Rent hike forces Pete and Dave to wave goodbye to The Wave

It is with great sadness that long term island residents Pete and Dave have announced they have been forced to give up their business at The Wave in Chaweng. The duo first opened the doors to what became a vibrant and successful bar, restaurant and guests house eleven years ago. And other than the usual bump in the road they enjoyed a pretty trouble free existence until last year when their luck changed.

In 2012 the Amari group decided to build a two hundred room hotel behind The Wave and although this initially seemed like a positive opportunity to attract more customers to the business in December of that year the digging of the foundations caused subsidence to the kitchen of The Wave that edged three inches away from the rest of the building. Despite being fully booked over the festive period Pete and Dave had no option but to close the kitchen until it could be shored up.

Only as short while later the landlady of the building announced an rent increase was on the horizon, and then on Sunday the 19^th of May last year disaster struck again when an out of control car smashed into the front of the building causing considerable damage to Pete and his friends motorbike and virtually demolished the front of the bar.

After a great deal of angst over insurance claims, Pete and Dave managed to repair the bar however with many legal issues left to clear on the 2^nd of August last year Pete headed out to see his lawyer in Maenam only to be knocked off his bike and hospitalized with an almost severed thumb, cuts and bruises, seven fractured ribs and a punctured lung!

Despite these significant setbacks Pete and Dave managed to get back on top of things and as well as getting the Wave back on track, they opened a second bar called Pride in Chaweng. Assuming the worst was behind them it came as a great shock to discover that the landlady of the Wave, true to her word, did increase the rent but nothing could have prepared Pete and Dave for the fact that it was almost doubled. Unable to negotiate a more fair agreement Pete and Dave have now been forced to leave their business although thankfully some of the staff will be able to keep their jobs as the owner of the building intends to carry on where Pete and Dave left off and continue to run the business under Thai management from the 28^th of February.

Pete and Dave will leave The Wave with very heavy hearts but would like to thank all of their valued customers that supported them over the last eleven years.

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