I am interested in knowing how the rental programs work at condo hotels. For example, if I buy a condo hotel unit what are the terms of putting the unit into a rental program? Do I get to use of it when I want if I do this, and how often and at what cost to me?

For example, if I want to use the condo hotel unit say for two weeks during a busy high season time, do I pay for the usage, or under the terms of my agreement with the hotel do I have a certain amount of usage free? What are the terms of usage in other words?

Where do I start with this one? Every condo hotel property has a different rental program from the others. There is no exact answer to your questions. Typically, you can use your condo hotel unit whenever you want, as often as you want (unless you have living restrictions) and you do not pay anything when you are using your unit, except maybe a maid's fee each day. Usually, the property's management requests as much as 60 days notice to guarantee your room is available for you, but if you should call on a Wednesday and ask, "Is my room rented out this weekend?" if the answer is "No", you can say "Save it for me," and they will remove it from the program.

What are the terms of any rental income which I would receive from the hotel operator on an annual basis?

Usually your revenue is paid to you quarterly, and rental splits can range from as little as 18% coming to you to as much as 100%, depending on other costs that are passed on to you. Typically, a 50-50 split after 10% is taken off the top for the franchise fee is common.

The above question(s) were submitted via e-mail by a visitor to www.condohotelcenter.com. The answer was prepared by Joel Greene, a licensed real estate broker with Condo Hotel Center which specializes in the sale of condo hotel units and fractional ownerships in private residence clubs.