We manage to find some time to do an interview with the founder and owner of Bestie Thai Costume, Khun Nay. All these while, you have been reading our updates from the point of view of admin Lee. Today, you get to read about why Khun Nay decided to start Bestie Thai Costume and the woman behind it all.
Admin: Sawadee Khrap Khun Nay!
Khun Nay: Sawadee Ka Khun Lee!
Admin: Khun Nay, first of all, thank you for finding the time to do this long overdue interview with me! I understand that you are very busy the last couple of months. Can you first of all, introduce yourself to us?
Khun Nay: Yes, I was very busy the last couple of months due to renovations for the new shop! I am very excited about the opening of the new shop and hope to bring more beautiful memories to our customers. Introduce myself? Well, how do I start? Well, my name is Nay and I am the owner of Bestie Thai Costume. In my formative years, I've taken all kind of jobs and eventually I got into the jewelry and gemstones business and have conducted business in many foreign countries. Then COVID happened and business was so bad that I had to shut down the business and cut my losses. After the pandemic is over, I had to make ends meet and in the end after consulting my current business partner, I decided to open up a Thai Costume Rental shop as my home is directly opposite the Wat Arun Exit. My first shop was actually in my car porch and it was named Thai Costume Wat Arun by Nay and started business in October 2022.
Admin: A car porch? Wow! How was business back then?
Khun Nay: Business was okay, when I started Thai Costume Wat Arun by Nay, there was already a couple of shops in business and my best friend was vehemently against it, his rationale was that there are always several existing shops in the area and it would be hard to make it profitable. However after several conversations, I decided proceed with my gut feeling, my best friend probably sensing my determination told me that I should not enter into a price war with the existing shop. After all, this is our National Costume that we are talking about. I did my research together with my best friend who ended up being my business partner and we felt that setting a cut throat price would be an insult to our National Costume, thus we decided on a pricing that is not only fair but also reflects the authenticity and quality that our shop delivers. Of course, due to the fact that we are not dirt cheap, we do lose out on the market share. However that is not the demographic of customers that we are targeting. Our targeted customer base are people who wants authenticity, people who wants clean, fresh and quality costumes, people who wants an authentic Traditional Thai Costume experience.
Admin: So what actually happened to Thai Costume Wat Arun by Nay?
Khun Nay: Somewhere in August 2023, I decided to upgrade to a bigger space and along the way, I ask my partner to suggest a name and thus Bestie Thai Costume was born. There's several iterations of how he came upon the name, Bestie Thai Costume. One was that it was originally suppose to be a partnership between myself and one of my best friends. Another was that it was a tribute to his friendship with his best friend! He told me however that he came up with the name simply because he wants us to be the best.
Admin: Interesting! Tell us more about how different is Bestie Thai Costume from Thai Costume Wat Arun by Nay.
Khun Nay: Well, for one, it is a proper shop not a car porch. Also we wanted to set ourselves apart from the rest, so we introduced tiers. For the ladies, we have the Standard Traditional Thai Costumes, the Premium Traditional Thai Costumes, the Deluxe Traditional Thai Costumes and lastly we have the Exclusive Traditional Thai Costume. For the gentlemen, we have the Standard and the Premium. So there is something for everyone. We also ensure all our Costumes comes with a complete set of accessories included for free.
Admin: Would you mind explaining to us what is the difference between the different tiers of Costumes?
Khun Nay: Yes of course! First of all, as mentioned, all our ladies Costumes comes with a complete set of accessories included for free. This five piece set includes the body chain, belt, bangles, pendant and earrings. Our Standard Costumes as the name implies is our more popular range, there was once a popular Hong Kong vlogger Miss Ceci who did a short video review saying that our costume quality is comparable to that of Sense of Thai. That for us, is a very big compliment as Sense of Thai is the pioneer of thai costume rentals and their costumes rents out for 600 to 800 Baht. Our Standard Costumes are 300 Baht, so it is a very huge compliment for us that Miss Ceci pointed out our quality.
Then there is the Premium Traditional Thai Costumes As the name suggests, this tier offers a more luxurious option, with higher quality materials and more intricate color schemes. Customers seeking an extra special look often choose the Premium tier. This option is priced at 600 Baht.
Up next is our Deluxe Traditional Thai Costumes. We currently offer the Deluxe Sapphire and Deluxe Silver costumes, I came up with the concept and sourced for the materials and my partner came up with the names for these two distinctive Costumes which are quite popular with our foreign customers. Our Deluxe Traditional Thai Costumes are 1000 Baht each.
Lastly we have the Exclusive Traditional Thai Costume. I conceptualize and design this costume which includes a traditional head dress & arm band accessory. The sabai which is the shawl is specially adorned with gold beads which I sew on piece by piece. This one-of-a-kind Costume is perfect for customers looking to indulge in a luxurious experience and be a Thai Princess for a day! The Exclusive is priced at 1500 Baht and we only have 1 set available.
Admin: Amazing! So tell us more about Bestie Thai Costume.
Khun Nay: I would say that if there is one thing sets Bestie Thai Costume apart from Thai Costume Wat Arun by Nay apart from being an actual shop front is that we are more focused on the quality and service aspect. My business partner and myself often look at Bestie Thai Costume and brainstorm on how we can further improve ourselves to provide customers with a better experience. For example, we realize from online feedback from customers that they often felt unsafe when staff suddenly just pull the curtains and they felt exposed. Therefore I've made it a rule that my staff should never open the curtains of the dressing area, the customers will open it when they are done changing. I've also made it so that no two different genders are allowed in the dress area at any one time. It might seem like a small issue but it is the small details that people often overlook.
We've also taught our staff that they should always check with the customers during the makeup process to see if there is anything the customer does not like. If the customer do not like a certain aspect of the makeup, we will redo it for her until she is happy. This is something I am adamant about, customers spend their money at Bestie Thai Costume, therefore it is my responsibility to ensure they leave my shop looking good.
Admin: Wouldn't that mean spending more money on makeup?
Khun Nay: I would rather spend more money on buying makeup, than have a customer leave my shop unhappy. Till date, having been in business for 3 years already, we never had any customers who are not happy. At least not that I know of. Do I want to make money? Of course I do. Who doesn't like to make money? However, as much as I like to make money, I also like to make my customers happy. I want them to leave Thailand with a beautiful memory of their time here. I had customers who came back twice, thrice and just like my partner said, it is because simply because they are happy with our service, which is why they came back. Everyone wants profit but I also want my customers to leave Thailand and spreading the word about the good service that they received at Bestie Thai Costume.
Admin: Have you ever had any customers who are just simply a headache to deal with.
Khun Nay: Not really though we do have a couple of customers who went missing with our Costumes and that is quite upsetting. To counter this, we sometimes do ask customers for photos of their passports. As inconvenient as it sounds, we cannot risk losing more Costumes. Our Costumes are not cheap to begin with and every Costume is treated with gentle loving care.
Admin: Tell us about the new shop!
Khun Nay: Well, the new shop have a lot of new features as you would know!
Admin: Yes I do but the readers don't!
Khun Nay: Hahaha! Okay, without giving away too much, this is what I can say; the new shop is bigger than the current shop and we now actively looking for good, hardworking individuals to join us. Also we would be doing monthly promotions so do follow us on our social media platforms for all our promos and perks. These will only be on our social media platforms and unless you are following us on social media, you probably won't know about these promos.
Admin: Tell us how do you feel about those doing low cost rentals?
Khun Nay: This is a very sensitive topic but as a businesswoman, I can tell you that cut-throat prices almost always never work out in the long run and I feel very sad as a Thai person that there are people who are disrespecting our National Costume by labeling it with such dirt cheap pricing. Where is the pride? You could never rent a Han Fu or Qi Pao in China for 23 Chinese Yuan (about 100 Thai Baht) or a Hanbok in Korea or a Yukata in Japan for that same pricing.
It is not simply a matter of making profit, how much profit can you make renting out a costume at 100 baht? It is about respecting the heritage of our National Costume and to be blunt, renting it out at 300 Baht, we are not exactly making a lot of profit either. People tends to forget that we have to factor in rent, ultilities and staff to pay for as well. What we are charging here at Bestie Thai Costume is a respectable pricing with top notch service and quality costumes.
However like my business partner always like to say, we are targeting different demographics, we will focus on ourselves and focus on providing the best service possible. Bestie Thai Costume's targeted demographic are people who wants to experience an authentic Traditional Thai Costume experience with the best quality at an affordable price point complete with exceptional customer service. If you want cheap, then you have to understand that cheap is cheap for a reason. The shops that offers 100 - 200 Baht will not pay attention to quality service, don't take my word for it, just go look at the online reviews. Again, I have no beef against those who are doing these cut-throat pricing, but when you see and feel the quality of their costumes and accessories, then you would know why it is so cheap.
Admin: Well said indeed. I cannot imagine being able to rent a Han Fu for 23 Chinese Yuan. I would probably be called a crazy person for even asking. It is definitely worth mentioning that Bestie Thai Costume does set the benchmark for quality and service!
Khun Nay: I would very shamelessly agree with that. My business partner who is in charge of all online matters from website to social media with regards to Bestie Thai Costume only works with the few top photographers out of the 400+ freelance photographers plying their in the area. He is quite insistent that he will only accept a couple of top photographers for his direct bookings and though initially I do not quite understand, now I do. We do not use photographers who have a bad attitude and bad photography. From online customer service to our in-shop customer service to photography to after sales for the customers, we aim to give the customer the best service one can imagine.
Admin: I can imagine!
Khun Nay: When we first started Bestie Thai Costume, we would just take any random photographer who is available. It is not until my business partner brings it up that we decided to only work with the best photographers for our bookings and it does make sense. We already have the best costumes, the best customer service, why not provide the best photography service as well?
Admin: The best attracts the best. How do customers go about making a booking and what are the benefits of a booking compared to a walk in then?
Khun Nay: Well, walk in customers pay retail prices whether it Costume rental, rental of optionals like footwear, additional accessories, etc and for photography service, we don't really have a choice but to get them a photographer and whoever is in the queue waiting for a job, well gets the job. For bookings though, my partner have the authority to give discounts, freebies and most importantly a guaranteed top photographer! 99% of the time, that photographer will be Khun Porn. However when Khun Porn is occupied, we will then pass the job over to another photographer who is able to take on the job. We do however always try to get Khun Porn whenever possible! So if you look at it, booking does make more sense if you are not in a rush for time.
Admin: Indeed it does! Do you hire a marketing team for Bestie Thai Costume?
Khun Nay: Hahaha! Actually no. Bestie Thai Costume isn't that big a company to hire a marketing team. The social media marketing is handled by my business partner, thus far it going well. As I've mentioned earlier, our targeted demographics are not the same demographics that the other shops are targeting. Bestie Thai Costume does not just rent out Traditional Thai Costumes. We are providing a service, an experience. As such, there is nothing such a fast fast fast service in our shop. We are not in the business of rushing our customers to choose a costume, rushing them to change and rushing them out. We want them to have an authentic Traditional Thai Costume experience. I wish I can mention our targeted demographics but my partner has strictly forbidden me to mention anything marketing related to you when he found out that you will be interviewing me!
Admin: Oops! I do understand though, there seem to be a monkey see monkey do trend happening.
Khun Nay: Hahaha! That would be correct. Let's just say that Bestie Thai Costume was the first Traditional Thai Costume rental shop to use Linktr, before others started following suit. As my partner always say, "It is not a big deal, they can try to replicate everything we do but we will always be the innovators and the work ethics and customer service is something they can never replicate." In all honesty, I have to say that I am flattered when I see others replicating what we are doing!
Admin: As the saying goes, imitation is the best form of flattery! And with that, our time is up, Khun Nay thank you so much for time and what do you have to tell our readers?
Khun Nay: If you are considering renting a Thai Costume, do give Bestie Thai Costume serious consideration. If you can, do consider making a booking instead of doing a walk in as we do offer some great discounts for bookings. Lastly, thank you Admin for doing this interview and I hope everyone have a great 2025!