Don’t overlook singles. We have had great luck with older single people as managers. One way you can check the rents is to hire a seperate person to clean the rooms. If they are charging you a lot of hours and the managers are saying there was only a few rooms - you have a problem. You can also check by the number of quarters in the washers, if you have a landry mat with the motel. We have also had good luck by paying on volume. If it is a small motel, you have to sell people on staying there. If the managers get more $, they do a much better job of selling. I will need to look at the exact % but I would guess about 75% of our business is credit card.
Will be aquiring a motel in a few days via a foreclosure. I have never owned a Motel before. I dont expect the former owner to be helpful with regard to telling me the ins and outs of the business. It is 14 units, mountain area, predominately weekend business Oct-May, full week in Summer. I could not find any appropriate books at the bookstore (found one on running a Bed & Breakfast, but this does not fit into that category). Anyone know of any good reference materials?
My biggest question at this time is who to get to run the place (I live 2 hours away). There is a 1200 sq ft 2 bed/1 bath house apartment attached to the motel office. Is it reasonable to think that I could hire a couple to handle everything during the off season with possibly some part time help for them in the summer? And/or adjust their pay according to the volume? Also what steps should I take to make sure they dont pocket all the daily rents (what % of people pay cash/check/charge?).