Aspects of Hotel Investments

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: Gut, University of Vienna, language: English, abstract: Touristic ventures are facing the same questions like most business ventures, especially the one of how to attract outside capital. To fulfil this task, a certain amount of information has to be provided to potential investors. Whereas start-ups use business plans for this matter, touristic ventures make use of so-called feasibility studies, which, because of the capital intensity of such ventures, can be determined even before the need for a business plan arises. This thesis will address to the question what type of information of these feasibility studies delivering which kind of message is crucial for what type of decision maker and why. To set the ground for answering this, the hotel- and travel-industry as the sub-ordinate economic sector will be outlined, regarding its historical development, its macroeconomic significance as well as the scientific attention towards it. In a similar manner, the hotel investment-market as the sector in question will be portrayed, yet focusing on the main actors in the market. Since those actors can be seen as the object of research, the second part will above all address their characteristics and their respective investment approach. To get a closer look at the hotel as the investment itself too, a concise outline of corporate specifics, like accounting and contract design, will also be provided. Understanding those corporate specifics is incremental for the comprehension of a feasibility study, whose basic structure is then depicted. Knowing what kind of information is available to the investors, the empirical part concentrates on the question of how they derive their decision, based on the information and again, which part of information is crucial to whom. The sample of the study was chosen in a way to reflect the entire variety of dif-ferent investor types active in the market. In spring 2012, interviews with six investors, by twos representing a distinctive group of investors, were held. The analysis of those interviews will constitute the thesis.