Reader question: Prices of hotels in low and high season Thailand?

First of all, I would not quickly book with Booking.com as it is almost always the most expensive.
Rarely that this is still "cheap". However, Booking.com is useful when looking for a hotel in an area. Then you Google the name of the Hotel and you get all the booking engines from Google itself with the prices, including your own website.

I have also noticed that hotels on islands, especially on the beach, whether it is good or shabby, are always on the pricey side.

There is also always room everywhere in Thailand, what I usually do is just grab an offer the day before on Agoda or something. Unless you really have certain hotels that you really want to go to, then you should keep an eye on the prices.

Good luck! Unfortunately, I can't help you with what's fun with a toddler.

Dear Liz,
We (wife 40, daughter 8, son 4, me 42) have been back in the Netherlands since last Sunday after a fantastic May holiday in the province of Krabi after 2 1/2 weeks. We did 8 days of Lanta and 8 days of Ao Nang this time. Unfortunately, due to my daughter's compulsory education, we are doomed to take shorter holidays and only during school holidays. We have been coming to Thailand every year for about 20 years now, so have visited Thailand about 20 times, all corners, and everything always mainly driven by rental cars. You mention Phi Phi and Koh Lanta in one sentence, but even though you can clearly see Phi Phi from Lanta, there is a world of difference between the two islands!

If you are traveling with a toddler, I would advise against Phi Phi (Don) and go for the peace and beauty of Lanta. Been to Phi Phi (Don and Lee) three times now, but find it disappointing with small children. Phi Phi is fun if you are in your twenties, partygoer and without children. The beaches turn into fairground attractions from all kinds of open-air discotheques blaring from noon to morning hours. You will find the mess in the morning. Lots of drunk and rowdy young people, and unfortunately that's why the local Thai are a lot more unfriendly than elsewhere and the service is bad and the prices are high. Restaurants have been very disappointing on Phi Phi. Tasteless (simply because of too many foreigners, authentic Thai food is no longer cooked), bad service, high prices. Lots of climbing, narrow dirty paths.

My advice; go with your child to Koh Lanta. Long beach is great. Clean, delicious water and nice people in the different resorts. Last time we were in Sand resorts & Spa. Super friendly staff, speak good English and are especially very nice and helpful to families with small children. And on their website we found an offer that was better than the lowest price on, for example, booking.com and agoda.com. (In any case, it is always better to consult a collective site such as Tripadvisor first, which lists all hotel booking sites so that you immediately see the lowest price. Then put this next to the price of the hotel itself. The daily price will usually turn out higher at the hotel itself, but many resorts give a day or more for free if you stay for example 3 or more nights.) Delicious food at Fat Monkey, highly recommended!

If you have visited Lanta then, I would go for Railay beach or Ao Nang instead of Phi Phi. There is much more to do in Ao Nang, many night markets, restaurants and shops and from the pier in Ao Nang you can take a daily taxi boat for 100 Baht (your child travels for free) to Railay beach or Ao Pranang, real paradises on earth. From Ao Nang it is also easy to do a 4 or 7 island tour. Then you have at least seen all the bounty islands (Koh Hong, Phoda island, Chicken island). We have now visited Ao Nang 5 times, the last 2 times we were in Golden Beach resort, because: right on the beach, all the nice things of Ao Nang within walking distance, yet because it is not on the busy road, very calm at night night and in addition a nice pool and beautiful views (sea and mountain) and nice pool.

Bangkok has so much to do, you could write books about it, but to be honest I wouldn't want to spend too much time there myself with a small child. Too busy, too hot, too stuffy, too hectic… Just ok, but don't think it would make a 4-year-old toddler very happy, who would rather build sand castles in the sand and feel some coolness from a nice sea breeze.

Think that the prices are just in high season at the end of February. I would look on the internet and then ask for hotel info and price via their own website. (usually makes a difference, and it is still nice to have contact right away) They can also tell you better how and what to do with a small child in the hotel / swimming pool / environment)
If you have acquaintances who have already been there in the area where you are looking, they can often name those (cheap) hotels that you cannot find on the internet. (such as a nice guesthouse incl swimming pool/breakfast, etc.)

Of course you still have plenty of time until February to look at the various comparison sites.
Because a certain provider has been a few times more expensive than another, this of course does not mean that this is automatically always the case.
Comparison on the site of, among others, Agoda, Trivago, Booking-com,Expedia, or Momondo/ Hotels can in any case already give you a price and hotel review overview.
You can then choose the price that comes into question for you yourself, and you could also compare it with a possible direct booking in the hotel in question.
It is of course important to check the correct price to see whether the stated price is for the same type of room and whether it is offered with or without breakfast.
Others may advise you to look for hotels locally, so that you can immediately view the possible room.
This last possibility would never come into question for me personally, because I like to be sure in advance, and I also don't feel like dragging my luggage from hotel to hotel at 38°C, hoping to find something.

question is: for a beachfront hotel with a pool, what do you call 'absurdly' high prices? At what price did you think you would have a hotel that meets these conditions? Also the fact that it concerns islands usually makes it more expensive than the prices on the mainland. Island hopping with a 4 year old child? Is that wise and does this help the child at that age?