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A typical case assembled from practice: details are changed, and no real matter is described here.
An owner was letting her Phuket condo by the night and got a written warning from the condominium's juristic person. Under the Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004), letting a unit for under 30 days counts as running a hotel, and without a licence that can mean a fine for every day the breach continues, and in the worst case, prison time. We moved her onto a monthly lease: listings came down, the juristic person got a written reply, and the lease with her tenants and management company was rewritten.
The situation
An Australian owner bought a one-bedroom Phuket condo marketed to her as a rental investment. The brochure quoted a gross yield of roughly 8% a year, close to AUD 15,000 on the price, built mainly on nightly Airbnb bookings in high season. It never mentioned a hotel licence.
Within a year, neighbours were complaining about suitcases in the lift and strangers around the pool. The juristic person, which enforces the house rules, sent a written warning and threatened a fine. The owner asked us what she actually faced and whether she could keep any of the income.
What the owner was risking
The warning was the smaller problem. A condo unit let for under one month without a hotel licence is an illegal hotel under Thai law, and the rule covers Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda alike: the ban comes from the Act itself, not just the building's rules. A residential lease of a month or longer falls outside the Hotel Act, but actual nightly guest stays under that lease aren't legalised just because the lease runs a month or longer.
| What's breached | What it can mean |
|---|---|
| Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004) | Up to 1 year in prison and/or a fine up to THB 20,000, plus up to THB 10,000 per day of continuing breach |
| Condominium Act (running a business in a unit) | Thai lawyers put this at a fine up to THB 50,000 plus THB 5,000 a day |
| House rules | Fines set by the juristic person |
On top of that, any foreign guest must be reported to immigration within 24 hours (a TM30 filing) – easy to miss when guests turn over every few days.
Enforcement is active: in July 2026, officials checked a condominium in Wichit over nightly rentals. The owner had hoped for a reform. There isn't one yet: the proposed reform has not become law. There is no commencement date, and the draft may change.
Switching to monthly leases
We told her, first, to stop taking new bookings, then moved in this order:
- She pulled the listings from every platform and closed the calendar, and stopped taking any further nightly bookings straight away. The bookings already paid for needed separate handling: letting those guests check in would have kept the unlicensed rental running, so we looked at moving them to licensed accommodation or refunding them under the booking terms instead.
- We sent the juristic person a written reply: nightly rentals had stopped as of a stated date, and the unit would only go on leases of a month or longer from then on.
- She chose a minimum term: the law only needs one month, but we suggested three or six, with actual use kept residential and in line with the house rules.
- She now files a TM30 for every foreign tenant within 24 hours.
Changes to the lease and the management agreement
Our lawyers read the management agreement first and found a short-let pool: the company itself listed the unit and checked guests in for a few nights at a time, so the violation continued no matter who signed the lease. The pool and the listings came out; long-term tenants and upkeep stayed with the company.
We then drafted a new lease. The terms are our working recommendations, not requirements of law:
- a minimum term of one month, billed monthly, no nightly rate;
- a ban on subletting or re-letting by the night;
- the house rules attached as a schedule;
- the tenant's duty to hand over details in time for the TM30 deadline.
The ban on re-letting matters most: a one-month lease where the tenant runs nightly bookings anyway is the same illegal hotel under a different name.
The result. The listings came down, the juristic person had its reply, and the unit went on a six-month lease. Income in peak season dropped, but the monthly rent is fixed and no short-term bookings have gone up since. The switch addresses rentals from that point on; any complaint about the months before it needs its own legal assessment, and we make no promise about how it will be resolved.
If your situation is similar
Daily condo rentals without a licence are illegal today, and a monthly lease is safer than waiting on a reform that hasn't passed. General rules for letting out property on Phuket are on our page on renting out property legally.
If you've had a warning, or you're weighing a "guaranteed yield" pitch before you buy, send us the management agreement or draft lease. We'll flag the clauses that keep a unit in a short-let scheme, reply within 24 hours, and fix the cost before we start.
Still choosing a unit? Our team can help with buying a condo in Phuket. The condo buyer's checklist covers seven checks before a deposit; add the house rules on rentals to it. Another typical case: the 49% quota that ran out a week before closing.
