How to Get Access to Off Market Hotels in Costa Rica

Short answer: you do not find off market inventory, you are given access to it. Access is granted to buyers who are registered, specific and credible. The process takes a few days and is the difference between seeing the whole market and seeing what is left over.

Step one: write your buying mandate

One page, and it is the most productive page you will write.

• Asset type and size. Hotel, lodge, resort, or permitted project. Approximate key count.
• Region. Specific or genuinely flexible. Say which, because flexibility doubles the field.
• Budget and structure. Range, and how it is funded: equity, equity plus debt, partners. Say where the money is today.
• Operating intent. Owner operator, absentee with third party management, or reposition and exit.
• Timeline. When you can travel, sign and fund.
• Deal breakers. Concession exposure, minimum margin, maximum renovation, staff continuity, anything non negotiable.

An advisor can match this against a register in an afternoon. Nobody can match a request to see whatever is available.

Step two: qualification

Expect to be asked, politely, who you are. Typically: identity, the acquisition vehicle, source and availability of funds, prior transaction experience where relevant, and who your advisors are. Costa Rican escrow and closing are subject to anti money laundering supervision, so this information will be required eventually. Providing it early speeds everything that follows.

This screening is mutual. You should be asking the advisor the same order of questions: which assets they hold under signed mandate, how their fee is agreed, and what their process looks like.

Step three: blind teasers

You receive teasers under reference code. Category, scale, destination, revenue model, thesis. No name, no owner, no address, no identifying photography.

Read them as a filter, not as a brochure. Your job at this stage is to decide which ones justify signing an NDA.

Step four: NDA and buyer registration

Confidentiality is granted per asset, not once for everything. For each asset you want to see, you sign an NDA and register the entities and affiliates through which you might acquire.

Registration cuts both ways. It tells the seller who holds their information, and it documents your introduction to that asset, which protects you from a later dispute about who brought whom.

Step five: the file, then the visit

After the NDA: normalised financial statements, tax filings, payroll and social security position, registry study, cadastral plan, encumbrances, permits and licences, operating data, debt schedule, distribution contracts.

Visits are arranged as ordinary guest stays. No announcement to staff, no site tour with clipboards. If you cannot accept that, the process is not for you, and advisors will say so.

Step six: letter of intent and diligence

Price, structure, exclusivity, diligence scope, timeline and continuity commitments. Then confirmatory diligence with your own Costa Rican counsel and accountant, running legal, financial, labour, environmental and technical work in parallel where possible.

What accelerates you, and what stops you cold

Accelerates: a written mandate, funds identified, counsel already appointed, a realistic timeline, quick NDA turnaround, and absolute discretion.

Stops you cold: anonymity, refusal to discuss funding at any level of detail, asking for the property name before signing, mentioning a possible sale to anyone local, or approaching the owner or staff directly.

That last one deserves emphasis. Direct contact behind an advisor’s back does not save a fee. It usually ends access to the register and can create a fee dispute at your closing.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading: Why US and European Investors Cannot Find Costa Rican Hotels the Way They Search at Home, Hotels for Sale in Costa Rica.

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CHN Hospitality Partners is an intermediary in hospitality businesses in Costa Rica, not a real estate agency. We work in hospitality only: operating hotels, lodges and resorts, non-operating hotel properties, commercial development land for hospitality projects, and joint venture opportunities. No houses, no vacation rentals. Every asset on our register appears at invest-costarica.com under its CHN reference code: public listings show the destination and the verified facts the owner allows, silent listings show only a key count and a regional pin. The property’s identity is disclosed only after buyer registration and a signed NDA for that specific asset. Register at invest-costarica.com, or write to tara@invest-costarica.com.

General orientation only. Not legal, tax or investment advice.