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Bangkok – Renting Modern Condos VS Older Condos – A closer look

By CondoBangkokOrg

July 25, 2010

It seems these days everyone wants a Modern Bangkok Condo with large square meter (metre). Most of the clients that call us about renting all seem to be trending towards getting larger square meter (metre) for their baht. Very rarely do we get clients who will accept an older condo.

So the question is can you get a modern condo which is also a decent size?

The answer to this depends on how flexible you are with your requirements. The biggest difference between the two is square meter (metre), in that Older Condos provide much more space than newer units. Case in point, Sukhumvit Soi 59 which has a cluster of new and old buildings located not too far from each other.

A closer look at the difference between 2 buildings in the same Soi;

Moon Tower – Built in the 1990’s with facilities such as a pool, gym, sauna, squash, a beautiful garden area to relax in and 24 hour security. A fully furnished 2 bed, 2 bath condo here offers 202 square meters (metres) renting for 50,000 baht/month. The units here are very clean and the building itself is maintained quite well.

59 Heritage – This building was just completed this year (2010) and has facilities such as a pool, gym, steam room, garden area and 24 hour security. A fully furnished 2 bed, 2 bath condo here offers a mere 70 square meters (metres) of space for 45,000 to 50,000 baht/month.

Some quick math and we realize that the difference is not subtle but substantial. For almost the same price you would get 132 square meters (metres) more, that’s almost another condo in itself.

Similarly a new 1 bed, 1 bath condo would be around 42 square meter (metre) for 20,000 baht/month as opposed to an older unit with modern furniture offers a 1 bed, 1 bath condo around 63 square meter (metre) for the same price.

Again the question arises is it possible to get a modern condo with larger square meter (metre)? The answer is yes it is, but you have to make some sacrifices in your requirements. There are some older buildings that have completely renovated the entire building including majority of the units, to be clean and modern with very desirable square meter (metre). There is a building like this in On Nut that offers great value for money where a 2 bed, 2 baht condo is completely modern at a 135 square meter (metre) for only 40,000 baht/month. I know what you’re thinking, who wants to live in On Nut? Well I did mention you would have to flexible with your requirements, didn’t I?

So all in all is it possible to get a Brand NEW Modern condo with large square meter (metre)? The answer is unfortunately No because they just don’t build them like they used to. But you could find older buildings which have been renovated to look modern.

If you are in search of new modern condos then visit www.condobangkok.org, alternately if you don’t mind older buildings have a look at this site www.relianceps.com.

Author Sam Chotalia. Copyright 2010 Sam Chotalia

Guest Friendly Hotels in Bangkok

By Anonymous

March 16, 2009

I’ve tried to put together a semi-complete list of guest-friendly hotels in Bangkok (mostly in the Sukhumvit area) based on reviews on message boards, blogs, and other websites.  As with everything hotels go from guest-friendly to non guest-friendly at the whim of management so some of these hotels may no longer be guest-friendly.

If you are not aware what a guest-friendly hotel is, the easiest description is that many hotels will charge you a fee to bring guests back to your room if they allow guests up to your room at all.  Guest-friendly means that the hotel is not known to charge this “joiner fee.”

Personally I find the practice to be racist.  I’ve never had a problem going back to my room with a Caucasian but have been stopped (more than once) when returning with an Asian western friend who was a guest of the hotel.

Sukhumvit Area

Soi 2

Majestic Grande

JW Marriott Hotel

Soi 4

Nana Hotel

Majestic Suites

Landmark Bangkok

Soi 6

Grand Sukhumvit by Sofitel

Soi 10

Center Point Sukhumvit

Soi 11

Grand President Executive Serviced Apartments

President Solitaire

Swiss Park Hotel

Westin Grande Sukhumvit

Le Fenix

Soi 15

Dream Hotel

Royal President Executive Apartments

Soi 16

Citadines

Soi 20

Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit

Soi 24

Emporium Suites Hotel

President Park Serviced Apartments

Davis Hotel

Soi 33

Livingstones Lodge

Ploenchit

Lang Suang

Center Point Lang Suang

Mayfair Executive Apartments by Marriot

Wireless Road

Center Point Wireless

Plaza Athanee

Available Rooms last minute reservation

By toci

December 20, 2007

Just few days and the New Year Holiday are starting. Many people decide to spend their holiday in a tropical place just to take a break from the cold climate at their home country. Thailand is one of the preferred destination in South East Asia for several reasons: Thailand offer hundreds of natural beauties; wonderful tropical beaches, amazing waterfalls, green rain forest with secular trees. Thailand receive several millions visitors yearly, which make the most visited country in South East Asia, in fact in Thailand there is a huge selection of accommodation for every taste and budget.Student and Young people use to stay in Khao San Road in Bangkok where is possible to find guest house starting from 5 Euro per night. Also Pattaya and Chiang Mai offer guest house at similar rates.For people who like to stay by the beach is possible to stay in Koh Samet renting beach bungalows at low cost. Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Phuket, Krabi, Koh Lanta, Khao Lak are all great beach resort in the South of Thailand where you can spend your New Year beach Holiday.If you like to spend your holiday in a luxury place, Thailand offer a big selection of 4 and 5 star resorts and hotels. Some people think they will never have a chance to spend their holiday in a luxury Hotel because they can’t effort. This is true in the West but not in Thailand: here you can find 4 and 5 star hotels and resort offering room sometimes less than 100 Euro a night. In Bangkok you can find gorgeous Hotel by the river with suites at less than 100 Euro. In Koh Samui you can rent a Villa by the beach with their own private pool, in Phuket you can rent beach cottages with 5 star resort facilities.For people who like to spend their holiday taking care of their body and spirit, a big selection of Hotels and Resorts with Spa Facilities are available in every Thailand destination.

If you still need to reserve your holiday place for the New Year you will have fewer chance to find a free room. In fact from 24 December to 7 January is the busiest time of the year and many hotels and resort are fully booked. This doesn’t mean that you will not find a room. The hotel that today is full, tomorrow may have a free room. Room availability change everyday form many reasons: some guest check out earlier, some people change or canceled their reservation, etc.If you want to reserve right now an Hotel Room for new year, there are hundreds of website where you can book your hotel, but all those website have a problem in common: they usually send you the confirmation of your reservation within 24 hours. This is not a problem during the year, but for high touristic seasons it is a problem.You spend a lot of time searching for a suitable place, then you make a reservation giving your credit card details and, after 24 hours, you receive an email saying that the hotel you have choosed is full and you should choose another hotel. This mean that you’ve loosed one more day a you still don’t have a place for your holiday.What to do next ? search for another hotel and wait again 24 hours to see if the place is available ? this can go on for several days and in the end you may not find your holiday place.There are few options for finding your holiday place in the high touristic season:1- Reserve your Hotel through a travel agency. They provide usually full include packages with airplane ticket, transfer, hotel and dinner. This option is usually more expensive, you have a limited list of place to stay and you need to follow the schedule on the program.2 – Contact the Hotel directly. This is a good option, it is reliable to make a reservation with the luxury five star hotels and Resorts, but not so for low budget or middle range accommodations. I’ve seen many times that small family running hotels, resort or guest house with limited number of guest rooms don’t take so much care of their reservation if they are fully booked.If you make a reservation and you don’t pay a deposit, you can’t be sure that you will find your room, sending money to the hotel can take many days to arrive so this option is not the most safe if you need your reservation fast.3 – Last Minute Reservation system is the most reliable option for instant confirmation of your reservation.This system show in real time the room availability of thousand of Hotels, Resort, Guest House in hundreds of cities worldwide. You need to reserve a room in Bangkok in the next 2 days ? or you need a room during Christmas ? If you planning to reserve a room within 20 days you can check in real time the room availability, make a reservation by paying a 12% deposit with credit card or even debit card and get your instant confirmation.In the Hotel Industry rooms availability change every hour, in the high season every minute, people change schedules, some people cancel their trip, some guest extend their stay, some guest change the room category and so on. There are so many reasons that cause the hotel reservation to change continually.The Hotels associated with Last Minute Reservation System update on daily basis the hotel room availability up to 20 days in advance; it is normal that some room which was previously reserved, may be canceled or the guest didn’t show up at all and suddenly a room get free just at the last minute. Any Hotel manager never want to have free rooms, so they offer special deals for last minute reservation, in this way they get less, but they get full instead of having vacant rooms.Booking your Hotel or Resort with Last Minute Reservation System is cheaper, fast and reliable. In just few minutes you can book your room without waiting for the confirmation.Few simple steps:1- Insert the destination and the date you want to book2 -check for available rooms3 – reserve your room by paying a deposit 12% ( with credit card or debit card )4 – Get your instant confirmation immediately

How to find the Best Hotels in Bangkok

By toci

August 13, 2007

Bangkok offer also a huge selection of accommodations all around the city. Khao San Road located in Banglampoo area, near the Grand Palace, is the place for backpackers. Here there is a large selection of budget guest house renting beds as low as 3-5 Us Dollars up to average of 10 US Dollars for a double room. Sukunvit Road in the High class area of Bangkok where you will find many 3, 4 and 5 stars Hotels and Resort.

On the Internet there are many Agency and tour operator who provide large lists of Hotels and Resort in Bangkok. Every Hotel Network have something to offer that can be interesting for one person but not for others and every Tour Operator has different Hotels to offer.

Many Hotels networks have special deals with the hotels and very often you can find discounted rates through the Internet.

This is the reason why it is important to compare between different Tour Operators and Hotel Networks.

For instance, The last Minute Reservation Network offer cheaper Hotel rooms rates, why ? last Minute Reservation Network display on their website the unsold rooms from different Hotels and Resorts. All The Hotels within the network display, on daily basis, the unsold room they may have. Very often the Hotel will give discounted Room rates because they want to have less vacant rooms as possible. The rates are updated everyday directly from every Hotel and Resort.

But how to know which one is a good Hotel ? This is the most common question. You can’t believe what the hotel say about itself, everybody will say “I’m the best”, You can’t believe the Hotels Network too because they may get some money to recommend some Hotel. Who you can really believe are the real Guests, Customers who has been there already. Some Hotel Network offer a section of Guest Comments, Opinions, reviews about the Hotel, Resort or Guesthouse they have been. This is a great way to pick the real information about the hotel.

If you have found a good Hotel and you want to find further information about it, you can alway search Google or Yahoo with the Hotel name as keyword and most probably you will find the Hotel Website. It is common that the Hotel itself offer higher rates than the Travel Networks. In fact the Hotel Networks has always special deals with the Hotels and can offer better Rates than the Hotel itself.

This website offer a complete selection of Guest House, Hotels, Resort, Apartments in Bangkok provided by several Hotels Networks and many Guest Comments

Secret of finding a place to stay in Bangkok

By Khaitong

August 4, 2007

If you are planning to visit Thailand the first place you will arrived is Bangkok the capital of Thailand. Bangkok is one of the major cities in the world.
Moreover Bangkok is on the top group of the world tourist destination. So in the future if you are planning to visit Bangkok and explore more in Thailand.
Here is the article will give you a guideline of Bangkok’s accommodation.

First of all there are many different hotels in Bangkok. You can find a room with a very cheap price as low as possible or you may even find an excusive room with a special price as well. Everything is depend on where and what are you looking for. Here is a great example. If you want to stay over on Sukumwit (one of the most expensive and popular area in Bangkok) everything will charge more than usual. Sukumwit is really like a place for tourism for instance if you go to some street on Sukumwit you will see all Japanese language, No Thai or English at all. And if you go along the street you will surprise with all Indian again. Can you see now why area called Sukumwit is more expensive than other.

Another tourist attraction is located on the old part of Bangkok called Kao San Road. This place came up with a very interesting history. Kao San Road is almost like some
where in Europe or America or somewhere else that is not located in Thailand. On Kao San Road you will find a lot of guest houses with very cheap prices.
The price can start with 250 baht up to 1000 bath ($4 – $27). So if you are looking for a cheap guest house and the foreigner life style. You really should find out here on Koa San Road.
Those are just some of the interesting places for you to find a great place to stay for you trip.

Here is the secret of finding a place to stay in Bangkok….Do you know there are some of the key for you of find greater opportunities. Do you know that you can find a much nicer room! I would love to recommend you to find what ever you want with the agency. The better choice must have the better chance.

After 2 years for me to find all agencies that can possibly give you great offers I have listed it on this website for you www.piiba.com/piiba

I hope you will find the best offer and have a great time in Bangkok!

Using a Real Estate Agent in Bangkok

By Neil

July 30, 2007

Should you trust Real Estate Agents in Bangkok? Well, as a real estate agent myself of course I will say yes. I have yet to meet a real estate agent in Bangkok who I wouldn’t trust if I were a customer. Of course, as a competing agent, the majority I wouldn’t trust. Unfortunately, those who I have had bad experience with have all been Thai, who more often than not want to cut the other party out. However, I have co-brokered very successfully with a number of foreign run agencies in Bangkok.

Having good work ethics within the real estate broker group will ultimately be profitable. All brokers in Bangkok deal with the whole of Bangkok, not a specific area, so we are all treading on each other’s feet. However, with such a broad area to cover, there are of course thousands of properties for sale or rent. Having co-brokered successfully with a small number of my competing estate agents, I can confidently ask for their assistance if I don’t have the specific property that my customer is looking for.

Buying a property in Bangkok is, unlike most other things, very easy. The actual transfer of title deed takes just a few hours. The title deed itself will show if there is any mortgage or other loan on the property, as details of these must be written into the deed. Hence, it is not difficult to check the owner’s right to sell. Most people don’t even employ a solicitor, although it doesn’t cost much in Thailand and so you might as well for peace of mind. In fact, you could see a condo that you like on Monday morning, and own it by the close of business the same day.

If you have experienced difficultly with an estate agent in Bangkok, please let me know, I would be interested to see where the problems lie. You can email me on idealhomes@email.com, or look on our website, www.property-bangkok.com.

Property Law in Thailand

By Chris Heath

July 29, 2007

Thailand is becoming an ever more popular retirement and choice of country to live with its low costs and beautiful scenery not forgetting of course the world famous friendliness of the Thais themselves. But finding out about the laws governing property ownership here can be confusing. Here are the bare bones of Thai property Law

* A foreigner can own a condominiums long as less than 40% of the condos or apartments in the building are owned by foreigners. Many people believe it to be 49% although this regulation was an addition to the existing law and was only meant to be in place for one year and has since expired.

* A company can own property such as land and a house (and hence the foreigner can buy land and a house via their Thai registered company) as long as no one foreigner owns more that 39% of the company (recently amended from 33%) and total foreign ownership of the company does not exceed 49%.Still ambiguous and under review.

* The Thai wife of a foreigner can own property (a recently changed legal status due to gender equality in the new 1997 constitution revision), in her name only. This is fine as long as you don’t have marital problems. (The same, of course, goes for a Thai husband, but the law was changed recently for Thai wives due to the new constitution guaranteeing equal rights.)

* A foreigner can lease land for 30 years, with an option for another 30 years, the first 30 years are guaranteed they are registered with the Land Department, however the second can be contested.

* If you gain BOI approval you may as a company is able to buy up to one rai of land. Although this is meant for very large investors.

At the end of the day if you are seriously looking to invest in Thailand you should consult a good lawyer who will be familiar with the latest property laws.

Author Credit: Chris Heath of http://www.soho-properties.com