Phuket and Bangkok are the tourist destinations most heavily linked to the practice of investors illegally renting out their residential units as short-term accommodation, according to the Thai Hotels Association (THA), while tourism operators want the government to consider reducing the 60-day visa-free period to eligible countries. Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, president of the THA, said both foreign and local investors are renting out condo units to tourists, which is against the Hotel Act, which only allows a minimum rental period of 30 days. This week there were news reports concerning a foreign national behaving in an unruly manner and causing damage at a condo project in Bangkok, raising public concerns over the practice of illegally renting out condo units on a daily basis and impacting the livelihoods of local residents.
Mr Thienprasit said these incidents have mainly occurred in the South, particularly in Phuket, where many luxury residences and villas have been sold to Russians. In Bangkok, Chinese buyers prefer to buy a large number of condo units, while some of them have bought almost all luxury single houses within a village and provided daily shuttle services for Chinese tourists. He said that in some cases two-bedroom condo units had been occupied by as many as nine guests, which severely disturbed neighbours.
These cases were particularly severe when a juristic person was unable to take any action against the wrongdoers, he noted. As some developers are urging .
