‘Who’s your neighbor?’ – Proposed hotel bill opens door for condos in Pattaya to become unregulated short-stay hubs
Pattaya’s skyline may soon change — Proposed accommodation law sparks fierce debate over condo-to-hotel conversions.
PATTAYA, Thailand – Pattaya finds itself at the center of heated national debate as the proposed Hotel and Overnight Accommodation Act—popularly dubbed the “Equal Accommodation Bill”—threatens to reshape the city’s hospitality landscape in ways both promising and perilous. While the draft law aims to modernize an outdated regulatory framework, critics argue it risks undermining safety standards, community trust, and the long-term sustainability of tourism in places like Pattaya, where the informal accommodation sector already flourishes in a legal grey zone.
Proposed by the People’s Party, the new legislation seeks to simplify hotel licensing procedures that have long been entangled with Thailand’s outdated Building Control Act, Environmental Act, City Planning Law, and more. Under the new framework, local administrations—including Pattaya City and Bangkok—would have the power to set rules and grant operating licenses. This decentralization, proponents argue, would empower localities to manage their tourism assets more efficiently, while allowing for flexible, small-scale accommodation options to enter the legal fold.
For Pattaya, a city of contradictions where luxury hotels tower beside budget condos rented nightly on apps, the changes seem tailored to match reality. Many of the city’s unlicensed lodging providers, often small condo units or houses offering short-term stays, operate with little to no oversight. The new law proposes to open a legal path for such operations—potentially legitimizing thousands of micro-hosts overnight.
But that’s precisely the problem, says Mr. Thienprasith Chaipattaranan, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA). He warns that the bill opens a dangerous loophole by allowing individual condo units or homes within residential projects to register as accommodations—without requiring the entire building or community to convert to hotel status. “This violates the rights of residents,” he said, adding, “No one buys a condo expecting the unit next door to become a revolving door of tourists.”
In densely populated tourist zones like Pattaya, where condos are already a preferred option for foreign investors and part-time residents, the change could trigger a sharp increase in semi-legal nightly rentals. Worse still, the THA fears foreign buyers could exploit the system to run de facto hotels—without paying proper taxes, complying with safety codes, or being held accountable if something goes wrong.
“Allowing individual condo units to register as accommodations threatens residents’ rights and disrupts communities,” warns THA president, Thienprasith. “No one expects their neighbor’s unit to become a revolving door of tourists.”
“Thais will be hosts with no say,” Thienprasith warned. “Money will flow out of the country. Responsibility? Nowhere to be found.”
Traditional hotel operators in Pattaya are also sounding the alarm. They argue that far from being obsolete, the current 2004 Hotel Act already provides adequate structure—if only it were properly enforced. They claim the government’s push to liberalize is less about tourism development and more about rushing to absorb unregulated operators into the formal system.
Reducing the definition of a “hotel” to exclude those with under eight rooms, raising the room limit from 8 to 29 without tighter safety regulations, and letting permits be automatically approved if officials are slow—all of these, say hotel groups, amount to a race to the bottom. In a city where trust is everything—particularly when catering to families and international tourists—lowering the bar may erode the very confidence the industry relies on.
One Pattaya hotelier put it bluntly: “We follow fire codes, pay taxes, employ full-time staff. If my neighbor turns his condo into a hotel without any of that, how is that fair?”
Not every clause of the bill draws ire. Both Pattaya City officials and tourism groups welcome the proposal to let local governments keep licensing fees for reinvestment into public infrastructure. They also support clearer caps on those fees to avoid penalizing small operators. It’s a potential revenue stream that could help fund long-overdue improvements in Pattaya’s sidewalks, signage, and sanitation—all sorely needed as the city eyes a future as a world-class destination.
Yet even here, the underlying question remains: Does Pattaya benefit more from expanding its accommodation base—or protecting its existing tourism backbone?
For now, Pattaya’s future as a tourism titan hangs in the balance. On one hand, the proposed hotel law could usher in a new era of inclusion and dynamism, finally bringing Thailand’s enormous informal lodging sector into the light. On the other, it threatens to open the floodgates to unchecked competition, unregulated foreign-run operations, and diminished safety—issues that could haunt tourist towns like Pattaya for years to come.
One longtime resident said it best: “If they want to reform the laws, fine. But don’t sacrifice safety and community for a quick economic win. Pattaya’s real asset isn’t just rooms—it’s trust.”
As the bill advances through Parliament, all eyes—especially in Pattaya—will be watching.
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