New disco in Patong?

[Samm(:]

Ok.. I didnt think the construction you showed me extended forward like that.. Even thought the buildings were seperate (seem to remember my missus going between them and behind yours one night to puke and pass out.. Lessong to missus, dont drink shots 1:1 with boyfriend)..

 

[Awesome Kevin- 47 (AK-47)]

Hi Guys,

Patong is desperately in need of a decent nightclub.
Not hookers/freelancers orientated. (Tai Pan, Tiger etc).

The structure of clientele in Patong (Phuket in general) changed in fast pace over the last years. As some of you might know I work for a big foreign tour operator from Europe, selling package tours (tens of thousands).
Here are some numbers related to our coming operation in winter 2006/2007:
Patong : 85 % couples (age group 25- 50 years about 80%)
Kata / Karon : 90% couples (age group 25- 50 years about 75%)
Kamala / Bang Tao : 95% couples (age group 25- 50 years about 70% )

Through our guide network we have access to almost 90% of our customers, means we know what they are looking for and what they would like to have/see.

Clearly a mayor downturn is the lack of night venues.
There are enough restaurants though. Also a number of pre- night venues (outside seating areas/several at Beach Road (like open air bar Ban Thai / Rock City / La Baia/ Homebar)

The concept of La Bai or Homebar was aimed at night venue. But clearly it’s not.
The layout of both is not suitable without a decent dance floor(Also who wants to sit upstairs in La Baia ? / Who wants to sit downstairs in Homebar ? ).
Both had a very good approach though in terms of design / style. That’s certainly the way to go and could work.

They only decent place for couples is banana disco. That speaks for itself since it’s a small and poor designed nightclub.

The perfect place should be bigger than La Bai & Homebar, keeping their design,interior ideas, have a dance floor and reasonable prices (La Baja and Homebar are too expensive). Shouldn’t be a problem if it’s much bigger.

The location is not that important ! It should be in Patong but doesn’t need to be in a very central location.

All the major tour operators would recommend such a place. And don’t underestimate the power of the organized tour operators since they control at least 70% of all customers coming to Patong / Phuket.

If anybody plans such a venue in the future please contact me. I will certainly support such actions and without being interested in any form of financial appreciation.

Just would be nice to have some VIP cards for our representatives.

Cheers.

 

[Babby22]

You not been down underground lately ??

Dont forget fog machines.. Lots of fog..

 

[Loretta]

And foam, never done it before, but looks like fun

 

[tropical bubble]

I am not in total agreement there though Ben, your numbers look very biased to me (85% of visitors to Patong are not couples for sure, perhaps via your bookings ?? ) and the places you lay out as the right style are both frankly biz failures and money pits (they cant even give Home bar away)..

I too think the club scene here is fairly poor but you need to make money to keep them running.. Even if I think a 'proper' club with good DJ's good lighting, emphasis away from the meat market / pickup joints could work the continued popularity of the tiger / tai pan venues just shows they seem to have the right thing for the current market.

 

[nitwig//0]

Fun once.. Messy tho..

Remember place on Lamai just used to fill the bar with foam.. sitting there in a foam cloud.. nuts..

 

[rachel c]

i think a blend of both is nice. i dont mind some sort of dress code because it does tend to keep the rugrats away
i think a perfect place was that disco that was owned by the swedish guy down near paradise. i forget the name. but it was nicely appointed without the pretension

 

[Climbin.metal]

Hi Lil,
yes the numbers I mentioned are just biased on our own operation.
I'm writing about package tourists. Not ''punters'' (no offence !).
However it's a hugh market and increasing steadily and becomes more and more important.
I see that the number of sex tourists is declining a lot (not in Pattaya though).
LIL, please see the big pictute. Phuket is not only Patong.
Surrounding (Patong) tourists destinations are becoming more and more an important factor in the whole outlook of the whole island. The government is supporting that and the future will be going i that direction.

Hotels want to have double rooms ( not single roms). Of course it's the same price but the possibility of double rooms (2persons) are more likely to offer more revenue (2 persons inestad of 1 eating and drinking in the hotel venues).

Anyway, I totaly agree with you that ''HOMEBAR'' AND ''LA BAIA'' are certainly not the venues which you want to operate.
Both are doomed to fail.
What I wanted to state is simple that it's necessary to have a nightclub venue which is catering to the ever increasing number of ''normal tourits'' which is going to dominate the future of Phuket.

In my statement I didn't go that far to suggest the perfect blueprint for a venue. I'm sure that your ideas regarding DJ's and are valuble. I totaly agree on that. You need to do something different.

Best regards
BEN

 

[The Wormist]

Paul
I think it is the new Club 730 ( if I remeber the name correct) now.
He wanted to sell it for a long time

Peter.g

 

[Dances4Demeter]

As we have a new disco opening soon being more upmarket it will be interesting to follow that case and see if they succeed or not, I think they have potential, but 300 baht/beer sounds expensive.

 

[Moon Light]

sounded like it. it was a nice place

 

[celtish]

300 baht for a beer? That's steep.

Then again, they are probably pricing it that way to keep riff-raff like me out of their club!!

 

[TheBestOfTheBest]

I too don't mind a bit of door control by fair minded doormen....

but I am thinkin' more like no falling down or angry drunks.....no rubber thongs/flipflops worn with exposed beer belly tank tops and stubbies (very short shorts)...........55555

and I guess the blokes would need some dress code as well.........:biggrinlo

 

[Anna S]

I know where Hobbsy is coming from... Some doormen in Oz used to think they were King Ding A Ling... And the chicks in those places would think their kunts were made of gold or something... People walking around with their noses so high up in the air... People looking at each other to see what they were wearing.... But still i did enjoy it from time to time... But at the same time the people i met in those places seemed fake and many felt they were better the the next guy/girl when in reality they were going home to mom or their shitty little apartments... A balance is nice and i don't really find the "nice" asian clubs to be that or as pretentious as the nightclubs in the west. Although they do exist in Asia but nowhere near as many and people get treated more like equals... Well sort of…

 

[Christie]

Drink in a bar first and then go to the place just for dancing

I dont think couples or families (Parents being out for a night) drink much anyway.

 

[Zahra]

Hi all,

Actually (from earlier in this thread), that new Club 730 aint that bad - i see they now have some happy hour or whatever with half price on beers till midnight, and heard something about they are starting up some salsa-nights or something on fridays, thats a little out of the ordinary, wouldnt u say?

Anyways, im excited to see what the new disco can provide. I talk to travel agencies/guides, and they also think a "nicer" disco would be a nice attraction to the nightlife - lets wait and see

 

[Dylan Calvert]

I think all this is quite relative... I wouldn't say there are doomed to fail but they are just failing and will probably continue to fail. The designs of both places are quite nice and modern. However i think its the location thats kills them. Homebar is down a dark little soi which i know is very uninviting, La Baia you wouldn't even know about unless you happen do go up/drive up soi Ruamjai. They could work given the right location and better marketing concepts, targeting the right clientele etc etc. I think Homebar is failing purely based on their location and as for La baia, well its nice... But really not that special...

 

[Pamela]

Maybe being a bit harsh on Home Bar - I know Peter has put a fair bit of effort into it and he is looking to attract the higher end crowd shall we say rather than just be another bar. Soi Viking has a lot of construction going on - Ricco's new hotel and a new bar/resturant on the corner. Peter has opened up the front wall of Home Bar which makes it more inviting, and I like to go there for a stress/hastle free drink now and then.

La Baia I've never been as its too far to walk from Bangla - same with Club 730 - although was told by one of the LB at C&D that it was very quiet in there, still one day I should take a look. I really see that any nightclub that the tuk-tuks cant stop directly outside has found it very hard .... these include Pasha, Tin Mine/The Beach and Club Pirate. The tuk-tuks shepherd the late nighters to and from the clubs and this I think is key to a successful operation - of course a good DJ/sound system and plenty of girls is a further pre-requisit.

 

[jacovkss2]

now this is coming from a guy that has no experience running a bar, but was a maitre' d for a large catering hall, so have dealt with people
if i owned Home Bar or any other high end bar, i would be frequenting most of the 5 star hotels and having drinks in their bars, get to know people
go up to Baan Yin Dee and have dinner and get to know the owners there, which is very easy to do with small boutique hotels
just network. i understand that thailand is a whole new ballgame but i think that could go a long way in getting people that have the same clientele that your looking for recommend your establishment

 

[nadia ? ...xx]

yip...in all business' ,,,its about networking,,period.