How Thai hotels and resorts actually sell
The wholesale layer still moves the volume
Beneath the OTA listings, a large share of Thai resort business is contracted: wholesalers and DMCs negotiate seasonal rates and allotments, overseas agents bring series and famil trips, and incentive houses place groups that fill shoulder weeks. These relationships run for years, restart every contracting season, and live or die on whether the property remembers what was agreed last time. Destination weddings add a second rhythm: long lead times, emotional decisions, site inspections flown in from abroad, and payment schedules that stretch across a year.
Two markets, two chat apps
International buyers open with WhatsApp or email; the Thai domestic market lives on LINE and the phone. Most properties track the first and lose the second. The fix is not another inbox; it is one pipeline that every enquiry reaches within a minute of arriving, whatever app it came from.