What are the issues travelers face with SHA+ certified hotels in Thailand regarding the Test & Go package?

Obviously some hotels are just hotels. 🤷🏻‍♂️

This is why you use a company to do your paperwork.. thailandpaperwork.com

PCR test my family of 5 approx tbh. Hotel room for 5 4000 tbh. They only made 4000 on the room

This is just a terrible, incorrect article in Bangkok Post! Hotels are NOT misleading travelers. This problem is coming because of 2 separate issues:

1) SHA+ certification just means the hotel has met the enhanced sanitation standards to be certified by the Safety and Health Administration. It does NOT mean the hotel is choosing to offer Test & Go packages, and whether it does or not, the hotel will continue to sell rooms like normal to regular travelers. Guests are mistakenly booking any hotel on the SHA+ list and assuming it means the price is including a Test & Go package when they are just booking a normal room. Even if hotels show their SHA+ certification on their website, it is because they earned the certificate for practicing the enhanced sanitation and is no different than a hotel displaying it got a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. It does not imply anything about the hotel offering any testing package.

2) Second issue is that the online travel agencies (Booking, Expedia, Agoda) have labeled all SHA+ approved hotels on their site, but ONLY Agoda is allowing hotels to program in a separate Test & Go rate plan that includes RT-PCR test and transfer. Booking and Expedia have both explicitly decided they are NOT allowing hotels to offer Test & Go packages on their sites, and have told hotels that they should email any guests who want to add Test & Go to add it separately directly with the hotel. This is creating a huge problem where guests do not know in advance the additional Test & Go package fee and do not add it to their booking and just show up in Thailand without it.

It is NOT the fault of the hotels at all. It is a mutual issue where Thailand Pass and all government infographics just tell travelers to book a SHA+ hotel without mentioning to make sure it includes Test & Go package, AND the fault of the online travel agencies not programming their sites to allow people to actually book Test & Go rather than a normal hotel room (Agoda being the exception). I just think it is so wrong to blame hoteliers who are doing nothing wrong except continuing to operate as a normal hotel. Hotels can't be expected to close themselves off to normal bookings and raise their rates just to make sure to cover Test & Go costs for anyone that might be booking a room and needing Test & Go. Consider that it is known that the hospital partner charges 2200 baht or more for the RT-PCR test (which the hotel is NOT ALLOWED to mark up per regulations) which the hotel must pass on to the hospital partner, and the hotel has to pay the SHA+ airport transfer service, plus provide whatever other inclusions for Test & Go. The hotel can't be expected to absorb the cost for guests making a mistake who booked a regular rate, and be called "deceiving" the guest like Bangkok Post is saying.

greed shining through again. well done 👏

This is Thailand

I'm stunned! Rich Thai hotel owners deceiving tourists??? Who'd have thunk it?

This was to be expected : the many many nice , 600-900 Baht/ night hotels in the Lat Krabang area need to make some money too . I won't stay in a 5000 Baht room , far away from the airport for 6, 8 , 24 hrs ? Already had to purchase new ( non- refundable ) tickets for the connecting flights to Krabi , cancelled ( non refundable ) rooms , and enough is enough . I understand that the Thai shit their pants for a new outbreak , especially if you see the death toll but this doesn't work . Many regular tourists were scared off by the hassle ( TP) and deviate to Mexico, Egypt and the Canary 's this winter . Sad but true . A negative PCR , 72 hrs before arrival should be enough ; having another one upon arrival is ridiculous .

"On arrival they then had to buy a new package or be denied entry."

Um... and how they got their Thailand Pass? 🤔