Occupancy Falls, Pricing Becomes a Must: Ultsch Consult Takes On RoomPriceGenie Market Development in Thailand

Falling arrivals and occupancy are putting pressure on Thailand's hotel market. Ultsch Consult takes on market development for RoomPriceGenie in Thailand.

BANGKOK, THAILAND, August 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Thailand's hotel industry faces marked revenue pressure in 2026, as falling arrivals meet a growing room supply. For Swiss revenue management provider RoomPriceGenie, that is precisely the reason to address the market systematically now. Since August 2026, consultancy Ultsch Consult has been responsible for implementation on the ground.

Bangkok, August 18, 2026. Thailand recorded around 32.97 million international visitors in 2025 – a decline of 7.23 percent year-on-year and the first annual drop since the pandemic. Through early July 2026, arrivals remained cumulatively 3.11 percent below the prior-year level. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has since revised its full-year forecast down to a range of 30 to 34 million arrivals.

For hotels, this is reflected directly in operating metrics. In Bangkok, occupancy fell to 73 percent in the second quarter of 2026, down from 77 percent in the previous quarter; RevPAR declined seven percent to THB 2,672. In Phuket's luxury and upscale segment, occupancy fell to 80 percent in the first half of the year, down from 84.1 percent in the same period last year, while the average daily rate dropped four percent to THB 6,820 and RevPAR fell 8.7 percent. The data is from Cushman & Wakefield Thailand.

Industry pricing expectations also point to caution: according to a survey conducted jointly by the Thai Hotels Association and the Bank of Thailand in March 2026 (138 properties nationwide), close to half of hotels across all categories expected room rates to decline in the second quarter of 2026 – roughly one in seven of them by more than ten percent.

Demand Is Emerging From Pressure, Not Growth

For Florian Ultsch, Founder and CEO of Ultsch Consult, that shifts the basis on which many hotels have priced rooms until now:
"The market isn't growing right now – and that's exactly why this topic matters," says Florian Ultsch. "As long as hotels were full, owners could set prices based on experience. That doesn't work anymore when occupancy is falling and supply is growing at the same time. I regularly sit with owners who manage their rates through a spreadsheet and a glance at OTA results. That's not negligence, it's a resourcing issue – and it costs more in a downturn than in a boom."

Structurally, the market remains attractive. Mordor Intelligence puts the size of Thailand's hospitality industry at USD 24.53 billion for 2026, growing to USD 36.26 billion by 2031, an annual rate of 8.13 percent. Independent properties continue to hold the larger revenue base, while chain operators scale faster. According to Skift Research, only around ten percent of hoteliers worldwide use a dedicated revenue management system – adoption that has historically been concentrated among larger properties and branded chains.

Market Entry Through Local Structure, Not Direct Sales

RoomPriceGenie is already in use at individual properties in Thailand. The partnership is intended to build out that presence systematically. Ultsch Consult has represented the company in the Thai market since August 2026 and is responsible for nationwide market development: access to independent hotels and regional groups across Thailand, guiding conversations through to decision, and translating the product's value proposition into local operating realities. André Kaufmann, Head of Global Partnerships at RoomPriceGenie, explains the reasoning behind choosing a local partner:

"Decisions in Southeast Asia's independent hotel sector run on relationships, not forms," says André Kaufmann. "We can build a product that works for independently owned properties – but we can't build trust from a distance. That takes someone who lives in the market, knows the operators, and speaks the owners' language. That's exactly why we chose this approach."

For European hotel-tech providers, the Thai market is unusually accessible in one respect: access does not necessarily run through global chains. Providers whose solutions scale across independent properties, regardless of whether a hotel has a dedicated revenue team, address the segment that numerically defines the market – a point Leon Pijpers, Chief Commercial Officer at RoomPriceGenie, also makes:

"Our system works whether you're pricing your first room night or you've been managing revenue for years and know exactly what you need," says Leon Pijpers. "A downturn is the right time to bring a system onboard, not the wrong one. It tracks where demand is moving and adjusts before you have to guess. Bringing Florian and the Ultsch Consult team on board gives Thai hoteliers a partner who knows this market from the ground up, and we couldn't be more excited about what that makes possible."


About RoomPriceGenie

RoomPriceGenie is a revenue management system for independent hotels and hotel groups. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered as RoomPriceGenie AG in Steinhausen, Canton Zug. In February 2025, it received a USD 75 million investment from Five Elms Capital; since then, Chas Scarantino has led the company as CEO, while co-founder Ari Andricopoulos serves as Chief Strategy Officer, focusing on product innovation and strategic partnerships. As of February 2025, around 4,500 hotels in 65 countries used the system, with more than 65 system integrations available. www.roompricegenie.com


About Ultsch Consult

Ultsch Consult supports European tourism, hospitality, and hotel-tech companies with market entry and growth in Southeast Asia. Its focus areas are sales representation, market entry strategy, distribution and tech optimization, and B2B partnerships in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore. The company is registered in Singapore.

Ultsch Consult was founded by Florian and Magdalena Ultsch. Florian Ultsch comes from a fifth-generation Tyrolean hotelier family and previously held a senior role at the family-owned hotel group (Boutiquehotel Schwarzer Adler and Adlers Hotel Innsbruck, as well as Harry's Home Hotels & Apartments), where he helped drive its expansion to more than 18 locations across Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. www.ultsch-consult.com

Magdalena Ultsch
Ultsch Consult
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