Interior Ministry set to eliminate illegal hotels

The Ministry of the Interior is set to eliminate illegal hotels, as it has finished the charter draft, amending the related 2008 hotel law. The code will be reviewed by the National Legislative Assembly within 2-3 months before sent to the Cabinet for further consideration.

The President of the Thai Hotel Association Surapong Techaluhwijit commented that the code would be in effect, if it received the required approval, in July or August this year.

He said that the new regulation would force illegal hotel operators to register their businesses with the authority. Currently there are 80-thousand accommodation rooms operating with appropriate licenses, accounting for just 20% of the total number of 360 thousand hotel rooms in the Kingdom.

The new code would seek to imprison violators for up to a year and fine them up to 20-thousand baht. An additional daily fine of 10-thousand baht, would be accrued by operators who persist in running an illegal hotel, after being charged.

The move is likely to bump up room prices in hotels by the end of this year or early next year, as a large number of illegal operators will enter the legitimate market when the new code take effect.

NNT

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