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Condotels

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They seem convenient for the traveler who visits the same city over and over, and a hassle-free way of building equity into a property. You get 67 days of personal use and the hotel management company shares the revenue 50/50 for the rest of the year, based on the hotel's overall occupancy rate.

It all comes down to the hotel's occupancy rate and the finer details of the revenue-sharing arrangement. :dunno: We're going to visit a couple places in Montreal and start talking to people. Not sure who to turn to for solid, unbiased info.

Real estate agents tend to be sleazy vermin.

We may be prejudiced.
 
I've stayed in many in Miami (Condrad, Viceroy, Fountainbleau) and have done some investigation as to the viability of them as an investment. Generally, while tempting they are not good investments now.

You would think it was a good deal... Own a condo that you can use as a vacation spot or permanent home and when you are away you enroll in the accompanying hotel program. The only problem is the maintenance fees are generally much higher than other condos (because you have hotel like amenities) and rule for the hotel programs are usually very restrictive (you get filled last, they take a large %, you have to enroll a certain % of the year etc).

In times where real estate isn't appreciating AND people are not staying in hotels they can be really losing investments... in good times who knows.

What is much better is to just buy a condo or property and rent it online on your own via homeaway.com, vrbo, or airbnb. You get all the benefits of a condotell and you save the middle man and cost that goes along with it. Of course if you are planning on traveling far away where you can't service your property a condotell might be better.
 
Thanks Boner. I did a rough calculation based on a 50/50 split, at 66% occupancy (the avg in all of Montreal in 2010), and it would seem to cover the amount of the mortgage (based on full asking price) + maintenance fees + taxes.

We would be buying more for the convenience than the investment aspect of it. We're a 5-hour drive/1-hour flight away from Montreal and would not enjoy having to go just to take care of condo rental bullshit. We do go to Montreal a lot to visit family and friends, so the condotel arrrangement seems like a nice option. The place we're considering is in a major touristy location too, seems like a safe-ish bet.

But yeah, all depends on the hotel's rules. I'll know more soon.

:pikachu:
 
For sure each sitch is different. All my research comes from Miami where property values are flat or falling still.

Another thing to consider for US residents which made it UNattractive for me and might not be an issue for a non-US taxpayer is the mortgage interest deduction and 250k (500k married) exception on capital gains that we get for our primary residence. If there are similar deductions/credits in your tax scheme buying a primary residence and then a second/vacation home is almost certainly a better bet. If not, start with the smaller interest rate.