Avoiding Pattaya Scams
How To Avoid Scams In Pattaya, Thailand!
Pattaya is a fantastic city fantastic with endless choices on things to go and and see during the day, things to do to keep you busy and a wicked nightlife that is hard not to enjoy! Thousands of Tourists travel to Pattaya each and every year to enjoy all of these things, and one or two out of these thousands may experience some type of scam that will literally destroy the entire holiday, and possibly more then that.Thailand is known as the Land Of Smiles, and it can be hard to believe that such kind people would be willing to do such a thing! It must be remembered how little the Thai people have, and how affluent foreigners would appear to them, that temptation would be hard to control!
Scams can be very common in Pattaya, the team here at Best Hotel Pattaya have received numerous e-mails from people who have experienced some kind of scan, or have not been sure about something and felt the need to ask us about scams! Because the the letters and e-mails we have received, we have decided to put up this handy Pattaya Scam Section.The team at Best Hotel Pattaya believe the best way to avoid been scammed, is to be educated about them so you can avoid one if you can see it starting – please read the following in depth information and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to e-mail us or sign up and leave a comment!
Change That Bill / Padding The Bill: These is a technique that will usually be used on people who have already had a fair few drinks! It will usually go down in this manner. Person will walk into a bar already quite drunk and order a drink, the staff will give him his bill bin but either (1) increase the drink cost (2) add a second drink. If you do not appear to be taking any notice, they will often get very game and sometimes try and charge you thousands of baht for a few beers! This can be avoided by traveling in groups, or enursing that you do not drink so much that you can not manage yourself! This would be common sense in any country though.
Wrong Change: At times when you pay your bill, you will usually pay with larger bills as that is the easier thing to do. Many Bar Girls, at times unknown to the owner; will try and change what should be a 500 baht note to a 100 baht note. If you a drunk, and in a Go-Go Bar this can be very easy as they are usually very dark, and once you move away your the counter any complaint you have will be null and void. Even if you are at the bar and realize at the bar she has given you incorrect change, they would have almost always put it in the till which would make it impossible to prove what was yours and what was not yours, if you get a Thai Manager this would be especially hard I would imagine.
One possible option to avoid this happening is to hold the bill up, and have her ackowledge to someone that it is 1000 baht! The smartest solution, and the one used by the team here is just to carry smaller bills though!
Jet Ski: Many tourist’s have rented the Jet Ski’s and returned them to be told they owe thousands of baht in repair fee’s, at times they can claim up to 50,000 baht! There is very little to say about this scam, you can google about many story’s on the Internet! It was once shown on Big Trouble In Tourist Thailand. The best way to avoid this scam is to avoid Jet Ski’s all together. If you are adamant about renting one though, there are many people who do so with out a problem, we would advise that you take photos and videos before you ride it as verification.
Bar Girls: We all know its possible to get the Bar Girls in Pattaya. A few people who told of times when they bar fine a girl for a LT, and the girl will leave after two or three hours, when the man returns the bar to complain he is always greeted by a Thai Manager who has no care for his issues. It is sad to say, but the best way to avoid this is to go to a farang owned bar.
Times Shares: It is very common to see people (Thai and Western) on the street trying to talk to Tourist’s about Time Share. Time Share is claimed to be a fantastic project where you can own a hotel room with a number of other people and use it at different point of the year, or you will have a choice of hotel rooms for different lengths of the year. The Hotels are usually very sub par or out side of the peak area! They will often give a free lunch though, which can usually be worth the visit. The only way to avoid this scam is to simply not talk to them, although as we said the lunch can be worth a visit.
10% Service Charge: Some Hotels try and charge a 10% Hospitality Fee, this was removed by the Thai Government and they should not be charging this anymore! If any restaurant or hotel you go to tries to charge this, we advise you to try another! If you are not in a position to change, you need to request at the start they remove it and advise that you know that it should not be there, if you have any issues you should contact the tourist police.