Guesthouses threatened by gov closure

[Rex (Admin)]

Whether you like the idea or not, whether you support it or not, all of that will continue to change as technological advances and innovative ideas  make it increasingly difficult or impossible for legacy governments to stay ahead and maintain control.

Laws that are insane (you need a work permit to rent a condo) will increasingly garner contempt and get people looking to avoid, flaunt, and workaround the law. Why is the work permit regulation insane? Because the cost of obtaining a work permit exceeds the income derived from renting.


There is nothing special or sacred about the law or THE LAW.  It is just something a bunch of guys sitting around scratching their asses thunk up. Sometimes it makes sense, other times it does not, many times it is to serve the self-interests of those thinking up the laws.  Part of the problem in Thailand--although hardly exclusive to Thailand--is that laws are implemented before anyone has taken the time to think about the social costs, the  unintended effects, the downside that inevitably comes with it.  Then, down the road, when these effects begin to be felt, the gov just quietly stops enforcing the law, while it remains on the books casting a long shadow over those operating illegally.  As in the case with guesthouses (and a lot of other stuff too), this can go on for decades, and then some smarty-pants int he gov decides that it is time to enforce the laws, creating chaos in an industry and garnering more contempt for the gov.

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[russell17au]

Rex, I used to have a limousine in Australia and the same as a taxi I had to have a hire car registration license which cost my thousands of dollars the same as the taxi's and I had to have an Australian Business Number for my taxation. Hire cars cannot stop on taxi ranks or be hired from the side of the road, they must be pre booked. When Uber came to Australia they used normal private cars with no licenses or commercial insurance or pay tax as a company as most of the drivers paid no tax at all. The Australian government changed all that so now they must have a hire car license and they must carry commercial insurance and as they are a business the same as the hire cars and taxi's they must have an Australian Business Number for there taxation.The same thing is happening throughout the hotel/guesthouse industry because of the likes of AirBnB. The free ride for these type of industries that do not meet the laws of the countries are coming to an end. They must pay their way.

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[Rex (Admin)]

The free ride for these type of industries that do not meet the laws of the countries are coming to an end. They must pay their way.

...Or perhaps what is coming to an end is gov imposing witless regulations, layers of bureaucracy and miles of red tape between between consenting adults wishing to conduct business with one another, stifling competition by limiting access to markets only to anointed special interests, and then taxing everyone up the butt for the privilege of being over-regulated.

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[russell17au]

I am sorry Rex but without regulations on these type of places there will be no safety controls and no inspections and then the same thing will happen here as it did 1971 in a small holiday lakeside village called Summerland Point in NSW, Australia where 6 people died because they stayed at an unlicensed, uninsured guesthouse that had no fire fighting equipement and that place caught fire at 3:15 in the morning. I know because I was a volunteer fire fighter that attended that fire and helped remove those burnt dead bodies. Is this what you want or do you want safe guesthouses for people to stay in. If you want safe guesthouses then it can only be done by regulations and licenses

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[Rex (Admin)]

What a tragedy!  And what a terrible experience it must have been for you, Russell, not to mention the loved ones of those who died in the fire. Sorry you had to go through that.


However, your conclusions are like listening to a stereo broadcast through only one channel.  No one would argue the tragedy of lost lives due to absence of safety equipment, whether at a hotel or any other public venue. And no one would argue the noble intention and (possibly) positive result of gov mandated safety measures.  The problem is that once you give the gov the power to behave "nobly," what is to keep them from behaving crassly, stupidly, blindly, corruptly?  The answer is, nothing! will prevent that.


This is particularly obvious and evident regarding the current guesthouse crackdown. This is not about smoke alarms and fire extinguishers! If it was, all but the most destitute fly-by-night operators would simply comply. Even if cash flow was scarce and buying smoke detectors and smoke alarms would represent a financial setback, the operators would simply get the equipment by-hook-or-by-crook rather than be shut down.


I am no expert on this, but as it was explained to me by one guesthouse owner, the problem is that  the regulations are endless and ultimately impossible for small operators to comply with. One example she gave me, as best as I can recall it, was a requirement for 30% openspace in the front of the guesthouse or something like that; something easy for those with a lot of real estate to comply with, but virtually impossible for the little guys. The only ones who benefit from this are big business and members of the government who have vested interest in seeing the larger operators prosper and the little ones fail.


If your sense of "good" is causing and industry and entire sections of cities fail and decay so that property values drop, and Chinese and Thai "investors" buy up the land, bulldoze it, and rebuild shiny, sterile, upscale crap for Chinese tourists, then I guess it is all good!

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