BANGKOK: The “Tiew Thai Khon La Krueng 2025” (Half-Half Thai Travel) scheme, which opened for public registration on Tuesday (July 1), has run into technical problems on the hotel operators' side.
Several leading hotels have announced a temporary halt in accepting reservations under the programme, despite the vast majority of travel entitlements still being available—disrupting plans for many Thai tourists.
The scheme offers 500,000 co-payment subsidies for hotel stays in both primary and secondary tourism provinces, with Thai nationals aged 18 and over eligible to register via the Amazing Thailand app.
Registration opened at 8am on July 1. As of 8:25am on July 2, just 1,959 of the 500,000 entitlements had been claimed, leaving 498,041 still available—298,891 for 22 main tourism provinces and 199,150 for 55 secondary destinations.
However, growing frustration has emerged among both travellers and operators as hotels participating in the programme begin suspending bookings.
The key issue lies in discrepancies between room rates submitted by hotels and those displayed in the booking system, along with persistent technical faults in the Amazing Thailand app’s operator interface.
Amari Hua Hin notified guests via Facebook that it had suspended bookings due to price discrepancies between submitted and displayed rates. The hotel said it had already reported the issue to project officials but had yet to receive any response or solution.
Toscana Valley Khao Yai also announced a temporary suspension of bookings, citing technical errors in the operator-side app that had not been resolved.
Thames Valley Khao Yai stated it had registered for the programme and was still waiting for approval from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), meaning it could not yet accept bookings through the platform.
An investigation into the issue identified several root causes:
Pending approval: Many hotels have not yet been officially approved by TAT to join the scheme, making them unable to activate bookings.
Data mismatches: Hotels already on the system are reporting inconsistencies—such as mismatched booking dates between customers and hotels.
Pricing errors: A critical issue is the discrepancy between submitted hotel rates and those shown to users, leading to confusion and booking suspensions.
Single-rate restriction: The system only allows one fixed rate per hotel, covering both weekdays and weekends. As a result, many hotels chose to register higher weekend rates, which they cannot later adjust. This has led travellers to compare prices with OTA (Online Travel Agency) platforms, where dynamic pricing often results in better deals.
Despite the system flaws, TAT has yet to fully resolve the technical setbacks. The situation continues to hinder the scheme’s rollout, just as it was intended to stimulate domestic tourism. - The Nation/ANN
