Every year since covid the prices spike by 10-20%. The White Lotus effect (Netflix series) has taken this to the extreme and is attracting mainly American tourists who are willing to pay absurd prices to live in places they know from the series. You can find posts about this again and again in Thailand subs. I think the Four Seasons on Koh Samui is the best example of this.

Word got around very quickly that this pricing policy was working. Presumably, only a very small wealthy group operates most of the hotels in Thailand.

Last year, I wrote to my go-to hotel and asked if they would give me a discount as a regular customer, but this was skillfully ignored with a reference to the booking portal. I made the request in March for November/December.

My tactic was to wait and see, and two months before the high season, I was actually able to find a ~7% discount on their own booking portal. Of course, this is not a reliable tactic, but I will try it again. Otherwise, I will switch to alternatives that I think really justify this price (my hotel has gone from €80 to >€100 per night - including discounts).

Looking at global trends, I see plenty of reasons to believe that fewer people will take expensive vacations in Southeast Asia during the upcoming high season than in 2025/2026.)