After telling you how to eat good and cheap food in Thailand, here we are giving our ideas about how and where to sleep in that country!
In options to sleep, Thailand offers the worst and the best. We opted to find places that meet at least half of these two extremes! 🙂
But having a more relieved budget, Thailand is one of those countries where fancy and dream hotels are easy to find and at prices that are not just for celebrities!
But, when travelling for months, it is hard to include these little luxuries because if alone one night 50 € may not seem to be anything too fancy is the equivalent of 5 nights in one of the other cheaper hostels or meals for two during almost one week!
We rarely booked the hotels in advance. We always prefer to take a look at Booking.com and Agoda to get an idea of what we will find in the city where we go next, but then choose on arrival, because there are many options beyond that the internet presents!
And thankfully we bet on “seeing is believing” because we often found filthy holes where we expected to find immaculate rooms based on internet pictures … On the other hand, we have lost the opportunity in places where we wanted to stay because when we arrived there were already fully booked …
This “life without an agenda” is not for everyone! Arriving at a new city, with a heavy backpack, often after long hours in an uncomfortable bus, without a place to stay can be tough. Often, we need to visit 2, 3 or even 4 places to finally find a good one that is value for money. When it turns out ok, we even manage to pay less than they were requesting via Booking.com because the hostel takes off the value they would have to pay to that site, or, sometimes, we end up by finding a better one right next door!
And we have a trick that we got away with a few times. At the reception, when we are still trying to decide if we stay there, we search for the Wi-Fi password, and if we ended up not staying there and we need to look for another hotel online, we can! It is not stealing, just borrow and passwords are always exposed for those who need them! 😉
What does not make the task so easy is that even being backpackers, we don’t always opt for the cheaper hostels whatever the conditions, we are backpackers with some sleep requirements …
We don’t care if the place lacks a good decoration, or if we must use a shared bathroom, but it’s important to have a window in the room and clean sheets. In Southeast Asia those are not at all guaranteed conditions…
How to find cheap accommodation in Thailand?
Having this in mind, we usually wandered through the cities central streets looking for a room we please. This always involves asking to check the room before you start bargaining! 😉
Nothing in these countries is fixed price, everything is negotiable and the sentence that we heard the most was “How much do you want to pay?”. So, let’s try to help you answer that question!
To sleep, our budget (always on top!) provided an average of 600 Baht ( € 15 ) per night for two. And we managed, specifically in Thailand except for Bangkok and the beaches, maintain an average standard of overnight stays within or even below this value! Some better than others, but all turned out to make good memories.
When we arrive at the hotel\hostel\guesthouse or whatever we found to sleep, and there is openness to negotiate the price of the stay it’s important to know that inside the same hotel there can be different prices for different rooms with different facilities. For example, a room without window will surely be cheaper than one that has a view to the main street; if the air conditioning is imperative, the room will always be 3-5 € more expensive; and often if we dispense breakfast we can get a better rate. Then, knowing that in some places the fan is not enough and the air conditioning is essential, or the breakfast, there or elsewhere, we will have to eat it, we try to get to a fair price for both the parts.
Another important factor that can help lower the room’s rate is the number of nights we stay there. Longer stays (and 3 nights are usually an argument for this), can get a good discount! And of course, showing our best smile will also help! 😉
In Bangkok and the southern beaches of Thailand hotel prices are a little above the national average. Still, from 600 Baht (€ 15) there are several reasonable options to sleep in!
Outside Bangkok, in Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai we can always sleep on budget, spending an average of € 11 a night for two and in pleasant guesthouses!
Arriving at the beach, things can get harder, but it is also on the beach that the vacation concept turns out to be taken more seriously. This way, here we decided to invest a little more in beach hotels, trying a kind of resorts in Railay and Krabi. A little luxury that falls far short of the best deals of Thai beaches but who made us really happy! We agreed to certain requirements and opted for hotels near the beach with swimming pool, buffet breakfast and room with balcony or terrace. A big difference to the guesthouses of the rest of the trip but in the end this didn’t ruin the trip budget because we got these little luxuries for 25 € per night for 2. We also got lucky because we traveled in low season, but there are so many offers that we believe there are always good deals if you look around! 🙂
During our trip around Thailand we found some dorms but the rate for 2 beds was always higher than the one asked for a double room in a guesthouse.
Whatever your sleeping option is, always take a silk or cotton sleeping bag. Many of the places we slept in didn’t have a top sheet. And besides, it can come in hand whenever the sheets do not inspire much confidence! 😉
And if in your travel plan includes long journeys, think about making them overnight to include the price of the hotel in the train ticket price or the night bus ticket. For example, the way between Bangkok and Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai can be done in a highly comfortable sleeper train and you won’t lose the 12-hour ride during the day, saving on time and money!
What’s the cost of sleeping in Thailand?
So, adding to the food budget, here are the expected expenses on accommodation in Thailand. As Bangkok and the Thai beaches are a must in the journey we can not ignore them even if it raises the cost of the stay. So take in the wallet, on average, 300 Baht ( € 8 ) per person per day, to sleep under a cozy, central and clean roof! 🙂
And believe us, after a day discovering the beauties of Thailand you will feel worthy of a good night sleep!
The GuestHouses were the places we loved the most, where we were better hosted and where always prefer to stay. Usually guesthouses are homes where thai families live and rent rooms, sharing the living room with the guests! It’s familiar and welcoming! 😉
But in other places we were always greeted with smiles, sometimes fruit and water, and there were times that it got hard to say ” Laa – gawn ” Goodbye !
