Post: #1

Wondering if anyone on here either owns or knows about condo hotels?

In the past few days my aunt was talking about her gf who owns a few in FL, has one that she makes about 50k a year off the rentals. Then my buddy comes back a day later from Myrtle Beach telling me he wants to buy one. It's got my interest peaked in these.

Curious if you guys know about them? Are they profitable? I imagine depends on occupancy rate as well as how bad the hotel screws you on the profit split. Curious to hear about good destinations for these, where to find them, and what to look for when purchasing one?

Post: #2

Florida is cheap compared to california at least
and you can certainly make bank on airbnb and like

Post: #3

1) Curious if you guys know about them?

Yes.

2) Are they profitable?

For the hotel and the builder? Yes.

For the guy holding the mortgage, or holding the property..I'm guess it's mixed.

I looked into them in the Cayman Islands, and I never saw anything that made the #'s look sound and dependable. I like pessimistic projections, not rosy ones. I didn't go any further with it cause I realized that I was truly out of my depth in trying to do the analysis. Both business and accounting/financial wise.

But to get a taste of what it's like, you should do Air BnB with your own spot. Taste of being a landlord, cleaning lady, porter, account manager, concierge, host, photographer, and public relations with the very first customer.

WIA

Post: #4

there was a post about this buying proprerty in thailand as an investment, I can't recall the thread tho!

A guy was linking knight investments for property in thailand and said he was getting 12% yearly return

http://www.knightknox.com/property/thailand

maybe in related links...

Post: #5

I own a couple and even developed a project that we turned into a Condo Hotel.

In my experience it only makes sense to do it if the rent per night is at the same or less than a competing hotel. Also the building needs to have amenities otherwise people wont stay there. Makes sense that people would pay more than for their own condo instead of a hotel room, but they won't. In the end if the condo isnt cheaper or the same price people will not rent it.

Also you really have to do your due diligence on the developer and management of the building. There is a lot more involved in nightly rentals than regular leasing to tenants... You have to have a walk through after every check out. Have to go through the inventory of the your dishes, cutlery etc... All the towels and bedding need to be washed. You cannot have any stains what so ever on the linens.
You have to have someone at the building during all hours of the night, just in case shit goes down or you have late check-ins. Because of all this the management fees are higher than regular rental managers. I pay 15% of my rent to the management company compare to the 8% i pay now for a guy to look after my calgary condo's.

If you go forward with it make sure you find a developer who has done this before and uses a solid rental company. When builders get into trouble and the place isn't selling and they need cash some will make a pitch for fractional ownership and try to turn the building into a condo/hotel. I know because some partners and I bought a bankrupt developer who tried doing the same thing to save his ass. Needless to say it didn't work out for him and we picked up the project for next to nothing.