Cat Motors — Reliable Scooter & Motorbike Rental in Chiang Mai

The cost of renting bikes usually depends on the rental period. The longer the rental period, the cheaper the rental cost. Also important is the technical condition and quality of maintenance. The standard price for a day bike rental is 200-350 baht for a scooter with an engine capacity of 110-125cc. Rent for a week 1200-1400 baht. Rent for a month 2500-3500 baht. The price may vary depending on the availability of additional services and facilities.

Of course, you can try to find lower prices. Like this guy, for example, for whom saving $1 a day was more important than renting a well-maintained motorbike from our company.

He ended up going to rent a motorcycle “from another agency nearby with better rates.” Nothing good came of it, though… About the “another agency nearby with better rates,” he wrote the following review:

Because you can’t rent a well-maintained motorcycle for the price of a cup of rice.

So if you come to our motorbike rental shop and start claiming that “I saw the exact same bikes for rent elsewhere and it was cheaper,” then we can’t help you at all except to advise you to go back to the rental place where you saw it cheaper, and rent it there. Just remember that you get what you pay for.

At most rentals, no one will ask you for a driver’s license. Having a driver’s license is your area of responsibility. However, if you are stopped by a police officer to check for a driver’s license that you do not have, you will be fined 500 baht. You will meet police checkpoints every day during your journey. Also, according to the 1949 Geneva Convention, you will need an International Driving Permit.

In our rental, we have the right to refuse to rent a motorbike if you do not have a driver’s license of the appropriate category for riding a motorcycle.

To ride a motorcycle in Thailand you need a driving license with category A. Otherwise the police will fine you 500 baht. Thus, if your license only allows you to drive a car, it does not give you the right to ride a motorcycle in Thailand.

Thailand is the country with the highest road death toll among motorcyclists in the world. This has not changed for many years. Driving through red traffic lights, driving in the oncoming lane, breaking traffic rules right under the noses of police officers who take no action to catch the offender, are common here. Read more here – Tips For Riders.

Leave a request to rent a motorcycle in any convenient way for you specified on the page Location and Contacts (Telegram, WhatsApp, e-mail, etc.). We will contact you and clarify all the details.

You will need to pay the rent and provide a copy of your passport (you can make a copy for free in our office or send us a photo of it by e-mail). Besides the payment you’ll need to pay security deposit which will be returned when returning vehicle. The amount of the deposit depends on the model of motorcycle you rent.

Today we only accept cash. Unfortunately, we no longer accept cryptocurrencies. If we start accepting debit or credit cards, we will additionally inform you in this section.

If you have a Thai bank account, you can pay for your motorbike rental using the nearest ATM, or via PromtPay, or using the QR code in your bank’s app.

You can also pay in cash using the nearest ATM. You do not need to visit our office to renew your rental.

On request, we can arrange delivery to your place of residence. In this case, the rental period must be longer than 7 days and the place of residence must be within the city.

Depending on the distance of your residence from the Cat Motors office, delivery may either be free or we may charge for the service. Delivery must be arranged in advance (at least 24 hours) so that we can schedule the work of our staff.

If you live in a remote area to which we do not deliver, you can visit us yourself by hiring a cab.

If the rental period is less than 7 days, in which case we do not deliver to your place of residence, sorry.

If you want to save money, you can come to us by city bus, which costs only 30 baht. You can find a map of the bus routes on the Location and Contacts page.

Ten years ago, when we started our motorcycle rental business in Chiang Mai, we were the first and only rental shop in Chiang Mai that never took a customer’s passport as a deposit.

Nothing has changed since then. We never keep the customer’s passport. You pay the deposit in cash. The amount of the deposit depends on the model of motorbike rented. The deposit is refunded on the day the bike is returned to the rental shop.

If the rented bike is damaged, the amount of damage is deducted from the deposit.

The deposit can be left in any international currency. In this case, your own banknotes will be returned to you at the end of the rental period.

UPD: However, if you really want to, you can leave your passport as a deposit. But we do not recommend doing this. Because all documents are kept in the safe box, and the manager who knows the code of the safe may have a day off, or an emergency exit. That is, for reasons beyond our control, you may not be able to get your passport on the day you need it. For example, on the day of departure.

Please note:

According to the law of any country, the passport must always be in the possession of its rightful owner.  If you leave your passport as a deposit, we are not responsible for your missed flight, failure to check into a hotel, or any other troubles where your passport is required. Especially if office hours are over and all office workers have gone home.

The premises of our rental shop are used only for business purposes. None of our employees live in the rental shop. Therefore, if you act recklessly and leave your passport as a deposit, we can’t help you in any way after hours, and we are not responsible for any of your losses or inconveniences.

The most popular routes in Chiang Mai for riders are Mae Hong Son loop, Chiang Rai loop, Phu Chi Fa and Doi Inthanon National Park.

Yes, of course. You can travel around Thailand on our bikes. Some of our customers visit Lampang, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Bangkok, and sometimes even Phuket and Samui on the other side of the country. But at the end of the rental period, you have to return the bike in Chiang Mai anyway.

The bike may only be operated by the persons named in the rental agreement. The bike may only be used for personal transportation. It is prohibited to use it for taxi work, food delivery service work, courier work, street racing, transportation of illegal substances, committing crimes or conducting experiments. It is also forbidden to ride a motorcycle outside of Thailand.

First of all, don’t worry. You should contact us at the number listed on the lease. Our manager will tell you what to do. Remember to take pictures of physical injuries, if any, and damage of the bike.

If you need medical attention after an accident, be sure to go to the nearest hospital. Photos of your injuries, damaged motorbike, and hospital bills will be evidence for the insurance company when we assist you in obtaining your insurance payout. Remember, no insurance claim will be paid if you are drunk or under drugs.

If the bike needs minor repairs, when you return it to the rental shop, we will first assess the damage and then tell you the cost of repairs. A Yamaha or Honda dealership will assess the damage if the damage is severe.

After that, unless you have taken out additional damage insurance, you will need to pay for the damage as assessed, as well as the cost of transporting the bike to the service center and, if necessary, back to the rental shop. No other additional payments (fictitious fines; consequential damages; downtime and loss of income due to repairs, etc.) are provided by our company.

Even though, according to the laws of the Kingdom of Thailand, the lessee is obliged to compensate for absolutely all losses, including indirect losses, which includes loss of income among other things.

Do not try to repair it yourself, as our motorbike rental have very low repair prices. Repairing a bike on your own will cost more in any case. Including the fact that if you make a poor quality repair, you will must to pay again to redo it.

Of course, after reading the scary stories on the Internet about how the owners of rental shops rip the pockets of tourists who scratched just one plastic part, you would not believe, but it’s true.

However, we want to warn you that sometimes motorbike repairs can get very expensive. For example, the headlight for a Honda Forza costs 7,727 baht. This is the factory price. Thus, sometimes it can really hit your pocket hard. But this is not the fault of the rental shop. Because the rental shop has nothing to do with the accident, nor does it have anything to do with the factory price of the parts needed to repair the motorbike after the accident.

This is a screenshot from Honda’s official online parts catalog.

We are always ready to discuss any of your ideas about collaborations. Read the information on this page, and feel free to write to us!