Scooter Rental Prices in Thailand: What to Pay

A 110–125cc automatic scooter in Thailand typically costs somewhere between 150 and 300 baht a day on the mainland — roughly £3.50 to £7, US$4.50 to US$9, or €4 to €8 — and 200 to 350 baht a day on the busy islands. Weekly rates cut that considerably, and a monthly deal usually costs a fraction of thirty daily rates. Those are typical seasonal ranges, not a tariff.

Scooter hire is cheap enough that price should almost never decide where you rent. The money in a scooter rental is not in the daily rate at all — it is in the deposit, the damage terms and what happens if the machine comes back marked. A quote that is well below everyone else's is usually telling you something about the second half of the transaction rather than the first.

• 110–125cc automatic, mainlandAround 150–300 baht a day
• Same machine, popular islandsAround 200–350 baht a day
• By the monthCommonly around 2,500–4,000 baht
• Where the real money sitsThe deposit and the damage terms, not the rate

What each class of machine costs

Almost every rental scooter in Thailand is one of a handful of models — the Honda Click, Scoopy and PCX, the Yamaha Mio, Fino, Aerox and NMAX, and the semi-automatic Honda Wave. What you pay tracks engine size and how new the machine is.

The larger machines are a different rental market with different requirements, including real licence checks and much bigger deposits — see renting a big bike in Thailand. For everything else, the choice between a 110 and a 150 is about your route and your load rather than your budget: 110cc or 150cc: choosing a rental scooter.

Why island prices run higher

Three things push island rates up. Every machine had to arrive on a ferry and every part for it still does, so maintenance costs more. Demand is concentrated into a small area with no alternative transport, which is exactly the position a scooter shop wants to be in. And island roads are harder on machines — salt air, sand, steep climbs and short, hard journeys — so bikes wear out faster and are replaced sooner.

The same forces push the damage terms in an unhelpful direction. Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Samui all have long-standing reputations for deposit and damage disputes, which is a pattern worth knowing before you hand over money rather than after: renting a scooter on Koh Tao and renting a motorbike on Koh Phangan cover the local picture.

Seasonal movement

Scooter rates move less dramatically than car rates, because the fleet is large and cheap to hold. Expect the top of each range over Christmas, New Year and Songkran, and the bottom of it in the wettest months. On the Andaman side the wet months are roughly May to October; on the Gulf islands they run later, roughly October to December, so the two coasts do not price in step.

Where season really shows is in bargaining power. In April on Phuket you take what is available. In September you can walk between three shops in the same street and ask each of them what they will do on a two-week hire.

What is actually included

• The machine and one helmet. A second helmet for a pillion is usually free but frequently has to be asked for. Both riders are legally required to wear one — see Thailand's helmet law — and the shop helmet is typically a thin open-face shell of unknown standard. Rental helmets in Thailand covers how to judge it.
• Not fuel. Bikes are almost always handed over close to empty and expected back the same way. Budget a little for petrol; a 110cc scooter costs very little to fill.
• Not damage cover. This is the important one. A typical Thai scooter rental has no waiver, no excess and no product to sell you — the agreement simply makes you responsible for damage and for the machine's full replacement value if it is stolen or written off.
• Compulsory third-party cover on the vehicle, in principle. Por Ror Bor pays for injury to people and nothing at all for property, including the bike you are sitting on. Compulsory vs voluntary insurance in Thailand explains the shape of it.

When a cheap quote is a warning

A shop 50 baht a day below the street is competing normally. A shop half the going rate is usually recovering the difference somewhere else, and the recurring patterns are well documented enough to name.

• The deposit becomes the product. A low rate paired with an unusually large cash deposit, or with a demand for your passport, shifts the risk onto you. Never hand over a passport — passport as deposit for motorbike hire sets out why, and what to offer instead.
• Damage is priced afterwards. If nobody will tell you what a scratched panel or a replacement mirror costs before you ride away, the number is being kept flexible on purpose. Ask, and ask for it in writing.
• No written agreement at all. A verbal hire with no contract and no condition record is the version of this transaction with the least protection for the renter.
• An old, hard-used machine at a new machine's price. Bald tyres and spongy brakes are a safety problem first and a damage-argument problem second, because worn parts fail and failures get charged to whoever was riding.

Rental scams in Thailand and how to spot them goes through the recurring mechanisms in detail. The single best protection costs nothing: a slow, narrated video of the machine before you ride away, described in the motorbike rental inspection video.

The deposit is part of the price

Thai scooter shops usually secure the bike with cash — commonly a few thousand baht — occasionally with a card, and disgracefully often by asking for a passport. A cash deposit is real money that has left you, and getting it back depends on the shop handing it over. That makes the deposit terms a bigger part of the true price than the rate, and it is worth choosing a shop on that basis. Rental deposits in Thailand explained compares the three forms.

Frequently asked questions