A rental in Bangkok is only ever judged in two moments: the viewing, and the guest's first ten minutes. Both are decided by the same short list of surfaces, and all of them can be reset in the 48 hours between one tenant leaving and the next arriving. This is the list, what each item costs, and why the photos matter more than the paint.
Why the gap between tenants is the moment
Renovating an occupied unit means working around furniture, scheduling with someone else's life, and doing rooms one at a time. An empty unit between tenants has none of that: the crew walks in, covers nothing, and does every room at once. The same work takes half the time, and the listing photos go up looking new instead of "recently vacated".
The cost of not doing it is the vacant week while the unit sits on the market looking tired, and the first offer that comes in ฿1,000 a month under asking because the viewer priced in the scuffs.
The 48-hour checklist
1. Walls: scuffs, marks and the worst wall
Every wall gets touched up — furniture rub marks, scuffs at knee height, the grey patch behind the sofa. Touch-up only works when the colour matches, which means knowing the colour code. If it is not known, or the old paint has yellowed, the worst wall gets a full repaint and the code is recorded for next time. From then on every reset is a touch-up.
Cost inside a reset: included. Standalone, a single wall repaint is ฿3,500–4,500; a whole room from ฿5,900. Full painting prices are in the guide.
2. Bathroom: grout and silicone
Black grout and mouldy silicone are the single thing guests photograph and the single thing viewers open the door and step back from. One bathroom regrouted — old grout cut out, new mould-resistant grout, all silicone cut out and resealed — takes a day and the shower is usable next morning. It is the highest-return item on this list. Regrouting vs retiling explains why you almost never need the latter.
Cost standalone: from ฿4,900 per bathroom. Inside a reset: included.
3. Holes, cracks and dents
Picture hooks, TV brackets, shelf anchors, the door handle that hit the wall for two years. Filled, sanded, primed and painted to blend. A live crack along the ceiling line gets flexible filler rather than putty so it does not reopen for the next tenant. Standalone wall repair is from ฿2,900 per wall; inside a reset, included.
4. Floors
Lifting laminate joints, a cracked tile, a chipped threshold — fix what is broken, and if the whole floor is tired, this is the moment to lay SPC over it in a day or two rather than during a tenancy. SPC is quoted separately from the reset because it is a bigger decision; the guide prices are on the pricing page.
5. Doors, frames and skirting
Chipped door edges, scuffed frames, skirting pulled loose by a vacuum cleaner. Small, cheap, and the difference between "well kept" and "tired" in a viewing. Included in a reset.
The photo report is the product
Every item above is worth doing. None of them is worth as much as the dated before/after photo report of each room that comes with the work.
When a tenant disputes a deposit deduction, when a guest claims the bathroom was mouldy on arrival, when a platform asks what you did about a complaint, the report is the answer. Dated, room by room, before and after. Most disputes end the moment it is attached. Without it, most disputes end in the tenant's favour, because the landlord cannot prove the condition at move-in.
Take your own photos too. But a report from a third party, dated, with the work itemised, carries more weight than a landlord's phone roll.
HostReady: the reset as one booking
RenoRova's HostReady packages the checklist into one visit priced per unit: touch-up on every wall and a full repaint of the worst one, one bathroom regrouted and resealed, holes and cracks repaired, doors and skirting made good, and the dated photo report per room. Studio ฿14,900, one-bedroom ฿19,900, two-bedroom ฿29,900, scheduled into the 48-hour window between your move-out and move-in dates. Three or more units gets 10% off, and bundling with CleanRova's turnover clean takes another 10% off both, with one crew handing over to the next inside a weekend.
Tell us the move-out date on LINE and the reset is booked around it.
Frequently asked questions
What should I fix between tenants in a Bangkok condo?
In order of what a viewing notices: scuffed and marked walls, black bathroom grout and mouldy silicone, picture-hook and TV-bracket holes, damaged or lifting floors, and chipped door frames and skirting. Fixing these takes a crew one to two days and costs far less than a vacant week.
How much does a between-tenant refresh cost?
RenoRova's HostReady reset is priced per unit: ฿14,900 for a studio, ฿19,900 for a one-bedroom, ฿29,900 for a two-bedroom. It includes touch-up paint on every wall and a full repaint of the worst one, one bathroom regrouted and resealed, holes and cracks repaired, and a dated photo report per room.
Can I deduct repainting from a tenant's deposit?
Only for damage beyond normal wear, and only with evidence. A dated photo report from move-in and another from move-out makes the conversation short. Without one, most disputes end in the tenant's favour.
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Written by the RenoRova Team
We're Bangkok's documented renovation crew — everything we write comes from real painting, regrouting and flooring jobs across condos, homes and short-stay rentals.
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