Hi all

how to safeguard an investment against protection rackets, local corruption, having your lease sold and new owners not respecting previous agreements etc.

I'm a newbie here.
ex-diving instructor from Koh Tao, turned eco property developer in US.

Question:
Are there any people here with Lodging businesses on Kah Rong Samloem ?
interested in sharing their experiences, particularly w.r.t how to safeguard an investment against protection rackets, local corruption, having your lease sold and new owners not respecting previous agreements etc.

I'm particularly interested in horror stories and how they could have been avoided.

Maybe KRS or even Cambodia is the wrong location, thoughts?

I'm primarily motivated by the idea of creating a lodging business which actually grows because of we care for the local environment no plastic, regular clean-up crew.
Also using innovative building techniques to g a little higher end than average, provide microwave internet to areas that are dead spots, use high-end water purification solar powered also.
sustainable power generation using the best in class.

I have heard a lot about KR and KRS but from what I'm hearing it appears almost impossible to protect a significant investment long term,
and the current rampant development is gonna kill it just as it did my beloved K Tao and many other places.

I'm looking to make friends with people who have real experiences and knowledge in this area.
I'm well aware of the challenges, but we have resources and significant investment to do it right an create a long-term triple bottom line business model that protects the environment, valuing pristine areas & creates value and culture of social and environmental protection through long-term high-quality employment and mutual win-win benefit.

No noisy generators here, solar ac, 365 days running hot and cold water and high speed 24 hr internet with power. aimed at smart expats on a permanent basis, not backpacker crowd
But in a great location for people who want it all built sustainably with long-term growth in mind in balance.

sunsets, yoga great healthy food social life, sustainability, loving of internet businesses based in paradise with a sustainable business model and win win for all concerned.
Is this possible given social and business dynamics and legal rights here?

I suspect KR with huge development plan won't work, hence need for an alternate.

any thoughts or contacts privately you can reach me on [email protected]

Thanks

I think you have a laudable pipe dream. Most people who go to KRS and spend a few nights are stoned-out-of-their-mind, 20-something European Caucasians-with-dreads on the 'snail tail'... who wince at paying $7 a night for their accommodation. Families and the type of guest you want to attract do visit... but mostly only as part of a day trip from Sihanoukville/Otres. You may say "Build it and they will come." To that, I say you must ask yourself "Can I be competitive?" Good luck... most Chinese don't really 'give a shit' about the environment.

Below is a "Soapbox' article from Travelfish by Stewart McDonald (parts may be relevant) -

Putting the eco in eco-friendly

I recently read a story on the travel industry looking for ways that both hotel properties and their guests can become more eco-friendly. This quote by Sofia Fotiadou jumped out at me:

“What does it matter if a hotel is recycling if there are no recycling plants in the destination?”

I would answer that question with a question: Why are luxury hotels, which bring with them massive waste concerns, being built in destinations that cannot cope with the waste? Why are these hotels being built at all?

Living in Bali, a destination that is truly being buried under a mountain waste, we see this every day. Down south on the Bukit peninsula—a geographic feature that is essentially a huge rock with next to no boreable water—barely a season passes without some new gargantuan private pool villa-estate getting the go-ahead. Their construction pits sit like festering sores along what was once Bali’s wildest and least disturbed coastline—good luck getting to some of those beaches now, as many of the resorts often do their upmost to block public access. Bali isn’t the only place where these events are unfolding, of course.

Sure, these properties may put in power-friendly lightbulbs and your towels will only be washed if you leave them on the floor. Indeed, they’ll probably get some eco-friendly award for doing this. But if you look at these developments through your eco-friendly lenses, not one of them should have even been built.

A truly independent, legitimate way of accurately gauging the eco-friendliness of hotels would be a welcome tool for travellers. And it should absolutely include in the matrix all the damage the hotels did to the environment in the first place.

Devastating the natural environment then getting an award because you used the right light bulbs treats us all as fools.

thanks im aware of all that...and Im planning for what will be not what is,
I was in Kah samui 30+ years ago before the airport and look at it now.

same process everywhere 7$ rooms morph into 200K condo developments in 15 years
what Im trying to do is create a unique safe opportunity to protect form overdevelopment.

thanks you though

my questions were re is such a development legal safe and or would it suffer from corruption and or protection racquet once successful ?

if you can help answer that or know people with that experience in business on the islands Im all ears. ?

adamB60 wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 4:24 am what Im trying to do is create a unique safe opportunity to protect form overdevelopment.

The only way to protect from over-development is to have 'development laws'; however, TIC - there are none (nor are there likely to be); or, you could always buy the whole island.

P.S. Even if you did buy the whole island, you'd still have two 'landlords' -

adamB60 wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 4:24 amwhat Im trying to do is create a unique safe opportunity to protect form overdevelopment.

my questions were re is such a development legal safe and or would it suffer from corruption and or protection racquet once successful ?

Wrong country.

Cruisemonkey wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 4:38 am

adamB60 wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 4:24 am what Im trying to do is create a unique safe opportunity to protect form overdevelopment.

The only way to protect from over-development is to have 'development laws'; however, TIC - there are none (nor are there likely to be); or, you could always buy the whole island.

bingo, economy of scale, no point being the truly eco friendly mom n pop boutique eco resort with 10 bungalows while 10m down the roads u hv heaps of uncleared rubbish or pristine white beaches tainted with untreated raw sewage, once u had the scale, maybe the govt might even lend u a helping hand or an approving nod to showcase that they had "cared" for the environment, imo thats the only way to make a real difference

Thanks, folks you're confirming what I suspected

so how do bigger operations protect themselves?

Like https://www.songsaa.com/

any ideas folks ?

or any suggestions as to alternate countries or locals where I could pull something like this off?

Maybe Guadeloupe on the Pigeon Island side near the marine national park.
If you are absolutely loaded you might sniff around Myanmar's Mergui archipelago and find a high ranking local partner.