Hotel check-in and asking locals: Thai phrases

If you’re staying with family, you can skip the first half of this page and go straight to the noodles. If you’re in a hotel for a night or two (the flight was late, the house is full, the aunties are renovating), here’s the Thai for the desk, and then for the street.

Last checked 19 October 2026. The legal bit below can change; the official source is linked.

What will reception ask at check-in?

Your passport, almost certainly, if you check in as a foreigner. Thai law asks hotel managers, landlords and house owners to notify the Immigration Bureau within 24 hours when a foreign guest arrives. It’s called the TM30 notification, and the Immigration Bureau runs an online system for it. It’s routine, not suspicion.

You may hear it asked in Thai, too, in exactly the words a bank clerk or a receptionist uses: ขอดูพาสปอร์ตหน่อยค่ะ, “may I see your passport, please?”. If you’re Thai and checking in with a Thai ID card, the desk will tell you what it needs.

Then the small things, which in our experience are where heritage speakers freeze, because the Thai you grew up with is kitchen Thai, not hotel Thai:

• Where’s the bathroom? The word is ห้องน้ำ (horng naam), literally “the water room”, and ห้องน้ำอยู่ไหน asks where it is.
• Could I have some water?

ขอน้ำหน่อยได้ไหม

khor naam noi dai mai

ขอน้ำหน่อยได้ไหมครับ

khor naam noi dai mai khrap

ขอน้ำหน่อยได้ไหมคะ

khor naam noi dai mai kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

• When the answer comes too fast:

พูดช้าๆ หน่อยได้ไหม

phuut chaa chaa noi dai mai

พูดช้าๆ หน่อยได้ไหมครับ

phuut chaa chaa noi dai mai khrap

พูดช้าๆ หน่อยได้ไหมคะ

phuut chaa chaa noi dai mai kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

Hotel-specific lines (Wi-Fi password, late checkout, an extra pillow, the lift, “the air-con isn’t working”) aren’t in our reviewed Thai yet, so we don’t print them here. Most hotel desks in cities switch to English the moment you hesitate. If you want to stay in Thai, point and smile, and use the phrases above.

How do you order and pay at a restaurant?

The family way is to call the staff by a family word, not “waiter”. Someone your age or a bit older is พี่ (phii), a younger server is น้อง (norng), and the auntie at the wok is ป้า (paa). Then just ask:

ป้า ขอข้าวผัดจานนึง

paa, khor khaao phat jaan nueng

ป้า ขอข้าวผัดจานนึงครับ

paa, khor khaao phat jaan nueng khrap

ป้า ขอข้าวผัดจานนึงค่ะ

paa, khor khaao phat jaan nueng kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

ไม่เผ็ดนะ

mai phet na

ไม่เผ็ดนะครับ

mai phet na khrap

ไม่เผ็ดนะคะ

mai phet na kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

เผ็ดน้อย

phet noi

เผ็ดน้อยครับ

phet noi khrap

เผ็ดน้อยค่ะ

phet noi kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

At the stall you’ll often hear กินที่นี่หรือใส่ถุง, “eat here or take away?”. To take it away: ใส่ถุงกลับบ้าน (sai thung glap baan). If you’d rather point at something in the cabinet, เอาอันนี้ด้วย (ao an nii duai) is “this one too, please”. Ice for the water, from a younger server: น้อง ขอน้ำแข็งหน่อย (norng, khor naam khaeng noi). And at the end:

พี่ เช็คบิลด้วย

phii, chek bin duai

พี่ เช็คบิลด้วยครับ

phii, chek bin duai khrap

พี่ เช็คบิลด้วยค่ะ

phii, chek bin duai kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

More on who’s พี่ and who’s น้อง in Thai family words; it works on strangers too.

How do you ask locals the right questions?

Locals are the best guide in Thailand, but how you ask decides what you get. A few things that work:

• Ask a specific question, not “what’s good around here?”. “Where do you eat lunch?” gets you the real place. A general question tends to get you the polite answer, which is often the tourist one.
• Ask the person who’d know. The security guard knows the noodle stall. The motorcycle-taxi rider knows the soi. Your Grab driver knows which mall has parking. Reception knows which restaurants send guests their way.
• Ask what something is called. It’s the best Thai lesson there is, and people enjoy it:

ภาษาไทยเรียกว่าอะไรนะ

phaa-saa thai riak waa a-rai na

ภาษาไทยเรียกว่าอะไรนะครับ

phaa-saa thai riak waa a-rai na khrap

ภาษาไทยเรียกว่าอะไรนะคะ

phaa-saa thai riak waa a-rai na kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

• Watch where the plastic stools are full. ร้านข้างทาง (raan khaang thaang), the roadside stall, is where Thailand eats.
• If you get lost, หลงทางแล้ว (long thaang laew) is “I’m lost”, and เดี๋ยวส่งโลเคชั่นให้ทางไลน์นะ (diao song lo-khe-chan hai thaang lai na) is “I’ll send you my location on LINE”, which is how half of Thailand gives directions.

We’d love to give you “what do you recommend?” and “what’s this dish called?” as their own lines, but they’re not in our reviewed Thai yet. “What’s it called in Thai?” above does a lot of the same work.

When do you need help, not a phrase?

If something goes wrong (lost passport, a scam, a dispute with a driver), the Tourist Police hotline is 1155, open 24 hours. For a lost passport, your own embassy is the next call; for a lost Thai passport, the Thai authorities. Our page on which passport to use in Thailand has the background for dual citizens.

Practise the stall before the stall

The Visiting Thailand moment in Reply Thai has the ordering, the “not spicy”, the “this one too” and the “I’m lost”, practised as replies so they come out before the auntie has finished asking.

Reply Thai for iPhone: coming soonEmail me at launch

Getting from the hotel to anywhere else? See getting around Bangkok and the apps you need in Thailand.

Thai words on this page are a draft until a native speaker has reviewed them. Last checked 19 October 2026.