Seeking Advice in the Boutique Hotel realm

[Wyatt Nauman]

Hi, I’ve always had the urge to start a small to medium-sized boutique hotel somewhere in Thailand. I understand this would require a certain amount of required Thai investors - let’s put that on the back-burner for now. 
Curious if this is something any members at BP might be interested in hypothetically partnering on, if the details were properly ironed out? 

It seems like all these influencer-investors nowadays are talking about boutique hotels or trying to sell you into another one of their mentorship programs, which I’d rather not have to pay for …

So where do I start? 

I already want to live in Thailand - and getting approval for a foreign business could get me a proper visa. I have some liquid capitol on my end, and some friends (both American and Thai) who might be able to throw in more, so it’s not like I wouldn’t have skin in the game. I would need more investors regardless, but raising capitol isn’t impossible.

That being said, does anyone have any interest in something like this? Is it too far fetched?

 Thailand is a beautiful country and Bangkok has the most visited airport hub in the world - there will always be tourists; it’s a huge part of their GDP. 

To give you an idea of what opportunity exists out East: When I was in Thailand in 2019, the only way for tourists to get around, aside from public transport, was hire a driver for the day. The entire time I couldn’t help but think, “man they need Uber here!”  

Cut to me going back in February of 2022, a foreign investment company had introduced Grab (along with another drive-share company called Bolt) that took over Asia like wildfire. Point is, someone saw the opportunity and capitalized. And what I see in Thailand is nothing but opportunity. It’s also cheap real estate (for the most part). 

Years ago I read about an American guy who bought a small beach-front property for $10K USD and turned it into a boutique hotel dedicated to surfing - he did very well! 

So who’s to say we can’t do something similar?

 

[Don Konipol]

Quote from @Wyatt Nauman:

Hi, I’ve always had the urge to start a small to medium-sized boutique hotel somewhere in Thailand. I understand this would require a certain amount of required Thai investors - let’s put that on the back-burner for now. 
Curious if this is something any members at BP might be interested in hypothetically partnering on, if the details were properly ironed out? 

It seems like all these influencer-investors nowadays are talking about boutique hotels or trying to sell you into another one of their mentorship programs, which I’d rather not have to pay for …

So where do I start? 

I already want to live in Thailand - and getting approval for a foreign business could get me a proper visa. I have some liquid capitol on my end, and some friends (both American and Thai) who might be able to throw in more, so it’s not like I wouldn’t have skin in the game. I would need more investors regardless, but raising capitol isn’t impossible.

That being said, does anyone have any interest in something like this? Is it too far fetched?

 Thailand is a beautiful country and Bangkok has the most visited airport hub in the world - there will always be tourists; it’s a huge part of their GDP. 

To give you an idea of what opportunity exists out East: When I was in Thailand in 2019, the only way for tourists to get around, aside from public transport, was hire a driver for the day. The entire time I couldn’t help but think, “man they need Uber here!”  

Cut to me going back in February of 2022, a foreign investment company had introduced Grab (along with another drive-share company called Bolt) that took over Asia like wildfire. Point is, someone saw the opportunity and capitalized. And what I see in Thailand is nothing but opportunity. It’s also cheap real estate (for the most part). 

Years ago I read about an American guy who bought a small beach-front property for $10K USD and turned it into a boutique hotel dedicated to surfing - he did very well! 

So who’s to say we can’t do something similar?

 

It would require someone very experienced in this niche with a track record of success to have any hope of attracting professional investors.  Go ahead and move to Thailand, work for a hotel developer, gain the knowledge and experience you need, and then see about starting up a hotel.  You don’t know what you don’t know.