Welcome to another Rookie Reply, where Ashley and Tony answer questions from the BiggerPockets Forums and Real Estate Rookie Facebook group.
Ashley Kehr:
Do you think that you need millions to own a hotel? Today’s guest used an SBA loan and a few friends to buy a 75 room property and now manages a portfolio of brands like Hilton and Marriott. If you’ve ever thought hotels were out of reach for rookie investors, this episode is your blueprint.
Tony Robinson:
That’s right. Today’s guest is a hotel investor and operator who’s breaking down exactly how a Ricky can go from a single family home or a duplex to a full-blown hotel entrepreneur.
Ashley Kehr:
This is the Real Estate Rookie podcast. I’m Ashley Care.
Tony Robinson:
And I’m Tony j Robinson. And let’s give a big warm welcome to Sujay Meta Sujay. Thank you for joining us today, brother.
Sujay Mehta:
Hey, thank you both so much. It’s an honor and a pleasure to be here. Obviously, BiggerPockets has touched so many lives, so the pleasure is online.
Ashley Kehr:
Well, I want to start off with what are some of the biggest misconceptions that a rookie listening might have about hotel investing?
Sujay Mehta:
Yeah, I mean, first of all, most people traveling. How many of us have seen a hotel while driving down the road, driving down a highway? Most of ’em may have been the Marriotts or the Hiltons of the world. Most people think Paris Hilton just owns half these hotels. And that’s a huge misconception. It’s not these billion dollar companies or Wall Street companies that own these hotels, but actually a lot of ’em are franchise. And so we actually as franchisees own a lot of these Holiday Inns or Hampton Inns, Fairfield Inns. And these are owned by small business owners just like us. And now the big trend that’s happening in the world is going into this boutique hotel space. So as these hotels also start popping up, I think it’s a big misconception that a lot of these big players own these…