The Ministerial Regulation Prescribing Category of Other Types of Building Used for Hotel Business Operation B.E. 2559 (2016) (“Ministerial Regulation”) has been enforced since 19 August 2016 and it would become effective for 5 years from the date of enforcement which is 18 August 2021. It means that an application requesting for changing of the purpose of usage of a building to become a hotel must be filed to the relevant authority within such effective date of the Ministerial Regulation. If any alteration of the building needs to be carried out before obtaining the license on changing of the purpose of usage of the building to become the hotel, an application requesting for license for alteration of the building or an application notifying for alteration of the building under Section 39 Bis of the Building Control Act B.E. 2522 (1979) must be filed to the relevant authority and such alteration of the building must be done within 2 years from the  effective date of this Ministerial Regulation which the period of time off in doing so  has already lapsed.

Currently, many business owners and investors cannot proceed according to the abovementioned due date. Therefore, the Ministry of Interior proposed for the Draft Ministerial Regulation Prescribing Category of Other Types of Building Used for Hotel Business Operation (No. ….) B.E. …. (“Draft Ministerial Regulation”) in order to extend the due date for filing of the application or notifying for alteration and also conducting alteration of the building to be on 18 August 2021. Moreover, the Draft Ministerial Regulation eliminates some conditions of the building which has less than 4 stories in order to reduce burdens of business owners or investors and expedite the process for granting the relevant licenses for operating of such hotel business.

Recently, the Draft Ministerial Regulation has been approved in principle by the Cabinet on 14 August 2018 and it will be submitted to the Office of the Council of State for revision and consideration before returning to the Cabinet for its final approval and publishing in the Government Gazette.

Author: Panisa Suwanmatajarn and Onnicha Khongthon