Hotel Tycoon Board Game

This was a nostalgia purchase. I remember playing this when I was young (or a very near version) and loving it – it’s a game that's similar in goal and principle to monopoly, but takes half the time.As a game it is great fun, my kids love playing it and caught onto the gist very quickly (they are 7 and 11) The hotels you can build are great fun, with lots of different models and styles which make a great 3D effect on the board. Games are generally fairly quick to play, although be prepared, you can be caught playing for a very long time on occasions if you keep landing on each other! It doesn’t take long to work out which sets are worth owning and building up as some sets are much better than others, so luck is key to get the best sets and biggest advantage!Be aware the buildings all come flat packed and you will have to build them yourself which is very fiddly and time consuming, so worth preparing before your first game or it’ll take forever to set up! Luckily once they are built they stay built (well theoretically, although they are constantly falling apart in places, I may have to resort to sellotape as it can get quite annoying!) So long as you follow the plan on how to store them away in the box, they fit nicely.I scoured the internet for the best price for this game and Amazon was by far the cheapest so I would recommend buying from here if you are after this specific game (it was the cheapest place when I purchased after comparing prices with other retailers (As of Aug 2016)The following is a brief description of the game:To play you have to try and buy the title deeds to a hotel plot and build up your hotel empire. You can land on various spots which give you the chance to build (if you own the adjacent hotel plot) or buy (if the plot has not been claimed you can buy the land, or if it’s been brought by another player but not been built on, you can buy it from them for half price) The luck of the dice is paramount if you want to build up your hotels and get "entrances" along the path to your hotels. The more entrances obtained (which are acquired every time you pass the yellow line on the board or if you are lucky to land on a free entrance square) You can also block opposing players from getting entrances to their hotels as only one entrance is permitted per square, so strategically placing your entrances to deny others placing them gives the game added strategic depth. As with monopoly, different hotels are worth different amounts when you land on them and some plots cost more to build on than others. Deciding which ones you want to build up and which ones are not worth progressing is great fun, we all end up with our favourite hotels we want to own! (mine is deffo Coral Reef and High Towers ;-) There is a lot of luck involved with the dice, if you wish to build you have to get planning permission by throwing the coloured dice. Green means you can build at the price shown on your title deed, red means you cannot build that turn, x2 means you have to pay twice the price shown on the deed (you have to pay if you have opted to build) and H means you get the hotel free. If you get very lucky with the dice you can literally obliterate everyone really quick, equally if you are unlucky enough to keep getting X2 on the dice you will soon run out of cash and be eliminated. Landing on free hotel squares and free entrance squares give a huge advantage too!The only rule which is a little dubious and poorly thought out is what happens when you have more than 2 players and one goes bankcrupt, the rules state:"If you are unable to pay your way, you must put one (or more, if necessary!) of your properties or plots of land up for auction. There is no reserve price and all players may bid. You must sell to the highest bidder. He receives the hotel (or land) as it stands, together with the Title Deed."This is a bit of a silly rule as if there are two players or more still in the game, the highest bidder will get the deed and any hotels on them, which can be worth thousands if there are lots of hotels. So technically if a player owes money to another after landing on them, any other player can bid for the bankcrupt players title deeds and hotels. Even if the winning bidder won with just a £10 bid, they get everything on the auctioned plot including build hotels which make it very disadvantenageous to the remaining players. We prefer to do our own rules and do similar to the monopoly rule - so when a player can’t pay they sell hotels/deeds to the bank at half face value until they are able to pay the debt. When fully bankcrupt they pay what they can to the person owed and the title deed returns to the bank ready to be landed on and brought by the remaining players.A GREAT FAMILY GAME WHICH IS ALWAYS ENJOYED, UNLESS YOU’RE LOSING

We love this game already. My husband loved the original one growing up but they're a fortune second hand so I decided to go for the new version (bargain price) for his birthday and he's pleased with it.You have to build the hotels and they're a little bit fiddley, and it's tricky to get everything back in the box afterwards but we like the game.It's kind of similar to monopoly, you roll a dice, move round the board, different spaces mean different things eg buy land, free entrance etc, it's easy to pick up (I'd say children need to be at least 6yrs but probably older as it can drag on), and you could set a limit of an hour to see who the richest is, or carry on for 2-3 hours until all bar one are bankrupt. There are only 4 aeroplanes, ie it's for 4 players, but I think you could add in another counter and play with 5 or 6.Good family fun that I'd recommend.

A bright and colourful game that's a bit more friendly than its older cousin Monopoly.Hotel Tycoon is more focused on the property development side of the Monopoly style games, without the use of cards it becomes a case of dice rolling luck and how best you handle your funds while developing your buildings.The last game we played was interesting and proved that even if it looks like you might not have the advantage, that can change suddenly, as the last 2 players turned from the one behind having 1 property to winning the game because they had their money saved up (dice rolling luck helped too) and bought up the leaders properties as they were going bankrupt.Just shows that unlike the games of Monopoly I've played that the dominant player can lose if they aren't careful with their funds.Components wise it looks great, is visually easy to understand and get to grips with.Rules were a little bit vague in places, or rather, restricted so play was slowed slightly at times otherwise it was decent.Player elimination is a little bit of a downer but as soon as 1 player was out things changed fast and the game ended not long afterwards.I see this as a fun alternative to Monopoly and is different enough that it doesn't feel like I'm playing Monopoly, which is a good thing.Very happy to not be pulling out cards that forces you to give money to other players or the bank.I enjoyed playing this particular game a fair bit.

Fantastic game the whole family lo ed it.

Had never heard of this game before but purchased along with other games to help entertain my household through lockdown and its become one of our favourites.Love all the detailing on the hotel pieces, it's a really fun game to play with just two of you (though would recommend modifying the '2' on the planning permission die to be a 'no' if there's just two of you or you go bankrupt too quickly)Actually really easy to store despite what you might think after putting it together which is nice; had seen others suggesting taping hotel bits together but I think having them lose helps with storage.Great game- would definitely recommend.

This game is a bit of a pain to set up with all the hotels and the like but it's worth the effort. My daughter and her friend played this for hours, over and over. Every now and again I heard both of them remark that 'this is a really good game' or 'this is so much fun'. At first they thought it was just another version of monopoly but it isn't. It's easy to play and it's a lot quicker to finish - no 2 or 3 or even 4 hour sessions needed to find a winner. This is great for a 10/11/12 year old.