel articles on Thailand accommodation"
