Opening Travellers hotel - What do you think?
 

Hi guys,

For years I am thinking to open a Hotel, Campground for travellers somewhere in th Latin world. But I don´t want to do it alone, I want a partner. The idea is to build, buy and open it together - and then run it perhaps together for 6 months, after this we change every 2 months or something like this... Because I still would like to continue travelling a bit. I don´t want to be the "slave" of the hotel....

So what do you think??? Which country, which place, beach, mountains etc...

Where do all the Overlander pass??? I thought about Costa Rica, but it is already quiet expensive....I got some money to start with, but it would be good to have another person with some savings - no crazy people -please.


Thanks for your help - See you one day on the road - El Aleman

Location!! Location!! Location!!
 

Hey Jens,
I've thought about opening a hotel for travelers off and on for years.

In regards to mollydog's comment about Colombia, I have actually thought it would be the best place in all of the Americas to open a traveller's hostal. Colombia has become much safer during the Uribe presidency and is just coming back on the tourist trail after decades of tourist avoidance. So there aren't many foreign-owned tourist hostals in the country and the market is wide open. It's also a really beautiful country with great geographical diversity and also some of the friendliest people I met in the Americas. Oh yeah, and the women are outrageous!

I haven't been to Colombia in years so I will defer to your judgement.

My first priority if I was to open a hotel would be to pick a place I personally would like to spend a lot of time - after all that's what you'll be doing. Running a small hotel will not make you a millionaire so you want to enjoy yourself while running your bussines.

Mollydog is right: beware of legal headaches and financial disaster. I run a motorhome rental company in Buenos Aires and I can tell you from experience: it ain´t easy. In fact it can be such a hassle that after a while you stop enjoying the country you chose to live and work in because it looked so good during your visits as a tourist.

Remember that visiting a country as a tourist (or a traveller, in this case it´s the same thing), however long your stay, is a different experience from trying to earn a living in a country. Do find a place you really like, because you ARE going to spend a lot of time there. Making enough money to stay alive in a Latin American country in legit way is generaly considered to be a full time job.

A few words of advice:
- Look for an existing place. Buy, lease it or whatever. This way you will not have to do ALL the work yourself. There´ll be loads of stuff to do anyway, so why also worry about construction, design etc. Focus on marketing, get people to your place
- Unfortunately the most succesful places are NOT far away from everything. Your average customer will fall out of the bus look around and take the first decent place he or she sees. I know it is way more attractive to have a hotel on a deserted island with white sandy beaches. Chances are however that your place will end up the same way: deserted... Try popular cities and or easily accesible tourist attractions
- Alway team up with a local; as a foreigner alone you are more likely to get shafted. A local can help you with local law, bribes, getting you normal prices, a local network, etc.
- Remember that your work ethics are European, very different from Latin American work ethics. Don´t expect your employees to be as productive as you are, or care about your business as much as you do. They don´t :)
- Most people I know that run hotels / hostels in Latin America (Mexico, Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina) live and work in the place full time to make ends meet.

But the most important advice I can give you is: just try it! Be realistic: don´t expect to make enough money of it to keep travelling for the first couple of years. It will be a fun experience, one that pays back with much more than just a few Pesos, Bolivars, Dollars, or whatever the currency is in the country you decide to settle down. If you run it well, word will get around and your place will be visited frequently by lots of interesting people making it worth your while.

Oh yeah and any place that has a strongly defined seasons probably won´t be such a good choice. Unless you are planning on closing up shop for 6 months per year that is (my business grinds to a near standstill from June until October every year).

From what I´ve seen so far Santiago seems a good place, maybe northern Chile, Buenos Aires is ok, anything in the North of Argentina near Salta (try Cafayate). Mendoza is up and coming. Lima is ugly but a lot of tourists go through the airport to get to other places in Peru, etc.

Well, that´s my 2 cents worth. If you decide on Argentina and need help, let me know. Good luck!

Mollydog, I mentioned that there are few foreign-owned hotels in Colombia because it's significant for two reasons: first, it shows the market has not yet been tapped out, and in fact is just becoming re-discovered. Secondly, the lack of foreign-owned hotels or hostals means your competition would be significantly less. As you know, travellers tend to flock towards foreign-owned hostals because these businesses tend to be cleaner and better run than locally owned establishments. North American or European owners, who are usually "retired" travellers themselves, know how to make their place more attractive to travellers, know what the clients expect, and generally speak english and can communicate with their clients which is a big plus. They are also more savvy when it comes to publicity... getting themselves in guidebooks and encouraging word-of-mouth advertising.

There are lots of places in Latin America that would be nice to live and operate a business. Unfortunately, most of the places we would want to live have already been discovered by like-minded foreigners; competition is brutal and entry costs into the market can be prohibitive. I've been to every country down there except the Guyanas, and if I were to consider opening a hostal I would pick Colombia. It's gonna blow up (no pun intended!) on the tourist track in the coming years; I think investors who get in the door early will be successful. Venezuela is also attractive but I would be hesitant to invest my money in Fidel Castro's country (ahem, I meant Hugo Chavez's country...) That said, Argentina would be my second choice.

Excellent! this is good to hear! :stupid:
Patrick

A few words of advice:
Wow! Excellent stuff Dirk! Nothing like the voice of experience! :welcome::thumbup1::rofl:

El Aleman,

Greeting from a fellow hun on the road.

I have just returned to Sucre after a few days in Uyuni. Sucre is simply great and has the JoyRide Cafe. However, Uyuni has tons of travellers of all king of pursasion. It has the Salar, which is simply amazing. It also is very cold. What it does not have is a place where you can have a beer without wearing a wolly hat. Or a hotel where you don´t wear gloves in bed to read your book. In short, a comfy hangout with heating (open fire?) friendly atmosphere, and good food could a) make a killing, b) help explain to Bolivians what tourists want.

Uyuni lives on tourists. They used to have the railway and the salt, but by now it´s just tourists, and the services on offer are pathetic.

Happy to have a chat.

Get in touch

Jens

uyuni?
 

um... yeah.... that sounds great Atwoke, except for one small detail: you would have to live in Uyuni!!!!

It's not quite "Latin" but I would put my money (if I had any) into either the up and coming El Golfo region of northern Mexico, or San Felipe. Both places are on the Sea of Cortez; San Felipe in the state of Baja Norte, and El Golfo in the state of Sonora.

http://www.maps-of-mexico.com/baja-c...map-main.shtml

There are many overland travelers through both places; San Felipe gets the travelers coming from California and El Golfo gets its travelers coming from Arizona.

The added advantage of San Felipe is the SCORE-International Baja series of races that are held 3 times a year there or around there.

The added advantage of El Golfo is that it is still up-and-coming, so you can get better deals there.

Hey Patrick,

Argentineans don´t rent motorhomes, but Europeans do, especially with the 'cambio' Eurodollars get these days ;)

Argentinean Airforce huh...that MUST have been crazy. If they fly like they drive you are lucky to be alive!

It took me awhile to adjust to the way of doing business here, but like I said before: having a local network is priceless.

Anyway, if you are ever in the area, please do drop in for a cold Quilmes. Would love to hear some of them 'war' stories :)

I think Uyuni would be cool, I liked the place. Its small but all the travellers go there.

From a bikers perspective, the roads in and out are so bad it would be great to have a little workshop, or even a place to clean off. I took the road from Oruro to Uyuni - and it was the toughest ride I had, dumping the bike in mud once and 3 river crossings. When I arrived in Uyuni I would have loved to have been able to check into a moto friendly place.

Any business plan of any type, even a break even one(bad in it's own right) that has to include contigenticies for bribing officials or concern with having your deed repealed sounds like a place I wouldn't do any kind of business.

No matter what you will spend some time on it, if that time is full if rife you'll lOSE money, not even break even. Doesn't sound like a place to pass the time.