Adding on a few facts and tips I've learned today since earlier post:
As of Apr 1, at least two changes in policy that were included with the change from 14 days to 10 days
1. Outside deliveries are now allowed, so services like Grab can be used
2. Guests are allowed to use fitness equipment during their scheduled outside time (limited to 1 hour a day). Prior to Apr you could have the outside time, but could not use any equipment.
Each hotel is given discretion on these two items. For example, the hotel that I'm staying in is allowing outside deliveries but doesn't want to open their gym for risk of spread. Disappointed, but I can also understand.
Also, just a couple quick tips on hotels. I posted a number in the other thread but a few that jump out now that I'm here.
1. Work hard on figuring out how noise is before booking - it's probably the most important thing given you're locked up. 1/2 of the hotel that I'm in is really quite, but the other side is on a highway with a gravel pit there too. The noise is unbearable The guests on the wrong side will have a hard time making through the whole quarantine. I found hotels to be reasonably honest about this when I asked before booking and you can also scrape through reviews looking purely for sound comments.
2. I realize now that "hotel shopping" can get out of hand with all the different options each offer (170+ hotels in the program all with very different marketing techiniques). Figure out early on what those core few things that are most important things are to you and just find the best hotel that have those. It's easy to get caught up thinking how this perk would be cool or that perk would be cool and then not really use them ... and ultimately ending up in a lesser hotel then you could have gotten. In HK, I didn't really have this problem because there was a lot of similarity in the hotel offerings - that is not the case in TH.
3. Be on the lookout for hidden add-on charges - there are some things that some hotels give you free, while others advertise it as having fine print about the high costs. A couple examples - there were a few that offered free in-room exercise bike or jogging machine. Others advertised that, but somewhat hid that they added 5,000 THB if you wanted it. Similar with washing machine - some just had it for free, others had it on request ... with a huge fee.
I'm going to withhold any thoughts I have my specific hotel until it's over so as to give them a fair shot. We had a tough start, with broken internet, no hot water, missed meals and ultimately a room change as a result. I'll give them a chance to recover before giving judgment.
Any thing else I think of I can add on. If anything specific you're curious about let me know. I've still got seven days left, so I'm sure I'll learn more. Tomorrow my big learning will be just how invasive the nasal swab is in Thailand. | |
