We were sent this game to play with the family, we love property games and have spent many hours playing them over the years on our family holidays, Christmas Day and with friends over New Year. Now we have a new game to add to the mix, Hotel Tycoon.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Initial thoughts

Before I opened the box up, I was really excited about playing, I love property buying board games and so I already knew what to expect from this type of boardgame as it has been likened to Monopoly. It looks a lot bigger than its comparison though, what do I mean by that? Well I mean the properties are more grand, the idea of the game seems more involved and I think it looks really fun from the box image. Now when I opened up the box for the first time I was a little shocked, I had NO idea it was going to come flat packed – there was little bits of plastic and card everywhere and you know what that meant? I had to build them all up. So before we could even play the game I had to sit and build the hotels ready for when we did actually play.

When you buy this boardgame, please set aside an hour to build the hotels and set it up before you will actually play the game, even if you build the hotels on a seperate occasion you will appreciate it!

What’s in the box

The box opens and inside is:

  • 1 game board
  • 30 plastic hotel roofs
  • 30 plastic hotel bases
  • 30 red hotel entrances
  • 30 card buildings
  • 8 leisure facilities
  • 8 title deeds
  • Money (5000; 1000; 500; 100; 50)
  • 4 planes (in four different colors)
  • 2 dice (one standard and one planning permission die)
  • The rules document – do not loose this one!

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

The aim of the game

 So, once set up, what is the idea of the game: players have to buy land, build hotels and then buy entrances for their guests – whilst trying to bankrupt their opponents in the path to winning. To get the hotels with the foundations, building and guest entrances you have to buy them all seperately, obviously using the in-game money! You earn money by getting the other players to pay rent when they land on your property. The more luxurious the hotel, the more money you will earn from the other players. So what are the hotels involved:

The hotels

The Artika (4 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

The Reine (5 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

The Dragon Gate (3 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

The Zebra Lodge (3 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

The Reef Resort (1 building)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

Uptown Towers (4 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

Coconut Beach Club (5 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

The Al Walid (3 buildings)

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Gameplay

You start off at the control tower, using the normal dice you use your planes and navigate the board, when you are next to a piece of land you may ask to see the deeds of that land. You can purchase it if you wish, you pay the banker. You can only buy one piece of land per turn though, so it’s not a free for all. Then on your next turn you can start to construct on that land.  When you pass the hanger, its the passing go concept, you get 200 from the banker and this helps to build your developements and pay rent on other peoples.

When you land on other peoples land, you roll the dice to see how many nights you will be staying and the owner will charge you, depending on what is written in the title deeds. The amount you pay is calculated from the hotel star rating and the number on the dice – similar to real life I suppose.

You keep going around the board, buying/selling and building until everyone has been made bankrupt and there is one player left. It can go on for 90 minutes or so, so make sure you are comfy!

Packing it up

How do you get all the pieces back into the box and the lid on properly? Yes I wondered that too, but there are some great instructions on how to pack the pieces back into the box and the lid did go on just fine.

HotelTycoonpacking up

Our thoughts

We found this game great fun to play, once it was set up and everything was ready to go – we were up against it as my mother-in-law is not good with games like this. We read the instructions quickly and then used them to play the first round, we found the game very easy to pick up and once you get the hang of it – it was fun. My mother-in-law said it looked fun and complicated, then after we played the game she was surprised how easy it was. This game will come in handy over Christmas, I have no doubts we will be playing it with our families and friends over the next few weeks.

What do you think?

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

No Comments Yet.