Laundry In Pattaya: The How To Guide

Doing laundry in Pattaya is not the most glamorous subject to write about, but one that both first time and regular visitors to Pattaya have questions about. We’ll talk through the various options you have to get your laundry done, compare the services, and compare prices. We’ll even walk you through how each of the laundry options work.

If you are wondering what the best way to do laundry in Pattaya or what the cheapest options are we’ll cover them with you so you can do laundry in Pattaya like a seasoned traveler – saving money and still having clothes that smell and look good. Now let’s take a look at how to do your laundry in Pattaya.

Hotel Laundry Service

One of the first experiences with doing laundry in Pattaya I had as well as many others have is using the laundry service of the hotel you’re staying in. It is quick and convenient. You leave your laundry for housekeeping to pick up and they deliver it back to you the next day cleaned and pressed. They’ll add the total to your hotel room bill so you can pay when upon checkout which is good if you want to put it on a credit card.

How It Works

1. Lurking somewhere around every hotel room is a plastic laundry bag and a laundry list.
2. You count out your pieces of each type of laundry and mark them on the sheet provided.
3. Stuff the clothes in the bag, and leave the cost/item sheet on top.
4. Your maid picks up the laundry and delivers it back to you the next morning or afternoon.

Hotel Laundry Summary

Cost: Expensive

Average Cost For 1 Weeks Laundry:  1,300 THB

Pros

• Quick and convenient
• Offer ‘Rush’ service
• Offer other services like dry cleaning
• Billed to your hotel room. Pay on checkout

Cons

• Cost

Laundry Shops

You can’t walk 10 feet in Pattaya without seeing a bar, 7-11, or laundry shop. Most are small locally owned shops with clothes hanging out to dry in the front of the store. Prices are much cheaper especially so if they charge by the kilo and not by the piece of clothing. Most stores you drop off your clothes and pick them up the next day, cleaned, folded, and bagged for you.

Most of these shops are run by Thai’s with varying degrees of English capabilities. Communication can be difficult if you have a special request above price, clean and iron, and when you can pick up your clothes.

You’ll also notice you don’t get a receipt or ticket to pick-up your clothes. In typical Thai fashion, they just remember you. I’m guess most of these shops don’t get a lot of farang customers everyday which makes things easier. (If they charge by the piece you should get an itemized list with total cost when you pick up your clothes.)

I’ve found most of the laundry stores I’ve used in Pattaya have all done similarly good work and haven’t had any issues thus far or had any clothing come up missing.

It’s not as convenient using a laundry shop as you have to deliver and pickup your clothes yourself. However due to the large numbers of them around the city, you can usually find one next door to your hotel or guest house.

How It Works

1. Pick a laundry near you
2. Pack your clothes into a bag or backpack and head on over
3. Place your dirty laundry into the basket they provide
4. Pick-up up and pay the next day

Laundry Shop Summary

Cost: Cheap

Average Cost For 1 Weeks Laundry:  250 THB

Pros

• Cheap. Those that charge by the kilo are usually the cheapest
• Somewhat convenient – laundries are ubiquitous around Pattaya

Cons

• Can be difficult to communicate
• Don’t usually offer rush or special services like dry cleaning
• Your underwear maybe hanging on a rack to dry on the street for everyone to see 🙂

Laundry Pickup and Delivery

There are several laundry pickup and delivery services in Pattaya. They are typically cheaper than hotels and can often times be competitive with local laundry shops. Delivery is free for minimum orders. It might be a good choice if you want to save some money on laundry and save the hassle of walking across the street.

If you want to check out a couple of the laundry delivery services in Pattaya here are a couple we found. We’ve never used nor do we endorse the following companies, they’re just for your reference.  

Thailand Cleaners and Kittana Laundry

How It Works

1. Make sure you have enough laundry to meet their minimum delivery requirement
2. Call or Email to arrange a pickup time
3. Put laundry in a bag for pickup (Meet driver at the hotel or arrange to leave at front desk)
4. Laundry is delivered back clean, pressed, and folded. Must be there to pay the delivery service

Laundry Pickup and Delivery Summary

Cost: Reasonable

Average Cost For 1 Weeks Laundry:  250 – 380 THB

Pros

• Pickup and deliver to your hotel or guest house
• Usually cheaper than hotels

Cons

• Requires a minimum order for free delivery to make it worthwhile
• Can be more expensive than your local laundry
• Can be inconvenient if you need to wait around your hotel for delivery

Coin-Operated Laundry

These are a good option if you have them in your condo or apartment complex. However, if you are staying a hotel and you want to do it yourself (why would you when it is so cheap to have someone else do it?) you can try and find a coin-operated laundry near your building. Not an easy task.

I’ve seen a few washing machines outside of some of the bigger laundry shops though I never saw anyone using them. Maybe because you need to figure out how to dry your clothes. I’ve yet to see a full coin-operated laundromat like you would find in the west with washers and dryers.

Coin-Operated Laundry Summary

Cost: Super Cheap

Average Cost For 1 Weeks Laundry:  120 THB*

*(40 Baht per load + bag of 80 Baht laundry powder)

Pros

• Let me think about this for a while…
• It’s Cheap

Cons

• You’re doing your own laundry when someone else will do it for $5, including pressing and folding.
• Where you going to dry those clothes?