Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not Parliament's current ongoing sort of debate and discussion regarding address reporting of foreign nationals which is being debated in the context of passing a possible new Law here in Thailand, whether or not this might be actually a Harbinger for essentially the Airbnb style platforms if you will. What are we talking about when we say platforms? Again, Airbnb, various booking platforms, where you can use someone's personal house as accommodation rather than hotels.

I have talked about this in videos previously. There have been serious crackdowns on this practice in Thailand albeit intermittently. I've seen these pop up over the last 10 years at least three times every couple of years. There is a big crackdown, it's usually pushed by interests in the hotel industry that have issues with basically people renting villas, renting other places, and not availing themselves of hotels and it is having an impact on the hotel industry. And also lawmakers and law enforcement are concerned about rules regarding licensing of Hotel-like operations. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: MPs slam reporting rule for foreign visitors. Quoting directly: "The proposed amendments to some sections of the Hotel Act and Immigration Act which passed their first reading in Parliament on Wednesday, aim to reduce duplicate reporting of foreigners' temporary stays in Thailand, but may not address existing loopholes as illegal operators are excluded from enforcement. While the amendment would facilitate business operations and law enforcement by reducing administrative duplication, if the Government's objective is to improve the monitoring of foreign nationals and strengthen security oversight, it should address illegal accommodation providers and their reporting obligations bringing more of these operators into the regulatory system." 

I thought that that was pretty ominous for the sort of Airbnb operations type of thing moving forward. And by ominous, I mean it looks to me like they are going to try to bring these under some kind of regulation; they're going to try to bring them under some sort of oversight. What does that mean? Well further scrutiny from law enforcement for one thing. It could also mean some of these things end up getting shut down. So again this all stems from changing the way that address reporting is going to be done in the future regarding foreigners. Again, a finalized law has not been promulgated; we are still going through its readings in Parliament; it is still being discussed and debated. That being said, we will be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.