Key points
- More guests who have never been to Thailand. Low season brings repeat visitors and long stays. High season brings families from Europe, groups from China and Korea over the holidays, and Russians escaping winter. They ask more, and they ask the basics.
- Shorter stays, more turnovers. More check-ins means more "where is the key card" and "can we check in early" conversations per week.
- Overnight flights. Flights from Europe land in Bangkok and Phuket in the early morning. Early check-in requests go up sharply.
On this page
High season in Thailand runs roughly from November to February, with a second peak around Songkran in mid April. Calendars fill, rates go up, and so does everything else: back-to-back turnovers, more first-time visitors, and a wave of guest messages in every language at every hour. A host who comfortably handles six units in the rainy season can feel underwater with the same six in December.
This page is about the messaging side: what changes, how to prepare in October, which replies to have ready, and where an AI front desk fits.
What changes in high season
- More guests who have never been to Thailand. Low season brings repeat visitors and long stays. High season brings families from Europe, groups from China and Korea over the holidays, and Russians escaping winter. They ask more, and they ask the basics.
- Shorter stays, more turnovers. More check-ins means more "where is the key card" and "can we check in early" conversations per week.
- Overnight flights. Flights from Europe land in Bangkok and Phuket in the early morning. Early check-in requests go up sharply.
- Peak dates. Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year bring full buildings. Pools are crowded and guests message about it.
- Time zones against you. A German family's evening planning happens at 1 AM Bangkok time.
- Everyone else is busy too. Cleaners, the handyman and the aircon technician have less slack. Problems that take an hour in June take a day in December.
Prepare in October, not December
Write the facts down. Every question you answered twice last season goes into one document per building and one per unit. Wifi, key card, pool hours, hot water, aircon remote, Grab pickup point, airport route, nearest 7-Eleven, luggage storage, early check-in policy, late checkout policy. If you do nothing else, do this.
Set your early check-in and late checkout policy and stick to it. High season is when back-to-back bookings make "sure, come at noon" impossible. Decide now: what you offer (luggage storage, a message when the unit is ready), what you charge if anything, and what you will not promise.
Schedule the pre-arrival message. Airbnb and Booking.com both allow scheduled messages. One the day before arrival with the building rules and arrival steps, one on arrival morning with the lockbox code.
Confirm your cleaners' holiday plans. Songkran and New Year are holidays for Thai staff too. Know who is working on which days before the calendar fills.
Check the aircon. Every unit, every remote, every filter. "The aircon is not cold" is the most expensive message in December because the technician is booked for days.
Replies to have ready
Hi Lukas, I see you land at 6 AM. Check-in is at 3 PM and in high season the unit is almost always occupied the night before, so I cannot promise an earlier time. You can leave your bags with the building reception from 8 AM and explore, there is a café and a 7-Eleven downstairs. I will message you the moment the cleaner finishes, which is often early afternoon.
New Year noise reminder (send on 31 December in the afternoon)
Happy New Year from all of us. A quick note: the building asks for quiet on balconies and in corridors after 10 PM, even tonight. The riverside fireworks are visible from the rooftop and the lobby can tell you the best spot. Have a great evening.
Thank you for telling me. First, please set the remote to the snowflake symbol and 25 degrees, and check that the balcony door is fully closed; in the hot afternoon the unit takes 20 to 30 minutes to cool. If it is still warm after that, send me a photo of the remote screen and I will arrange a technician. During the holidays they can take a day to come, so I will also look at a fan or another solution in the meantime.
Your flight is at 11 PM, so I understand the day is long. Checkout is at 11 AM and a new guest arrives the same day, so I cannot extend it today. You are welcome to leave your bags with reception until the evening and use the pool and gym; the showers by the pool are open to guests.
The honest arithmetic
High season brings far more messages per unit than low season, and a larger share of them arrive between midnight and 7 AM Bangkok time because the guests are European. With ten units that is a real workload, not a background task. Three options exist: answer them yourself and accept the sleep loss, pay someone to cover nights, or put an AI front desk on the inboxes.
The first works until it does not. The second costs money and still needs the facts written down somewhere. The third is why we built Tokay.
What an AI front desk changes
Tokay is an AI front desk for short-term rental hosts, built in Bangkok by a host who still runs apartments through every high season. It answers guests on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo from the facts you wrote down in October, in the guest's own language, at any hour.
In high season the pieces that matter most:
- Pam, the front desk agent, replies around the clock in more than ten languages including Thai, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Russian, German and French. The German family's 1 AM question is answered in German before they go to bed.
- Sam, the operations agent, writes tomorrow's cleaning brief every night and updates it when plans change: a late checkout you approved, an early check-in, extra guests. Cleaners are reached on LINE, where they already are. In back-to-back December this is the difference between a cleaner who knows and a cleaner who guesses.
- Ivo, the revenue agent, reviews prices every morning and recommends changes for you to approve. Every change can be undone for two days.
- The host stays in charge. For the first two weeks every reply comes to you to approve, edit or deny with a tap. Then you switch on what it may send alone, one kind of question at a time. Anything upset or uncertain comes to you first, and if a fact is not on file, Tokay asks rather than guessing.
On our own apartments this meant every guest answered 24/7, the Airbnb communication rating up from 4.81 to 4.97, and about two taps a day of guest work left for the host. Tokay connects in about ten minutes with nothing to install; it does not connect Agoda. Pricing is on the pricing section.
Questions hosts ask
When is high season in Thailand for short-term rentals?
Roughly November to February, with peaks at Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year, and a second peak around Songkran in mid April. Low season runs roughly May to October with rain, and longer stays.
How do I handle early check-in requests in high season?
Set one policy before the season: no promised early check-in on back-to-back days, free luggage storage, and a message as soon as the unit is ready. Say it warmly and early, ideally in the pre-arrival message, so guests plan for it.
What should I prepare before the season starts?
Written facts for every building and unit, scheduled pre-arrival messages, a clear early check-in and late checkout policy, cleaners' holiday availability, and an aircon check on every unit. If you plan to use an AI front desk, connect it in October so the two-week approval period is over before December.