Thailand hotel license.
The hotel license application process is time-consuming, and it is thus wise to work together with an office experienced in this matter. You are required to obtain the hotel license as soon as you have at least one room rented out on a daily basis, whatever name is used (hostel, guest room, apartment or others).
Registering a hotel in Thailand.
Note: Residential buildings do not need to apply for a hotel license if there are only four rooms and less than 20 customers. The officer has to be informed thereof, and will go to check the place to classify it.
There are four different types of hotel licenses:
A logo of the trademark in the exact color
- Hotel and restaurant business: application fee of 20,000 THB
- Hotel, restaurant and seminar rooms: application fee of 30,000 THB
- Hotel, restaurant, seminar rooms, entertainment business: application fee of 40,000 THB
An additional fee of 80 THB per room per year is due.
The license has to be renewed every five years, and then half price of the government fee will have to be paid.
The documents to be provided mainly consist of the construction permit, map of the interior, landlord documents, map of the location showing that there is no school or temple in the surroundings, and of course the company documents.
Application procedure.
The following different steps have to be taken:
- Application for the construction license at the district office, which is signed off/should be requested by the engineer or architect (five working days)
- Application at the provincial office (10 working days), which will transfer the application to
- The Health, Environmental and Construction Authorities who will each have to inspect and approve the building (90 working days)
- Issuance of the license (15-30 working days)
The total time to be taken into account roughly is six months.
Note that only a Thai director can sign this application and the other relevant documents. Moreover, upon obtaining a hotel license, the law requires that there must be at least one manager to oversee the hotel operations.
In case you are taking over an existing business, you will need to transfer the hotel license to your name (as a physical person or company). Finger prints (of the physical person or director) will be taken at the government office. There is no government fee for the transfer of the hotel license.
