How to open a beauty clinic in Thailand: licences, fees and rules

Yes. The Medical Facilities Act separates the person who owns the clinic from the person who runs its medical side, and each needs a licence. The owner (ผู้รับอนุญาต) holds the licence to operate (ใบอนุญาตให้ประกอบกิจการ), and the law does not require this person to be a doctor.

To get the licence to operate, the owner must:

• be at least 20 years old
• have a residence in Thailand
• never have been jailed by a final judgment, except for negligence or a petty offence
• not be bankrupt, of unsound mind or legally incompetent, nor have one of the diseases the Minister lists

A company can also be the owner. Its manager or representative must then meet the same conditions.

The second licence, the licence to manage (ใบอนุญาตให้ดำเนินการ), goes to the manager (ผู้ดำเนินการ): a licensed professional of the type set for the clinic, able to supervise it closely. DHSS treats a clinic that offers beauty treatments as a medical clinic (คลินิกเวชกรรม), so its manager is a licensed doctor. One doctor can manage two clinics at most, with opening hours that do not overlap.

The line is what you do to the client's body. The Medical Profession Act of 1982 counts injecting drugs or substances into the body as medical practice, including when it is done for beauty. The Act reserves medical practice to licensed doctors, with narrow exceptions.

So if you plan to offer injections such as botox or filler, you are opening a clinic. If you will only do hair, nails, make-up or skin care with no medical procedure, you are opening a beauty salon, under another licence: see how to open a beauty salon in Thailand. The table sums up the differences.

Bangkok clinics file at the DHSS One Stop Service centre, on the ground floor of the department, Tiwanon Road, Nonthaburi. Elsewhere, you file at the provincial public health office (สำนักงานสาธารณสุขจังหวัด). Both licences go in the same file, and the manager must come in person on filing day to have their photo taken.

The Bangkok process, as DHSS sets it out:

1. 01You file the forms and documents, and staff check that nothing is missing.
2. 02DHSS checks the premises against the standards for your type of clinic: a site visit if the clinic has an operating room, a continuous, unedited video if it does not.
3. 03A sub-committee, then the Medical Facilities Committee, review the file.
4. 04The licences are signed, and a letter asks you to pay the fees.

Documents for a new clinic

• Forms ส.พ.1 and ส.พ.2 (plan for the clinic), ส.พ.5 (licence to operate), ส.พ.18 (licence to manage) and a ส.พ.6 for each professional who will work there
• For the owner: ID card, house registration and a medical certificate under 30 days old, plus the company certificate if a company applies
• For the manager: the same, plus professional licence, photos, and a specialty certificate for a specialist clinic
• House registration of the clinic, and the title deed or the lease
• Infectious waste collection agreement, emergency referral steps to a nearby hospital, and infection control steps
• Price list, with general treatment fees even if you focus on beauty, a floor plan to scale, and a location map that is not a Google Maps printout

Once open, the clinic must display its name, the professionals who work there, its prices and patients' rights. It cannot charge more than the prices it displays.

In Bangkok, DHSS starts counting only once your file is complete, and it sends the result within 7 days of its decision. Provincial offices follow their own manuals, so ask yours for its timeline before you set an opening date.

The figures below come from DHSS in Bangkok. The licence to manage is renewed every 2 years, for 250 baht. Bangkok clinics pay the annual fee and renewals between 1 October and 30 December, at the centre or online through Biz Portal, and paying the renewal fee before expiry counts as the renewal. If the licence to operate expires first, the clinic must close and apply as a new clinic.

Under section 38 of the Medical Facilities Act, any ad about your clinic needs approval from DHSS or the provincial public health office before it goes out, apart from the name and address shown on the licence. DHSS applies this to every channel, social media included, and to text, sound and images. False, exaggerated or misleading claims are banned outright, such as guaranteeing results or a complete cure.

What approval costs and how long it takes:

• 500 baht per A4 page of text, and 50 baht per second of video or audio
• Simple ads (doctors' names, services, prices, opening hours): a decision within 10 working days of a complete file
• Other ads go to a sub-committee: DHSS answers within 60 days of a complete file
• Each approved ad must show its approval number

You do not have to wait for the licence: DHSS accepts proof that you applied for it in the ad file. A discount announced only to your members is still an ad: it needs approval, must name the services and its start and end dates, and can run for one year at most.

The manager answers for who does what in the clinic. The law requires them to stop anyone without a professional licence from practising there, and to keep each professional within the field declared in the file. Nurses and other professionals need their own licence and a form ส.พ.6.

Who does what

• Medical procedures, injections for beauty included: a licensed doctor
• Nursing and other care: nurses and other professionals, within their own licence
• Reception, bookings, sales and cleaning: staff without a medical licence

Before someone starts, check their licence and add their name to the list of professionals the clinic displays.

What Revenue Department sources say:

• Medical care given by a licensed medical facility is exempt from VAT, under section 81(1)(ญ) of the Revenue Code.
• For a doctor who runs a clinic in their own name, treatment fees are income under section 40(6).
• A business whose regular sales of goods or services pass 1.8 million baht a year must register for VAT within 30 days.

In a 2018 ruling, a doctor whose licensed clinic only gave treatment had registered for VAT without needing to. He had to cancel the registration and faced penalties for the tax invoices he had already issued. If your clinic also sells creams or other products, or offers purely cosmetic services, ask your area Revenue office or your accountant before you register or set prices.

The official fees are small. Most of the money goes elsewhere, and each clinic's total depends on its premises and equipment, so get real quotes for every line before you sign:

• rent and deposit for premises that can pass the inspection
• fit-out to the standards of your clinic type, following the floor plan you file
• medical equipment and products
• pay for the doctor who manages the clinic, nurses and reception staff
• infectious waste collection
• approval fees for each ad and each video
• booking and checkout software

For the last line, SeeU's plans start from ฿990/month + VAT, after a 30-day free trial.

Once the licences are in, your days fill with consultations, follow-up visits and courses. SeeU keeps them in one app:

• Online booking 24/7 on your clinic's website and on the SeeU app; the SeeU team can set up the website for you
• One calendar for doctors, nurses and staff, with reminders sent to clients before each visit
• Rooms (Premium): each booking takes a free treatment room
• Courses of sessions (Premium): one session comes off at each checkout, and clients see how many are left in the app
• Online deposits (Premium), by card or PromptPay, to cut no-shows

For new clients, the SeeU team can run your ads on Google, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and you see every booking they bring. As with any clinic ad, the law requires approval before each one goes out. SeeU's automatic messages (Premium) send birthday wishes, follow-ups and Google review requests; check any message that offers a discount against the ad rules above.