Bringing your nanny, or hiring one here.

The case for bringing your own

For a family with children under about six, bringing the household's own nanny is almost always the better decision, and the reasons are about the children rather than about convenience. A small child in an unfamiliar country, in unfamiliar heat, on a shifted routine, is already managing a great deal, and handing them to a stranger on top of that produces exactly the week nobody wanted. The family nanny knows the routine, the foods, the sleep signals and the tantrum triggers. She can also travel in the car with the children, run the bath, and hold the whole downstairs of the family's life together while the parents attend a wedding or a dinner.

There is a second argument that families rarely say aloud. A nanny travelling with the family is a nanny who is not on her own leave, and the emotional labour of a multi-generational trip falls disproportionately on the mothers in the group. Bringing the staff who make ordinary life work is what allows the women in the family to actually be on holiday. It is worth stating plainly, because families sometimes decide against it out of a vague sense that it is indulgent, and then spend the week doing two jobs.

Entry and paperwork for accompanying staff

This is the part that needs care, and the honest answer is that it depends on the passport. A nanny holding an Indian passport currently enters Thailand on the same basis as the rest of the family under the visa exemption for Indian nationals, which at present allows sixty days on arrival with an extension available at an immigration office. She needs her own passport with adequate validity, her own onward ticket, her own completed Thailand Digital Arrival Card within seventy two hours of arrival, and evidence of funds if asked, which in practice means the family's booking confirmations and a letter.

Where the household's nanny holds a different passport, which is common in families who employ Filipino, Nepali, Sri Lankan or other foreign domestic staff, the rules can be entirely different and may require a visa applied for in advance at a Royal Thai Embassy or consulate. This has to be checked early, months rather than weeks before travel, and it has to be checked for that specific nationality rather than assumed from the family's own position. Immigration officers also ask more questions of a domestic worker travelling with an employer than of a family member, so we prepare a short letter on the family's letterhead confirming the relationship, the dates, the accommodation and that all expenses are met by the family, and we make sure she carries her own copy of the hotel booking.

Two further points that matter and are frequently missed. First, entering on a tourist exemption does not permit employment in Thailand, and the distinction the authorities draw is between accompanying a family in a private domestic capacity and taking work in the local labour market. Do not have her do anything that looks like the latter. Second, travel insurance and medical cover for accompanying staff should be arranged explicitly by the family rather than assumed, and it is inexpensive.

Accommodation, hours and pay

How a family houses its staff abroad says a good deal about it, and the practical answer is also the decent one: a room of her own, in the same building, with a door that locks. Most good Thai hotels will sell a small room at a reduced staff rate when it is part of a larger booking, and several serviced residences and villas have maid's rooms or adjoining studios designed for exactly this. What we advise against is a rollaway bed in the children's room for a two-week stay, which produces a nanny who has not slept properly since Tuesday and children whose care quality declines accordingly.

Hours need to be agreed before departure, in the same conversation as the pay. A trip is not a holiday for the person who works on it, and travelling staff routinely end up working longer days than at home because the boundaries of the house are gone. Set the working day, set at least one genuine half day off within a week-long trip, and pay a travel allowance on top of normal wages. Give her a local SIM and the family's phone numbers, some spending money in baht, and the same briefing on hospital locations and meeting points that the family has. These are small things and they are noticed.

Hiring locally, and when it is the right call

Local childcare in Thailand is genuinely good and is the right answer in three situations: when the family's own nanny cannot travel, when the children are older and need supervision rather than care, and when the requirement is a few specific evenings rather than the whole trip. The supply comes from three places. The luxury hotels and resorts run kids clubs with qualified staff and can arrange in-room babysitting, usually with a few hours notice and at an hourly rate; this is the simplest option and the accountability is clear because the hotel carries it. Villa management companies in Phuket and Samui keep nannies they use repeatedly. And a small number of established agencies in Bangkok place English-speaking nannies with visiting families.

Our checks before we put anyone in a room with a client's children are the same everywhere: identity documents seen and copied, references taken and actually called, first aid and child CPR certification current, and a clear line of accountability to a company rather than to an individual with a phone number. We brief on the family's specifics before the first shift, including dietary rules, since a nanny who does not understand that the child is vegetarian will feed them a sandwich with ham in it out of pure kindness. And for the first engagement we overlap: the parents or the family's own nanny present for the first hour, which settles the child and tells us a great deal about the person we have hired.

Choosing between the two

• Check the nanny's passport validity and visa position as early as the family's own, and never assume the Indian exemption applies to her.
• Complete a TDAC arrival card for every traveller including accompanying staff.
• Book her a separate room and confirm the staff rate at the time of the main booking.
• Agree hours, days off, travel allowance and spending money in writing before departure.
• Carry a letter confirming the employment relationship, the dates and who is meeting the costs.
• Insure her, brief her on hospitals and meeting points, and give her a local SIM on arrival.

Visa and entry rules for accompanying domestic staff depend on nationality and change without notice, and what constitutes permitted activity on a tourist entry is a matter for the authorities rather than for interpretation. Verify requirements for the specific passport with the Royal Thai Embassy or consulate and the Thai Immigration Bureau well before travel, and confirm any agency's credentials directly.

This briefing is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Thai rules change frequently and individual cases differ. Verify current requirements with the relevant authorities, including the Immigration Bureau, the Board of Investment, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, and take advice on your own facts before acting.