Phuket small accommodation businesses remain largely outside hotel licensing system

Only a fraction of Phuket’s estimated 8,000-9,000 accommodation businesses have obtained official hotel licences, according to Chinnawat Udomniyom, president of the Phuket Boutique Accommodation Association.

Chinnawat said thousands of operators remained caught between running businesses in one of Thailand’s biggest tourism economies and complying with regulations that were not designed for them. Authorities had spent years urging operators to register but had not removed the regulatory barriers preventing many from doing so, Chinnawat said.

“Phuket has around 8,000 accommodation businesses. At the current pace, it would take 200 years to inspect them all,” Chinnawat said, adding that the problem involved both the law and the inspection system.

Chinnawat said the government had focused heavily on enforcement without providing a practical route for small accommodation businesses to enter the legal system.