Buying a Small Hotel in Costa Rica Before High Season
Costa Rica’s tourist season runs from December to April. Hotels in Guanacaste make most of their year in those five months, and the biggest weeks — Christmas, New Year and Semana Santa — are booked months ahead. That timing is the whole argument for buying a small hotel now rather than in the spring.
Buy in May and you own an empty building through the green season, paying staff and electricity while you wait for December. Buy before the season and you take over a business that is already open, already staffed, already listed on the booking channels, with reservations on the calendar that somebody else went out and won.
What a working hotel gives you that a project does not
There are two ways to get into hospitality here. You can buy land and build, which in Costa Rica means municipal permits, construction, the health ministry, the fire inspection, a water letter and a year or two of your life before the first guest arrives. Or you can buy a hotel that already trades.
The second route costs more up front and far less in time and risk. The things that are hard to create — the permits, the online reviews, the staff who know the property, the accounts with Booking.com and Expedia, the relationships with tour operators — already exist. You are buying a business with a history rather than a plan with a budget.
What to check before you buy a hotel in Costa Rica
- Title and survey. Get a registry certification for every finca in the sale and match it against the plano catastrado. Ask specifically whether any part of the property touches the maritime zone, a river margin or a mangrove — that land cannot be privately owned, and the answer belongs in writing.
- Permits. The hotel patente, the health ministry permit, the liquor licence if there is a bar, and the event permits if the property sells weddings. Confirm each one is current and transferable.
- Staff. Costa Rican labour law follows the business, not the owner. Severance, holiday pay and the Christmas aguinaldo accrue from the date each person was hired. Have your attorney price that liability before you agree a number.
- Water. Ask whether the property runs on a municipal supply, an ASADA or its own well, and get the paperwork for whichever it is.
- The numbers. Occupancy month by month, average rate, the split between direct and OTA bookings, and the forward reservations already on the calendar. A seller who cannot produce these is selling you a building.
- How it is owned. Most commercial property here sits in a Costa Rican company. Buying the company can be simpler and cheaper, but you inherit its history, so a corporate due diligence is not optional.
Seller financing changes who can buy
Bank lending to foreigners in Costa Rica is slow and conservative. That is why seller financing matters so much in this market: when an owner carries part of the price, a buyer who could not write a cheque for the whole thing can still close, and the property’s own cash flow helps pay the note down. On a small hotel, an interest-only period in the first years is common — it keeps the payments low while the new owner learns the business and builds the calendar.
One example, on the market now
We are marketing El Sueño Tropical, a 12-key boutique hotel on 8,271 m² at Playa Carrillo, Guanacaste — 2.5 km from one of the quietest white-sand beaches in the country and about ninety minutes from Liberia airport.
It was renovated in 2022, has traded since, is debt free with clean title, and comes furnished and running: two pools, mature gardens, a private well, and a restaurant, bar and event space that are built and permitted. The team is willing to stay. The asking price is US$1,200,000 and the owners will consider financing for a qualified buyer.
The restaurant is currently closed — which is the opportunity. Group bookings, weddings and retreats are the highest-value business a property like this can take, and they are built around a working kitchen and bar. For a new owner, reopening it is a decision rather than a construction project.
Trading figures are released to qualified buyers after a non-disclosure agreement, which we arrange. If you want to see them, or to walk the property, email info@gap.cr or WhatsApp +506 8888 0003.
