How about starting a new career?
How about actually gaining something from the pandemic instead of just losing… And waiting? The bad days are not over, not by a longshot. The vaccines are rolling out much more slowly than we had hoped. And although at least here in Italy, the numbers are giving us hope, our leaders say that it will take at least until summer, maybe even into fall, before we see anything that could even resemble normality. Still, those days will come, and Venice will again welcome the tourists for a week or a weekend of magic.
Some of the links to the hotels for sale are affiliates. Not that I believe anyone will make any traveling in these dark times. But still, if you should book through my link, I will get a small commission, at no extra cost for you
So, how about planning ahead?
How about starting a new career?… As a hotel-owner? It’s not difficult to imagine what a full year without tourists has done for the travel industry in Venice. The economy in Italy, just as everywhere else, has suffered a lot. But the travel business took the hardest blow. And in a city like Venice, There’s not much else that drives the commerce.
An old saying goes something like this: If someone loses, someone else wins. If hotel owners are bankrupt, maybe here’s an occasion for anyone who has money and is interested in making the deal of a lifetime? Maybe right now is the time for investing in a new career… To become a hotel manager in Venice?
Hotels for sale.
There are more than 50 hotels for sale, right now, beginning of February 2021, in Venice. And prices should be very low.
One of the most luxurious hotels in Venice was recently sold for the very low sum of €100.000.000. The British Reuben Brothers, who have made a fortune in the aluminum business, became the happy owners of the Luna Baglioni hotel. No, the management is the same as before. It’s just the ownership that changed, the building, the walls. Possibly the Reubens saw an opportunity and seized it.
But if you don’t have a hundred million, or you just came in too late, I have good news for you. Because there are many more hotels for sale. And most of them are smaller, cheaper, and a whole lot easier to manage. Here are some examples of bargains that I’ve found…
If you’re filthy rich and just can’t figure out what to do with all your gold…
Then you should consider this offer.
A package of three 4-star hotels, and two 3-star hotels. To that, they’ve thrown in 6 residence structures with luxury suites, apartments, and studios. All of a total of 420 rooms/apartments. As a bonus, you will have four restaurants and a bar. The package is on sale for a meager 436.000.000 euros… Negotiable. (… I figure).
Link to the real estate agent.
If you’re filthy rich but don’t want to spend it all on hotels…
For 15 million euros, you can become the owner of Palazzo Contarini della Porta di Ferro. It was built in the 1400s as a residence for a branch of the Contarini family. Then it traveled through Venetian history until it became a 3-star hotel in modern times. It has 22 units divided into double rooms, suites, and bigger apartments, the largest is a huge 6 room-floor of 180 m2. It’s a very well-known label, and the rating is excellent.
When checking out hotels for sale, that’s a very important issue. Starting out by working up the ratings, compared to already have loads of stars at Bookings, Tripadvisor, and Google, is a very different path.
It has a beautiful private garden and a private dock at the canal. No restaurant, but a Breakfast lounge, so you won’t have to worry about hiring chefs and service personnel for dining. You at the reception, your wife/husband managing bookings, your son and daughter working with the PR, and a couple of guys for the breakfast and the cleaning. Yes, you could run it all by yourself on a reasonable budget.
If even that is too steep…
Then you could purchase the 3-star Cà Marinella for 4.500.000. It’s a bit less fancy, but it’s a reasonably respectable hotel. 9 rooms, doubles, and triples in a pleasant 1800-style. All have heating and Air Conditioning and the wi-fi system reaches throughout the structure.
This hotel is now co-managed with the 4-star Hotel Santa Marina. The reception of the latter is used for check-in and service. As is other facilities, like breakfast. Cà Marinella doesn’t have a kitchen or a lounge. I can’t say how these things could be arranged if you decide to buy, and not collaborate with the neighboring hotel. But as I see it, this could be an even easier step into the Hotel-business…
You run it as a B&B, with the second B in the form of a Breakfast basket on the door of the guests, or something similar. That way, and with only nine rooms, you could practically run it yourself. You prepare the baskets, your wife/husband still does the booking (… but one could manage that in a few hours, having only nine rooms). Your children does the cleaning (… they too could do that in a couple of hours between the lessons at the university). And the running-cost should be ridiculously low.
If you’re on a really tight budget, and you can’t come up with any substantial seed money.
Don’t let that be an obstacle. You can buy only the business, and rent the structure. That way you will not have to put up with millions. You will have to pay rent every month, but you will avoid interests on the loans. There are quite a few hotels for sale under these conditions around these days.
One is the small, but nice 2-star Hotel Henry. For 300.000 you can get your hands on the license. 6300 euro+taxes/month is the rent, but you should be able to make much more than that from bookings… At least if we get out of the lockdowns in a near future. You’ll have to make your own calculations. It just shows that even without lots of cash, you can still venture into the hotel business, and make a great new career out of it.
Last but not least…
They’re selling the Johnny Depp Palace.
No, he never bought it. But rumours had it that he should, or was thinking about it, or didn’t… Or something like that. Anyway, the beautiful Palazzo Donà, or Palazzetto Sangiantoffetti Donà is for sale.
This is not a hotel. You will just live there and park your cruiser in front of the main entrance from Canal Grande. So, buying Cà Donà, you will still need another line of work. How about real estate?
The price tag is not known.