Game: Hotels

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Tetsuo [LiF] — 2008-11-20T18:14:48+00:00

Property cards (II)

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Tetsuo [LiF] — 2008-11-20T18:13:57+00:00

Property cards (I)

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Tetsuo [LiF] — 2008-11-20T18:12:51+00:00

The different types of banknotes

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Tetsuo [LiF] — 2008-11-20T18:11:48+00:00

Game components (italian version)

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Tetsuo [LiF] — 2008-11-20T18:10:51+00:00

Italian rules printed under the cover

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Tetsuo [LiF] — 2008-11-20T18:09:40+00:00

Italian box front

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G M K — 2008-09-12T15:38:57+00:00

Box Front - German Edition, Framed

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G M K — 2008-09-09T20:06:23+00:00

GODZILLA vs. HOTELS: Unwelcome Visitor At The HOTEL ETOILE

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G M K — 2008-08-24T15:43:08+00:00

Hotel PRESIDENT (Pre-Desaster Architecture III)

Thread: Re: The six faces of the special die

bop517 — 2008-08-01T19:08:02+00:00

Adam,

Thank you for the quick response!

Thread: Re: The six faces of the special die

asmiles — 2008-08-01T18:52:10+00:00

If I remember correctly...

3 Green Dots - You may sell
1 Red Dot - You man not sell
1 "H" - You may sell at half price
1 "2" - You may sell at double the price

Thread: The six faces of the special die

bop517 — 2008-08-01T18:29:13+00:00

Yes, I need help. I just got the game and I'm missing the speical die. What are on the six sides of the die???

Thanks

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G M K — 2008-08-01T16:50:35+00:00

Hotel FUJIYAMA On The Eve Of Destruction (Pre-Desaster Architecture II)

Thread: Re: Is the "Boomerang" too good???

dikketepels — 2008-05-24T15:19:36+00:00

Well, this is where rules-creativity comes to the rescue: i never taped my hotels once build and each time we play, most of the hotels have fallen apart. Seeing how Boomerang is always amongst the hotels which require the most assembly, we just entered the rule that in order to build the hotel, you have to be able to put it together. trust me, this will balance things out!

Thread: Re: Is the "Boomerang" too good???

ektorakos — 2008-05-09T12:05:38+00:00

You take me back many many years.
Yes you are right.
And as far as I remember you can buy the Boomerang from the first dice.
So the one that plays first may win !

Change the rules!

Thread: Re: The Taj Mahal... what an old dump!

mark5ok — 2008-04-28T18:39:07+00:00

While I totally agree that the "Taj" is a waste of money for the most part... WHAT ABOUT THE "FUJIYAMA"???

That place is even worse!!! But, once again, the only reason for one to buy that place is to keep the owner of the "Boomerang" from having way too many entrances!!!

It's the Boomerang that has a problem, really... IT'S JUST TOO DAMN GOOD!!!

I've played the game many times... and in like 90% of the games whoever owns the Boomerang wins the game!! What's up with that??

Thread: Is the "Boomerang" too good???

mark5ok — 2008-04-20T17:23:49+00:00

I played this game many times with 3 or 4 players, and even sometimes with only 2 players, and I've noticed that about 90% of the time... whoever owns the Boomerang hotel ends up winning the game!!!

If you compare the amount of money that you spend to build up the Boomerang to the Max, plus add in the maximum amounts that you would get back in hotel stays... compare that to ANY OTHER HOTEL in the game... and the Boomerang comes out on top BY FAR!!! So much so... that it seems to give an unfair advantage to whoever owns it!!

Add the fact that the Fujiyama (right across from it) is probably THE WORST hotel in the game to own... because of it's really low hotel stay prices... the only reason anyone ever wants to buy that place is to try and keep the owner of the Boomerang from having a huge amount of "Entrances"!!! But, whoever buys it... it always ends up being a pretty big waste of money...

Anyone else noticed this??? I think it's gotten to the point that I'm considering changing the values on the Boomerang and Fujiyama title deeds to even the game out a bit!!!

Thread: Small rules changes

Joe Dizzy — 2008-03-25T00:55:22+00:00

Having just played Hotels again, I realised that it's just a few tweaks away from being great, instead of merely passable. Here are the first few changes I've come up with so far.

"Buying from the owner" - Instead of buying property from another player against their consent at half price, you can declare an auction on somebody else's property if you land on a Buying Space of an undeveloped property.

"Ending the game" - When the first player has auctioned off one of his properties to pay for something, the game ends. Each property you own gets you a "last guest payment". Instead of rolling the die, count the number of entrances for your hotel to determine the length of stay of this "last guest". Whoever has the most money, wins. In case of a draw, you have a draw. Alternatively you can call for "last guest payment", once all buildings and recreational facilities have been built.

Thread: Spanish Review

Cospeito — 2008-01-23T11:16:39+00:00

Hotel es un juego para 2-4 jugadores de compra de terrenos y desarrollo de hoteles en el que, como en muchos otros jugos, gana el que arruina a los demás.

En el tablero se representan los solares de ocho hoteles diferentes (además del Ayuntamiento y el Banco que no se pueden comprar) y una carretera que pasa por los diferentes hoteles y por la que van dando vueltas los jugadores.

La mecánica es muy sencilla y enseguida recordará a un juego más conocido como Monopoly. Cuando un jugador cae en alguna de las casillas de carretera que lindan con el solar de un hotel lo puede comprar. En turnos sucesivos podrá constuir los diferentes edificios que componen el hotel y aumentar el precio que los demás jugadores deben pagar por 'alojarse' en él. Para poder cobrar una estancia no llega con que otro jugador caiga en una de las casillas que linden con el hotel, si no que hay que construir 'entradas' en ellas. Cuantas más casillas ocupadas con 'entradas' más posibilidades de que alguien pernocte en el hotel.

Lo más diferente que tiene este juego y lo que lo hace más agradable son las piezas de los hoteles. Cuando las construcciones van creciendo el jugador se siente un pequeño magnate que se regocija ante las tarifas a cobrar a quien 'se quiera' alojar en tus hoteles. Aunque el material es demasiado ligero para los edificios más altos, lo que provoca que se caigan al mínimo movimiento, el aspecto final es más que aceptable para un juego de estas características.

Los ocho hoteles están bien tematizados y bien relizados para los estándares de los 80, claro:
Boomerang: Situado en Australia y con una forma que no precisa de más comentarios después de leer el nombre.
Fujiyama: Moderno hotel japonés de torres octogonales.
L'Etôile: Encanto francés en torno a una coqueta plaza.
President: Poderío americano con altas torres de cristal.
Royal: Quizá el más soso de todos, supuestamente ambientado en Inglaterra.
Waikiki: Lujosos bungalows en Hawaii.
Taj-Mahal: Uno de los que dan mejores resultados. Pequeña reproducción del famoso mausoleo.
Safari: Bonitas cabañas en el corazón de África.

El resto de los componentes, coches de colores para marcar a los jugadores, billetes y tarjetas son muy normales.

Conclusión:
Un juego aceptable sólo para quien le gusten estas mecánicas, pero que gana interés por su vistosidad y su duración, pues no se hace demasiado largo.

Thread: A New and Better Monopoly?

jamesdavis — 2007-02-21T19:52:56+00:00

Before playing this on the weekend I had never heard of or seen this game, At first glance it looked like a fancy monopoly, and it is very similiar in play. So I will explain the game and how it tries to improve on Monopoly.

The components are very nice, the hotels are nice 3D models and the board looks very nice once filled up. The playing pieces are a just little plastic cars nothing fancy. The paper money is what would usually be expected from this sort of component.

The game is very simple, make as much money as possible by buying hotels and getting people to pay to stay. Sounds exactly like Monopoly.

There are a few differences to Monopoly, some good some are bad.

Movement is controlled by one die. Players roll and move around the board. There are 3 different sorts of spaces that can be landed on while travelling around the board. The Buy, Build and Free Stuff squares.

Buying hotel land is quite similiar but also quite different to monopoly. When a player lands on a square the player can choose to buy hotel land that is connected to the square. Once a player has bought the land he gets a title deed to this hotel. Pretty much the same as monopoly. But there is a twist, If a player owns one of the hotels ajoining the square and has not built on it yet the player that landed on the square can buy the hotel from this person for half the original sale price. This adds an interesting strategy whether tobuy straight away or to wait and get it for cheaper.

Building is very different to Monopoly. On the title deed there are parts to be bought to upgrade the hotel land to make profit. Each part costs a different amount. Simple stuff, but yet again there is a twist, there is a special dice for building. You roll this dice and you are shown a symbol, either a green or red square which is whether you build or not and a 2 which you then have to pay double the price you would have to pay in the first place. So building becomes a risky business.

The free spaces just provide your hotel with upgrades.

The way you make money from hotels is different from monopoly. There isnt just one square that someone has to land on for them to have to pay. The way this is done in Hotels is the player that owns the hotel land must buy what are called 'Entrances' you can place the entrance on any space that joins to the hotel land. When a player lands on this entrance they dont just simply hand over a given amount. The way this is done in Hotels is that there is a table on the title deed with Star values which relate to your upgrades, the more stars the more you pay. But this is not the end of it. The player must then roll the die again and the value is checked against the table for the value that player must pay.

Hotels has some unique ways of playing what is pretty much monopoly. Alot of them I find are great improvements. The building die really makes building a gamble rather than a no brainer, the components are a nice touch of class, the entrances and paying for the hotel stay are very ingenious. The Buying is 50-50 with me, it does solve a problem in monopoly with the luck of not being able to buy a property on the first trip around the board, but it does take away the trading aspect which I greatly enjoy.

The Game is a bit below average for me, Even though there are some good improvements on the Monopoly model, it has no player interaction which I enjoy most about Monopoly. After the intial few trips around the board and everyone has started building the game becomes boring and stale just waiting for someone to run out of cash.

In conclusion, Some ingenious ideas to improve the Monopoly model, but still falls very short of being a great game. I would rate this an OK game worth playing at least once.

Thread: Re: HOTELS

lazerlight — 2007-02-15T18:10:26+00:00

I got a Hotel-Game for Christmas when I was about 8 years old. I enjoyed playing the game back then. Today I know, that the game is crap, but when I read this thread I made up my mind about it and had some ideas how to improve it. (Actually that's the reason I finally decided to sign up here ^^)
It's easy. You use all the components you get with the game, include a home-made "Meeple Deck" (That's how I call it ) and give the mechanics a complete work-over:
All Players start every turn at the starting-line. They then roll for initiative. The active player can choose any spot on the playing field to visit, but he can't go backwards. There he can take any standard Hotel-action according to the Hotel rules (buy land, build hotel mbuldings etc.) The players take turns. The player who crosses the starting line first gets a money bonus and stays there until all players are back at the starting line. The second also gets a bonus, but a smaller one. When all players are back at the starting line, The Meeple-phase begins (see further down)

The Hotels:10
Each upgrade of the hotel improves its rating in one or more of the following categories:
Luxury, Comfort, Activities
But improving the hotel also makes the stay more expensive, which will be important in the Meeple-Phase.
Each Hotel has 5 important values:
- Luxury: between 1 and 5 Stars
- Comfort: between 1 and 5 Stars
- Activities: between 1 and 5 Stars
- Price for a stay: Same as on the Hotel card
- Value of the Hotel: Combined value of the buildung ground and all buildings on it
If you buy the land and build the main building, your Hotel may for example have Luxury: 1, Comfort: 2, Activities:1.
If you build another part of the hotel, this may for example raise its Luxury rating by 1.
I think you get the idea.

The Meeple-Phase:
In the Meeple-Phase you first get the money it would cost to stay in your hotel, for each of you hotels. Then a Number of Meeple-cards are turned up from the deck. Each Meeple-card represents a single hotel guest or a group of guests. It has 3 important things on it. The number of people in the group, the minimum requirements of the hotel they will be staying in and a minimum price per capita they are willing to pay. You then check for each of the Meeple-cards, if there is a hotel that meets the requirements they have for Luxury, Comfort and Activities. If there isn't place the card under the Meeple-deck. The player with the cheapest hotel meeting the requirements then gets the Meeple-card and the money, for the stay (which is of course multiplied by the number of individuals on the card). If there is no hotel that is cheaper than the minimum price on the Meeple-card, no one gets it and it goes under the Meeple-deck. After all 10 Meeple-cards have been dealt with, another turn begins.

This continues until there are no Meeples left in the deck. Then the player with the most money wins. The player who collected the most Meeple-cards (for example a lot of low valued ones) recieves a money bonus at the end.

This is the basic concept and it is expandable.
As you see, you need to have a balance between high-class hotels and cheap tourist-hovels to have a serious chance to win the game. If you just don't get one of these cheap hotels, don't worry. Just buy one, that is a little more expensive and don't build all the expansions and you might be in the game again. Also you will notice, that the game now has a definite ending condition (all Meeple-cards gone) and is less dependand on your luck when rolling the dice.

Of course you have have to come up with the various values of the hotel improvements and Meeple-cards and I think this may involve quite a great deal of playtesting too. But I think beeing able to play with these adorable little cardboard hotels again may be worth the bother

Go ahead and tell me, what you think!

Edit: Ah I forgot. Of course you can also auction or sell your Hotels and buy new ones. That's why I listed the value of the hotel as an important figure. Just take half the value of a hotel as a starting point for an auction or sell it to the bank for half its value. In the first case, the hotel is given to the new owner with all its improvements intact. In the second case it is pulled down and the land is put up for sale again. It may also be useful to include the option to pull down individual buildings yourself and get part of the value back.
Also: is there anyone who has an idea about a mechanism for the building permission? I'd say just go to the "city hall" (don't know if they named it like this in the english version. I just played the german) and pay a certain amount to get the permission to build a part of a hotel. But maybe someone can come up with a better idea that involves the element of luck in some no-too-decisive way.

Edit2: Just had another idea. A player can only get a Meeple-card, if his hotel has at least as many entrances as there are individuals in the group on the Meeple-card.

Thread: HOTELS - US version - Need Help!

bop517 — 2007-01-16T21:43:30+00:00

Hi,

A bud of mine picked up a copy and he asked if I could possibly track down a scan of the Royal title deed and possibly, at the least, a scan of two of the facilities, the President and the Taj Mahal.

Any help would be great, as my bud is computer challenged.

Thanks!!

Thread: Missing Part

Sir Loin o Beef — 2007-01-02T14:39:45+00:00

I just picked up one of these from a thrift store but it is missing a yellow limosine. If anyone could help me obtain one, I'd appreciate it and donate some your way.

Thread: Buying AND building in one turn

McEnroe — 2006-12-27T14:40:41+00:00

In the German rules from 1986 it says:
"In jeder Runde darf man nur entweder Land kaufen oder eine Baugenehmigung beantragen -- nicht beides gleichzeitig."

In English: "Each turn you may either buy land or get a permission to build -- but not both of them at the same time."

I haven't seen this rule in any other edition of the game and I'm not sure I understand the need for this rule.
In my opinion, this situation can happen only if I roll a 6 and move again in the same turn.

Thread: Re: Re:Playing With a Six Year Old

meltwater — 2006-11-02T16:18:18+00:00

Safari
Costs Number Of Nights
Land £2000
Entrance £200
1 2 3 4 5 6
Main Building £3000 100 200 300 400 500 600
Extension 1 £1500 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Extension 2 £1500 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800
Extension 3 - - - - - - -
Extension 4 - - - - - - -
Facilities £2000 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

This is what I have for the Safari chain, hope that helps.

I'm missing my instructions, do you (or anyone else) know what the starting money is? Thats the only bit I can't remember now.

Thread: Session Report

Styro — 2005-05-13T13:49:33+00:00

My seven-year-old really likes this game so I brought it out last night at her request. It was just she and myself playing (the younger kids were playing Dungeon Dice, which is a favorite of my three-year-old).

The main reason for this report is that I decided to try out a suggestion I read here on the forums by Kirt Purdy (turf) where you only allow one entrance to be purchased per property instead of per building to see if it would help balance the game.

As the game progressed, my daughter bought President and Waikiki and I focussed on Royal, Le Grand, and Boomerang. All the others were worked on by both of us as they traded hands back and forth.

Good:
Allowing only one entrance per trip around the board really helped to balance the game out. Instead of one person grabbing all the entrance real-estate early by being the first person around the board, we both got equal chances to grab spots. It also made the Free Entrace spots more valuable.

Bad:
The game was much longer. In fact, we started charging double and then triple rent just to try to speed it up. The balance would swing back and forth depending on how we rolled. For example, I was winning (owned everything but Pres and Wai) but then she managed to only land on her entrances or rolled a 1 or 2 when landing on my cheap ones while I landed 3 times in a row on Pres and rolled a six each time. Ouch! Then she would start landing on my hotels and I would miss hers. After 2 hours we just decided to call it a tie.

Overall:
I think the change is a positive one. I will have to try the game with more people to see if that helps to shorten the game (there will be less money in play per person and I think there will be a greater chance for one person to get an advantage over the other two). I will also probably try a separate game which allows you to buy up to two entrances. That will allow some imbalance which will lead to a victor, but not so much that it is over after the first two trips around the board.

Thread: Re:New rules

MauroP — 2005-03-04T15:34:41+00:00

JimmyHat (#92112),

I have this pocket version of monoply, and since mange little card would be extremley difficult here is what they did: there is a sheet where all the card description is signed each with a number from 3 to 18, to see wich card you pick simply trow 3 dices and see what did you score on the reference sheet. This idea i think can also be applied fo those cards just assign a number to each of them and trow dices to see which one will you pick. This rules needs a lot of work, but im sure if more ppl test them we can all really improve this great game.

Thread: Re:New rules

JimmyHat — 2005-03-03T06:36:33+00:00

these are good ideas, I like you're idea of only letting players work on buildings adjacent to the construction square. Your resting idea has potential, but there is a problem that while the player is in the parking lot he can't collect money or spend it, thereby making it not as bad an option. I would add that the player leaving the parking lot must pay some money to the bank, say 2000.

I don't know about your cards though. That sounds like adding a whole other level of complexity, and when it comes down to it this game is meant to be pretty simple.

Thread: New rules

MauroP — 2004-12-30T09:50:34+00:00

For anybody who's interested, i figured out what kind of elements this game is missing, i really love play it, but i love it more with my modification (by the way forgive my poor english):

1. If you want make the game more hard you can decide that is possible to build only when landing on a build square adiacent to the land that you want to build on. (i will suggest to try this rule after a lot of experience with the game)

2. I wanted to introduce a "prison" idea like in monopoly, but we will call it "Resting days" basically every time a player lands on the start square (the one with the red arrow) put the car in the park slot of the right colour, and you must roll a six if you want to move in the next turn, you will keep rolling until a six will came up and then in the same turn roll again to determinate how far will you move. During this phase if a player will land on an hotel entrance of the "Resting" player he will not pay anything.

3.I quite like this idea; I wanted to introduce the possibility that even the player with the best hotels and tons of money have the chance to lose, andthe most poor have still a chance to win, how? by introducing a deck of card, which I call "Karma" cards. There are 2 ways which you can acquire those cards, the first is that you can eliminate the building square after the bank line and to place a "K" or a "?" made by you, just make it on paper and place it on, so you wouldn't ruin the board. Otherwise don't touch that square but insteand because the start square is quite long, you can make that half and place in first half the "K" or "?"in the same way as before. So every time you will step on it you will have to pick a card, after the card use, place it under the deck. If is not specified in the card, any time you can¨t afford to pay the penalty, you will go under the same rules as when you can afford an hotel room. the first number rappresent how many card of this type should be in the deck.

Here's the list and the description;

1.Earthquake!- A player will have to roll the six faced dice to teterminate how many structures (hotels and recreation facilities) will lose. He has to chose only one of his properties and if the dice rolls a number superior to the total builings on that land he dosent have to reduce any other properties. Ex: a player got 3 presidential hotel and 2 fujyama, he rolls a 4, and decide that the earthquake will affect the fujyama, he will lose both fujyama builings and that's it, he don't need to reduce 2 presidential. (The reduciton order is the opposite of the building order of course).

3.Lazyness- the player decide to take a nap and go in the "resting Days"

1.Happy birthday!- recieve 3000 from the other players (they must fairly split the ammount to pay between them) and if a player dosent have enough money he will have to do the same rule when a player dosent have money to pay for an hotel room (sell his porperties)

1.Tax Expired!- you forgot to pay your bills so now you got a fine of 3000 to pay to the bank.

4.Free Entrance!- same as when step on the square free entrance

1.Mantainance- your building are getting old, you will have to pay for fixing them, for each land owned pay to the bank 250, if you got buildings on pay only for them, for each building or recreation facilities 500, for each entrance you owne 50.
You must pay each land separatley and in order of the most recent builded, (first recreations, second building n4, third building n3. If you can afford to pay the building or structure or land must go back in to the game box

2.Free building!- effect are same as when land on a free building square.

3.Coffé- keep this card and use it to avoid the effect of "resting days".

1.Bank interests- The money you put in to the bank as now grown! recieve 3000 from bank.

2.Clever excape- keep this card in case you land on a opponent entrance, you will not pay anything. The player is not obligated to use this card, but he can keep it as long as he wants, and he can still use it after trowing the dice to determintate how long he will stay in that hotel.

2.Framed!- youn can send any opponent of your choise to "resting days" with this card.

1.Hooligan horde- after a football match a group of hooligan decided to pester one of your hotels, the police arrives only after the mess. You loose 1 entrance and pay 1000 of damage.

This conclude the deck

One last rule wich i like form monopoly; score a six when you are moving and you get a second free turn, get another six and you go in "resting days".

I hope you will enjoy them, let me know what do you think about them and if you dont understeand something at supremeclan@hotmail.com or answer back in here.

Thread: Re:HOTELS

J_Andrew_Evans — 2004-12-09T08:51:22+00:00

turf,

I agree with your criticisms but Hotel is a game that is crying out for some Rule development. It is SO close to being classic. We played about with the Money Supply in the game and that had some interesting effects. I like your various rules but still feel that Hotel needs work and is THAT close to being a great game with some help!

Thread: Re:The Taj Mahal... what an old dump!

fellonmyhead — 2004-07-29T12:33:48+00:00

The Brain (#47214),

Obviously you would buy the Taj Mahal to compete with the other two hotels for entrances. However bad it is, you will always want to stitch up your opponents.

Thread: The Taj Mahal... what an old dump!

The Brain — 2004-07-29T11:45:55+00:00

The Taj Mahal is a total waste of money. You'd do much better spending your hard earnt cash on a nice curry. If I had to choose between the Old Kent Road and the Taj Mahal I'd go for the London landmark any day, even if you threw in the Boomerang for free... something's got to be wrong there!???

Thread: Re:Playing With a Six Year Old

Windopaene — 2004-07-17T22:30:17+00:00

Can anyone tell me, (or better yet email me a scan or JPG), what the Safari chain deed card contains? Is it the same as any of the other properties, or all they are different? Just picked up a copy missing this deed, (though there is a handwritten one that I question the validity of a bit).

Thread: HOTELS

turf — 2003-10-01T18:26:32+00:00

Yes, the fun part of the game is playing with the models of the hotels, and the gameplay is unfortunately bad. It is "monopoly" with altitude. All you do is buy anything you land on, and hopefully don't land on the other players' properties. We did manage to even out the game by allowing the purchase of only ONE entrance each time you pass "GO". This eliminates hoarding. Also, on the top 4 hotels, you cannot have two consecutive entrances. If these steps are not taken, the game will be incredibly one-sided in a matter of minutes. For further balancing, we played that you could only have ONE un-developed property, i.e. if you own the land to the President, but have not built at least the main portion, you cannot buy another property. This keeps the hotels in a variety of hands for a while, anyway.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

A fun, mindless game. 3D buildings add a high coolness factor. Having lived in Las Vegas and watched all the spiralling hotel construction and one-upmanship, I found it very easy to get caught up in the theme, everyone taking on the personalities of various Vegas hotel mogels.

I have one fix to add... In a two player game, the rules have no instructions for how to handle an auction. When one player can't pay rent, he must immediately auction off a property. In a two player game, that basically means selling it to the other player for the price of the land (minimum bid), leading to a runaway leader problem. In the rules, it states that if no one offers a minimum bid, it's sold to the bank, the property is razed (all buildings and entrances removed), and the property is once again available for purchase. In a two player game, we simply skip the auction, and the player sells to the bank, giving him at least a chance to buy back and start over.