Good question. Many people love to go an an annual vacation, but never consider the affordability of going to another country – or another part of the world. I decided to look deeper into this and found results that may surprise you.

As an example, I took a look at the price of a trip to Miami. I used my old home of California as the source. I also used dates in February for a reference.

Miami Beach

A round trip from Los Angeles to Miami is $209.
A round trip from Los Angeles to Phuket is $465.

These are super-economy rates, but the price comparison math is pretty similar with the more expensive flights as well.

There is no visa requirement for a US citizen to enter Thailand for stays for one month or less.

Now here is where it gets interesting. I compared prices for 3 and 4 bedroom villas with a capacity of 6 to 8 people in Miami against our villas at The Coolwater.

A 4 bedroom villa at The Coolwater is about $550 per night.
In Miami, I found one or two $500 villas, but they were Ikea-furnished cheapies that did not look so appetizing. It wasn’t until I went up to $800 per night and higher price ranges that the homes looked comparable.
I also checked the price of decent hotels. All of them were so expensive I chose not to include them in this post.
None of the rental homes available in Miami advertised daily maid service and similar perks. Less than half of the places had pools. These are normal aspects of a stay at The Coolwater.

Conclusion: It costs $31 less per person per night to stay in Phuket with a private pool.
The math looked very similar at the 3 bedroom range.

Now, let’s talk about eating. Going out to eat in Phuket is as little as 1/3 the price of doing the same in Miami, or most any city in the United States. And you get top quality food – if you like Thai food. Western food costs more, starting at 1/2 the prices in the US up to 2/3. But if you come all the way to Thailand, why do you want to eat meat and potatoes? You can get that at home.

Want to party? Miami is an unfortunate example because drinks can be $10 and up.
Drinks in similar clubs in Thailand start at $6. But trust me, the partying is as opulent and extravagant as Miami.

Taxis and transportation are also much cheaper in Thailand when compared to a big city in the US.

Tours are hard to compare. In Phuket, you can take day-long boat cruises to the Phi Phi Islands and Phang Nga for about $90. Miami simply does not offer anything comparable. I was able to find 90 minute tours that drive by the affluent beach houses of Miami for $24.

I am not a golfer, but a cursory look at the fees showed that Miami courses seemed to be about twice as expensive as the many courses in Phuket.

Renting a car:
A compact car from Avis at Miami International Airport is $30 per day.
A compact car from Avis at Phuket International Airport is $42 per day.
– But we can get you a better price that should match the Avis Miami price.

Do the math. If you can afford to go to Miami, you can afford to go to Phuket. Depending on the length of your stay, you might even save money.

And speaking of Miami. maybe you want to consider the neighborhood. Does a trip to Miami, or Lake Tahoe, or San Francisco for that matter, provide you with a nice jumping off point to visit places like these?

Siem Reap (Angkor Wat): $140 round trip

Yangon: $210 round trip

Bangkok: $70 round trip

I’m just saying…

Regardless of the title, this post is helpful in getting the best possible rates in any hotel, villa, or vacation rental. It is not specific to Phuket or our villas.

While looking for a place to stay can be a chore, the most common and easiest thing to do is to use one of the online resources such as Booking.com, Agoda, Ctrip, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, and HomeAway. These services all provide a large catalog of places to stay and you can narrow down your searches by amount of guests, desired price – really anything.

You may have noticed that some of these services have begun to charge extra fees for the bookings. Some services such as Airbnb have always charged this. HomeAway just began this year. What might not be as obvious to you is that literally all of these services are also charging the hotel or villa owner a significant fee. They all charge at least 6% and many, if not most, charge much more.

Recently, I found an excellent article on the web…

http://guestservicefees.com/

Its ingenious name causes it to come up whenever anyone web searches for “guest service fees”. It is a long article that goes into greater detail than this. It is an interesting read and I suggest that you should at least skim it after reading this blog post.

But the point is to tell you how to get better rates. The following advise works reliably, and it works not just for our villas, but for any other accommodation. So learn it, live it, be it.

The trick is to find the direct web site, phone number, or email address for where you want to stay and book directly with them.

To do this, simply continue to search for a place to stay using your favorite online platform. Maybe even start the booking process so you can see the final price. But before you commit, look for some unique text in the description and search the web for it. You can also search for the pictures as well. (This is described in detail in the article mentioned above.) Probably the most obvious text to search is the name of the place. Often the text descriptions are literally identical to what is on the home web site for the accommodation. I know that the first words in our Airbnb text descriptions are something like “Baan Salawin at The Coolwater”. Search the web for that and you will come to this web site. Now you can book direct at prices that do not include the extra fees. Also, you have access to the phone number and email so you can ask as many questions as you like. You can get a more accurate feel for the place. This is often not possible with the online services. They do all they can to prevent the host and the guest from having direct communication. This is so they can protect and maximize their profit.

I can guarantee you that any rates you get from a direct booking with us will be better than what you get on the other services. And I am almost just as confident that our colleagues with other accommodations will do the same. Both the vendor and the guest get a significant savings. Now to be frank, if a guest tries to nickel and dime me down to extreme levels, I probably don’t want that kind of guest anyway. But I assure you that you will save money and the amounts are significant when you are talking about a $500 per night lodging.

Another strategy is to approach a smaller or local rental agency for villas.

You can find them by googling something like “phuket villa rentals”. You will see a bunch of them there. Many of these agencies are one or two people. They often have personal relationships with the owners of the villas. And because of that, sometimes they offer better prices for the same accommodation. But just as important is that they will monitor everything to make sure you get there ok and your stay is pleasant.

Food for thought.