Paying the hotel in Thailand: card, cash, and the bill that grows
Article updated: 2026-09-21
Best rate USD · Bangkok: 33.24 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details
The hotel is usually the largest single payment of a trip to Thailand, and it is the one where the most money leaks away without anyone noticing. Nothing about it is a scam. It is a sequence of small, legal, well-signposted decisions — a rate card, a booking page, a question on a card terminal — each of which has a cheaper answer that nobody points out.
The two plus signs
A Thai hotel rate quoted as 3,000++ is not 3,000. The first plus is 7% VAT; the second is a 10% service charge, and together they add roughly 17% to the number on the card. A 3,000-baht room becomes about 3,500 at the desk.
International booking sites generally show the all-in figure, or at least state it before you confirm. Rate cards at the desk, hotel websites and quotes by email often do not. Whenever you see the plus signs, do the arithmetic before comparing, and whenever you do not see them, ask whether the price is net or plus-plus. The same applies to the restaurant and the spa inside the hotel: ++ on a menu means the same 17%.
Prepaid or pay at the hotel
Booking sites offer the same room two ways, and the difference is not only about cancellation.
Prepaid rates are charged when you book, in your card’s currency, at the booking site’s exchange rate. The price is fixed, which is a comfort, but the site chose the rate, and it is rarely the best available. You may lose a per cent or two on the conversion without seeing it.
Pay at hotel rates are charged at check-out, in Thai baht, by the hotel. Whatever your card does with baht is what you pay. With a card that converts at a fair rate this is usually the cheaper route; with a card that adds 3% to every foreign transaction it may not be.
The other difference is the cancellation policy. A non-refundable rate is typically 10–20% below the same room with free cancellation. If the dates are certain, take the discount. If there is any chance the plan changes — and in a country where a ferry can be cancelled by weather, there often is — the flexible rate is cheap insurance.
The question on the terminal
At check-out the card terminal may offer to charge you in your home currency instead of baht. It will present this as a courtesy, sometimes with the words “guaranteed rate”. Decline it. Choose THB, every time.
This is dynamic currency conversion, and the hotel’s provider sets the rate, typically 3–6% worse than what your own card would have applied. On a 30,000-baht bill that is 900–1,800 baht for the privilege of seeing a familiar currency on the receipt. If the terminal has already been set to your currency, ask the receptionist to void it and run it again in baht; they can, and it is a common request. The mechanics are covered in dynamic currency conversion.
Card surcharges and cash discounts
Large hotels absorb card fees. Small hotels, guesthouses and family-run places sometimes do not: a 3% surcharge on card payments is common, and some will quietly offer a small discount for cash instead. Ask. On a week’s stay the answer decides whether it is worth walking to a money changer.
Cash is also needed for things a card cannot do at smaller places:
- the security deposit many guesthouses ask for at check-in, returned when you leave;
- the minibar, laundry and the odd late breakfast at places that settle extras separately;
- tips for housekeeping, if you leave them.
The cheapest way to pay a large bill
Put the pieces together and the order of cost is fairly clear.
| Method | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Cash, changed at a good counter | The exchange spread, around 1%, plus carrying the notes |
| Multi-currency travel card, charged in THB | Near mid-market, no foreign transaction fee |
| Home bank card, charged in THB | Network rate plus your bank’s foreign fee, often 2–3% |
| Any card, charged in your home currency | All of the above plus 3–6% for the conversion |
| Prepaid on a booking site | Fixed, but at the site’s rate, rarely the best |
For a bill of a few hundred dollars the difference between the top rows is a few dollars. For a two-week stay at a resort, it is real money, and a card that converts at the mid-market rate with no foreign transaction fee is usually the cheapest way to settle it — with the terminal set to baht. The cash route ties with it on rate and loses on convenience: nobody wants to carry a resort bill through the lobby in notes. See Wise, Revolut or a plain debit card for the card comparison.
Keep the folio
At check-out the hotel prints a folio — the itemised statement of the stay. Keep it. It is the document you will need if a charge appears on your card that you do not recognise, if a deposit is not returned, or if a prepaid booking is charged a second time by the hotel, which happens more often than it should when a reservation system and a front desk disagree. Photograph it before it goes in the bag.
The short version
- ++ means about 17% on top. Compare net prices.
- Prepaid is fixed at the site’s rate; pay-at-hotel is charged in baht at check-out.
- Non-refundable saves roughly 10–20%; take it only when the dates are certain.
- Always choose baht on the terminal.
- Small hotels may add 3% for cards or discount for cash. Ask.
- Have cash for deposits and extras. Keep the folio.