Currently, it is thought that around 1,000 hotels in Phuket are “illegal”

An environmental impact assessment must be finished by hotels with more than 80 rooms or 4,000 square meters in size. Hotels were unable to request government assistance because the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the initial quasi-government body set up following the 2014 military coup and disbanded in 2019, never passed a law allowing them to do so. As a result, the hotel laws could not grant the extension. The property must first cancel any condominium or residential estate registrations before it can be turned into a hotel, under the legislation.

53 percent of the investigated properties were found to have violated the building control laws. Of the 994 small hotels that require renovation or improvement, just 91 have finished the job. The most frequent law that the hotels were found to be breaking was the environmental law. The Deputy Phuket Governor claimed that a number of illegal hotels had been constructed in national park regions, zones designated in ministerial guidelines for city development, and places that were designated as agricultural land. In an effort to assist individuals affected and other hotels in other provinces, the Department of Provincial Administration, which is in charge of enforcing rules pertaining to hotels, is taking action. It was found that a couple of them had broken the Building Control Act. 994 tiny hotels in Phuket are in danger of closing down because of their inappropriate use of public space. The province requested assistance from the Interior Ministry’s Land Department after some speculators purchased condos with the intention of turning them into hotels. Due to violations of hotel and local planning legislation, about 6% of hotels had their eligibility for public welfare and loans withdrawn. They paid a price, which caused liquidity issues.