Booking a hotel in Thailand: the ++, why the same room costs different amounts, and the deposit at check-in
Article updated: 2026-09-17
Best rate USD · Bangkok: 33.24 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details
Most problems with Thai hotels are not about the room. They are about the number: the checkout bill is 17% higher than the rate you booked, a deposit is still sitting on your card a fortnight after you left, or the cheap rate turned out to be the one that cannot be cancelled. All three are visible before you book, in about thirty seconds, if you know what to look at.
What ”++” means
When a Thai rate sheet prints a number followed by ++, it means two things have not been added yet.
- Service charge, 10%
- VAT, 7%
The part people get wrong is that VAT is calculated on top of the service charge, not alongside it. So the total is not 17% but about 17.7%. A room advertised at 3,000 baht settles at 3,531.
This is not a tip. It is a printed line on the folio, and paying it does not mean tipping is forbidden — it simply is not the same thing.
Not every property charges it. Hostels, guesthouses and budget hotels usually quote a single inclusive price. Mid-range hotels and resorts almost always quote ++. So do their restaurants and spas, so assume the same 17.7% on dinner in the hotel too.
Booking sites show this either way depending on a display setting. Compare on the total including taxes and fees, always. More than once, the reason one site looked cheaper was only that it added the tax at a later screen.
Why the same room has different prices
Same hotel, same dates, same room type, different totals. The reasons are structural rather than mysterious.
- The rate plans differ. Prepaid non-refundable, pay-at-hotel with free cancellation, breakfast included — those three switches alone create four or five prices for one room. The cheapest is nearly always the most rigid.
- The commercial terms differ. Each channel buys from the hotel on its own terms and adds its own margin, and that lands in the final price.
- Member and signed-in rates. Some price tiers only open when you are logged in. Comparing while signed out means comparing prices you cannot actually buy.
- Display currency and conversion. Showing prices in your home currency is convenient, but the conversion may carry a markup. Where you can, compare in baht, and if the payment page offers to charge you in your home currency, decline — it is the same mechanism as dynamic currency conversion at a card terminal.
- Fees added at the last step. Resort fees, cleaning fees and local tourist levies sometimes appear only on the final screen.
The practical method: open two or three options, write down the all-in total and the cancellation deadline on the same line, and compare those pairs. If the flexible rate costs 5% more, that 5% is the price of your plans changing — sometimes worth it, sometimes not.
Check-in: passport and deposit
You need the physical passport. Thai accommodation is required to report foreign guests to the authorities, which is why the front desk photographs or scans it. That is normal and not negotiable. What is negotiable is leaving it there: ask for it back once they have copied it, and keep it. Some small guesthouses and most motorbike rental shops ask to hold a passport; at a hotel, ask whether another ID or a cash deposit will do instead.
A deposit is standard at anything above budget level, in one of two forms.
- A card pre-authorisation. Not a charge, but a hold on your available limit. It is released after checkout, though depending on your bank that can take days to a few weeks. If your card limit is tight for the trip, plan around that.
- A cash deposit, returned at checkout. Take the receipt, and count the refund at the desk before you walk away.
Amounts vary by property and grade, so read the figure in the property policy section of the booking page rather than assuming one. The purpose is minibar and damage cover; use the room normally and it comes back.
High season changes the rules
From roughly 20 December to early January, over Chinese New Year, and around Songkran in mid-April, the terms tighten.
- Minimum stays appear. Beach resorts commonly require three nights over the new year, sometimes five.
- Full prepayment, non-refundable becomes the default rate rather than the discount option.
- Free cancellation deadlines move earlier — from 24–48 hours before arrival to 14 or 30 days.
- Peak surcharges are added, and many resorts make a compulsory gala dinner on 31 December part of the stay. It is separate from the room rate and can run to several thousand baht per person, so check before booking, not at checkout.
In those windows, a free-cancellation rate booked earlyAd is the sensible move. Outside them, there is rarely a reason to rush.
When not to book ahead
Skip the advance booking if any of this describes you.
- Low season with a loose itinerary. When rooms are plentiful, locking a non-refundable rate buys you nothing except the loss of flexibility.
- Staying a month or more. Monthly rates barely exist on booking platforms. Book a few nights, then negotiate directly on the ground — the gap is usually large.
- When the non-refundable saving is small. At around 5%, take the flexible rate.
- A first multi-city trip. Fix the first hotel and leave the rest a few days loose; people almost always move more slowly through Thailand than the plan assumes.
The exception is absolute: book your arrival-night accommodation in advance, every time. Not for the price, but because you need a confirmed address for your entry paperwork and something to show a driver. The rest of that first evening is covered in the first two hours after landing.
Paying, and the cash side of it
If the room is prepaid, the only things to settle on site are the deposit and whatever you use in the hotel. Decline the offer to be charged in your own currency and pay in baht.
If you booked a pay-at-hotel rate, plan the cash for it. Front desk exchange counters are convenient and consistently worse than a city exchange shop — the gap on a week’s accommodation is not trivial. Change money in town in the morning instead; today’s ranking is on the Bangkok rates page and in the shop list, and the general rule is in airport versus city rates.
One more thing worth knowing: hotels that quote ++ generally issue a proper tax invoice. If you are travelling for work and will expense the stay, ask for it at checkout with the company name spelled out — adding it afterwards is a much longer conversation.
The seven-line check before you book
- Is the displayed price inclusive, or is it ++?
- What is the cancellation deadline, and what does it cost after that?
- Deposit: card hold or cash, and how much?
- Breakfast included, and at what price per extra person?
- Is there an airport or city shuttle? It changes your arrival-day transport cost.
- Have you saved the hotel name and address in Thai script for the driver?
- Is the payment in baht?
Seven lines, half a minute, and the checkout bill stops containing surprises. For where accommodation sits in the wider budget, see what a week in Thailand actually costs.