Own a hotel room? I hadn't heard of that before.

Submitted by One_Honest_Dude t3_z8x68b in personalfinance

I was browsing Zillow yesterday to see what house prices were doing and stumbled on a posting to buy a hotel room in a yet to be built resort in the Dominican by a major hotel brand. I had never heard of that and have done a tiny bit of reading about it since but was wondering if anyone here has experience with it. What are other potential investments that people may have never heard of?

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SuperSailorSaturn t1_iydtiq2 wrote

Its like owning a condo, except that you can allow the hotel/resort to rent your room when you are not there for a portion of the income. You also cant really change anything about the room-or at least easily like an apartment rental. Oddly, its pretty popular in resorts areas like in Ski Towns.

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One_Honest_Dude OP t1_iydvonl wrote

Would it be financed by a normal mortgage? I would guess it requires a business loan or something. Haha, I can't afford to own where I live, this seems a more affordable route to get into real estate. I read that often these deals include a buyback option for the hotel, do you know if people often sell to others when they want out or do hotels typically try to rebuy all the rooms? I always assumed the hotel owned everything. I need to do more research on risks and the like but I'm pretty interested in this idea.

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SuperSailorSaturn t1_iydxd5n wrote

Im not sure on any of that, I just work the rooms side of those types if properties.
I do know that if you want out you typically list it for sale like it was any other second home used for vacations.

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GaylrdFocker t1_iyfazz9 wrote

Depends what they offer in the Dominican. You probably can't get any loans from a US bank to purchase property there.

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lucky_ducker t1_iydu9vi wrote

This sounds like a gimmick with hidden "gotchas."

I remember a post here about somebody asking about investing in owning intermodal shipping containers. My first thought was, "somebody's trying to transfer liability and risk to the 'investor.'"

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One_Honest_Dude OP t1_iydw6e3 wrote

That was my first thought as well. I've only had a little time to look into it more so far and the concept at least seems legit. Of course you would need to be careful about what company your buying into. I wonder how it works with international laws. If I bought a room in Dominican republic and then had an issue wouldn't I go to US courts or Dominican? It seems pretty wild to me.

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