I agree Hotels here are all about hard work, small margins, and a frugal but wholesome existance. One thing to ask yourself (we don't need to know), is do you have the 1.5m euro clear, or are you hoping to service interest payments somewhere to fund the 1.5m purchase price?

Even owning a hotel outright, the expenses of running it can eat takings and send you -ve if things go wrong. Renting stuff can be cheap here. You might get an empty hotel for 6 months rent free, provided you pay operating costs. Lets say you rent for a year, it goes wrong, and you loose 100k chf. You would probably learn enough to avoid another mistake, and your new expertise could save more than 100K on purchase of a better hotel.

Hotels here seem to start from 800K euros:

http://www.homegate.ch/homegate/de/i...ault&a=default

If/once you've found somewhere suitable check local operating requirements as some Cantons require you or one of your employees to have the appropriate patent (licence) before permission to operate is granted.

Good luck.

Well an expatriate forum is not the best place to start

Where did you say you lived ?

I had my wedding reception at a hotel in Engelberg and it was great but the part-owner of the hotel was there to assist us and running the whole show day and night. It is HARD work and as I remember him mentioning that buying, keeping and running the hotel was not cheap at all. Engelberg is one of my favourite places in CH!

To the OP, you need to do a lot of research before you conclude your project because it seems you are not very inform at the moment. Don't forget that the Swiss pride themselves in the hotel business. Good luck though.

banks may still lend you money, as long as you can prove you have sufficient income ....

PM me if you want to talk further on this , hope i can help.

Please let us now what bank you're with so we can all withdraw our cash while it's still there...

Whooosh....I am riding on a TROLLey

i m not with any bank. I am talking from a neutral position. banks do loans to people who can pay back the int and principles, this works everywhere, for every bank

No sh!t. You want to advise people to run a hotel business with leverage? Go on, you're becoming more and more interesting.

Thanks, i am intesresting... hohoho

PLS adivse me which business are not run with leverage?

Dont worry about him, he knows a few terms and has to use them somewhere somehow

Hi Janush,

Have a look at http://www.hmc.ag This is a good start for you. HMC is a hospitality management consultancy company that liaises between the buyer and sellers of hotels. There are a number of hotels for sale listed at http://www.hmc.ag/e/real_estate/real_estate.htm

The owner is my landlord. He is highly professional, honest and easy to talk to. As a happy tenant I can recommend his services to you. You can also check-out the website for his hotel http://www.fafleralp.ch. I haven't been there but it looks great. If nothing else it would be worth calling him for a chat.

Best of luck with you new venture and re-location. Kind regards, Will Ellis

Hello,
You have not said the demographics that you were seeking to fill with your hotel intentions. 1.5 in definitly feasible, as long as you aren't looking for a mega plex. But, is that a 1.5 total budget, or just the purchase price?
Margins are small in the hotel/restaurant industry, as costs of doing business and regulations are high; well depending on the canton of course. I have heard this before and I am seriously tending to agree with the following statement "There are two kinds of successful businesses in hospitality, one that caters to the highest of service and then anything that ryhmes with Kebab", well I have also heard anything that is very minimal/snack related. Plus, the Swiss ideal of dining out and hospitality will make you want to pray for foreigners. There are no forseeable trends in Swiss entertainment. If it's rainy, it's almost certain you will be slow, if it's sunny the odds are in your favor, except of course if you are not directly on water, then it doesn't matter, the Kalbswurst grill on the lake will blow away anything else, regardless of service, price, etc.

I can give you some links that you can google in your preferrable language, and click on the link so you can read it. I do know there is an investor advertising his/herself out there as of yesterday looking for a partnership. And no, it's not me. I want to open a taco stand selling Chimi's stuffed with kalbswurst out of a Hibatchi on Zurichsee.


One thing though, that might best suit you as you did say you were Russian, is possibly getting into the Winter resort/Chalet business and catering to fellow russians during the Ski season. On both the french and the Swiss side they are giving crash courses in learning russian as now you guys are the truly big spenders, in the ski season. And some one who spoke their language, understood what makes them comfortable, what food they would prefer to eat, drink, entertainment, etc, I can see would be a big plus.

I saw just this last week a program on french tv strictly aimed at how in Chamonix the entire aim has been at the russian customer, and how those who cater to them the best, do the best. And getting a high quality french chef to work there is far cheaper then an average Swiss one. Well that was on the french side of course, bringing a french chef to Switzerland and paying him a fair wage will be a dream come true for most. If you need any help with this I can send you any links that may help. Good luck in any case