Short answer: a good hotel investment advisor in Costa Rica gives you more than a list of properties. You need people on the ground who can tell you whether a place and a deal are right, and independent specialists who can prove it. At CHN Hospitality Partners, Daniel Chavarria and I guide investors from the first scouting trip to the letter of intent and beyond, and we bring in our professional network for every question that deserves a specialist. The result is one decision file you can act on.
Why the decision is harder here than it looks
A desk reads the recorded data and builds models on it that project future value and risk. A building and its team hold what nobody recorded.
Many of the hotels, lodges and resorts worth buying in Costa Rica were built by founders, not institutions. The numbers exist, but much of what drives them lives in people’s heads: the pricing logic, the arrangements with neighbours and suppliers, the relationships that bring in guests. The market data is real, the incentives are real, the opportunity is real. But no single person, and no single report, sees all of it.
That is why we do not work alone, and why we advise investors not to either.
Two partners, two readings of the same opportunity
Daniel Chavarria is Costa Rican and a tourism expert. He reads the destination: how a region’s guests, seasons, access and trade relationships really behave, and where tourism in the country is heading. When an investor asks “is this the right place?”, Daniel is the one who answers.
Tara Nowacki, that is me, came to Costa Rica as an investor. My background is in a family office, where I managed the real estate portfolio: restoring properties and extracting their value, valuing businesses and structures, and seeing potential where others see problems. I read the deal and the asset: the structure of the transaction, what the building and the organisation can carry, and what has to happen, in what order, for the plan to come true. When an investor asks “is this the right deal?”, that is my question.
Between us we cover the place and the deal. For everything that needs deeper specialist work, we bring in our network.
The network: specialists for specialised questions
A capital decision on a hotel rests on several readings that no generalist should pretend to do alone. We select the specialist, brief them on your brief, coordinate the timing, and sit down with you to read the results together.
Market feasibility, valuation and reporting for financing. Lisette Acosta Álvarez of Lacosta Advisors, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at Majestic Hospitality and a member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, answers the financial question: does this investment work, and can it be funded? She builds feasibility studies, highest-and-best-use analyses and valuations from market data, comparable sets, penetration rates and capital structure, and she prepares the documentation that investment committees, lenders and co-investors expect to see before they commit, including introductions to financial institutions. For a foreign investor that reporting matters: financing a Costa Rican hotel acquisition from abroad is often difficult, and a lender or partner will judge the project on the quality of the file in front of them. Her work tells you what an asset should be capable of and how to present it to capital. Ours on the ground tells you what this particular asset will actually do, and in what order things have to change for the study to come true. One gives you the ceiling, the other the sequence.
Land and registry verification. Felipe Sánchez of Ambiental Process is the local assessor I rely on before any lawyer starts work. He verifies everything about a property that can be verified on the record and on the ground: that the registry and cadastral numbers exist and match, whether there are claims or encumbrances on them, what limitations apply to the land, whether municipal taxes are paid, and every other technical point that can be checked. He also checks with the public institutions concerned for violations on record or ongoing litigation against the company that owns the asset. What he cannot verify is what goes to the legal team. That keeps the most expensive hours in a transaction for the questions that really need a lawyer, and when the lawyers need more detail from the ground, he works alongside them.
Design, permits and technical inspection. ADUO Arquitectos, led by architect Prospero Ulloa, brings an architect and a topographer together in one team. They design, and their renders show an investor what a project will really look like before a single permit is filed. They also advise on the design itself, because not every design is feasible in every climate: humidity, rain, salt air and heat decide what will last. That is something you only really understand once you have seen examples, and they show them. Just as important, they take the legal side of building seriously: they work within the law and the restrictions that apply to the land, file for development permits, and handle the SETENA environmental process when a project needs it. For acquisitions they also survey the property and inspect it technically, and they prepare capex plans and the technical feasibility of a development or renovation: what can be built or rebuilt on this site, within the rules, and at what cost. Those figures feed into Lisette’s financial model, so the two studies answer different questions and strengthen each other.
Legal. A Costa Rican lawyer of your own, never the seller’s: corporate structure, title or concession position, contracts, and the treatment of staff in a transfer. Because the record has already been verified, your lawyer can concentrate on what is genuinely legal.
Which lawyer depends on three things: the type of investment, the type of investor you are, and your budget. Some investors want to be closely involved in every step; others prefer to delegate and receive the conclusions. A large, complex structure needs a different firm than a straightforward purchase. We work regularly with several law firms, and we recommend the one that fits. For direct acquisitions where you want a lawyer who is closely involved at every step, we work with Quatro Legal.
Tax and incentives. Accountants who understand hotel payroll and social security, and PROCOMER, Costa Rica’s foreign trade and investment promotion agency, for the incentives that apply to your sector today. They change, and they differ by sector.
Aftersales: marketing, distribution and revenue. A hotel you have bought still has to fill its rooms. Profimercadeo is a Costa Rican hospitality marketing firm, and it is Daniel’s company. It provides digital marketing, OTA management and revenue management, connects owners with AI specialists for their needs, and works with the incoming travel agencies that send guests to Costa Rica. Daniel is also the owner of Enchanting Hotels, a collection of boutique hotels and eco-lodges in Costa Rica, which Profimercadeo presents at international trade fairs. Its services are open to every kind of hospitality operator: hotels, tours and excursions, even shuttle services.
The principle is simple: every reading comes from someone who does that work for a living, and every reading arrives in writing.
How the guidance runs, stage by stage
We match the depth of the work to where you are, so you do not pay for diligence before you need it, and owners are not asked to open their doors before you are ready.
Exploring. You are discovering Costa Rica and do not have a written brief yet. We give you a destination briefing and a discovery itinerary for the tourism regions that fit your idea, and we help you write the brief. If you want to see a region with us, we spend the day there together: towns, access, land, comparable hotels as a guest, and the people you would work with. Properties on our register are not visited at this stage. Daniel’s reading of the regions matters most here.
Qualified. Your brief is written. Our blind teasers are public: anyone can download them from each listing on our site, under its CHN reference code. We shortlist the ones that match your brief, including silent listings, and for each asset you choose you register and sign an NDA for that asset, which opens its identity and file. Where a market question decides the shortlist, this is the moment for a first feasibility reading.
Mandated. You have a written mandate and proof of capital, and you ask to go further on a specific asset. With the owner’s consent, the data room opens and we arrange a visit as an ordinary guest stay. Now the specialist readings run on that asset: Felipe’s verification of the record first, then feasibility and valuation, ADUO’s survey, technical inspection and capex plan, and the legal work on what remains. On a hotel where CHN does not represent the seller, my own reading on the ground runs alongside; where we do, we point you to an independent operator for it. If you will finance part of the acquisition, this is also when Lisette prepares the reporting for your lender or co-investors.
Transacting. A letter of intent is signed. We coordinate the due diligence calendar across the specialists, support the negotiation through to closing, and, if you want it, help put the management in place that runs the hotel after the handover, with Profimercadeo for marketing, distribution and revenue if you choose.
Independence, and who pays whom
An investor deserves to know where everyone’s interests sit. So we say it plainly.
- The specialists work for you. You engage them directly, they report to you, and you pay them directly. We do not add anything on top of their fees and we take no referral fees. What we do have with our partners is a long-term relationship in which we introduce clients to each other in both directions. We value that ecosystem, and we would rather tell you about it than have you wonder.
- Profimercadeo and Enchanting Hotels are Daniel’s. Using them is always your choice, never a condition of working with us, and we will tell you what it costs before you decide.
- When CHN represents the seller of a hotel, the seller pays our success fee. On that same hotel, I do not provide your operational due diligence: you deserve a reading from someone with no stake in the sale, and we will point you to one.
- We agree the scope in writing first. What we do for you, what the specialists do, and what each reading costs, before any work starts.
What you end up with
Not a pile of reports. One decision file, organised around the question you actually have to answer: should I commit capital to this asset, at this price, on these terms?
It brings together the destination reading, the verification of the record, the feasibility and valuation, the survey, technical inspection and capex plan, the legal findings, and the reading on the ground, with the cost of fixing each thing found and the order in which it has to happen. Where the readings disagree, we tell you, and we tell you which one we would trust and why.
That is the value we aim to create for our investors: a capital decision made with every relevant reading on the table, by people who have each done the work they are reporting on.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use your network?
No. If you already have counsel, a valuer or technical advisers you trust, we work with them. The network is there so that no reading is missing, not to replace the advisers you have.
Is a feasibility study enough to decide?
It tells you what an asset should be capable of. It does not tell you what this particular building and team will actually do. We recommend both readings, kept separate, before anything binding is signed.
When should I commission the specialists?
Light readings, such as a market or feasibility view, can help at the shortlist stage. Full legal, technical and environmental work belongs to the stage where you have a mandate and a specific asset, usually under a letter of intent.
Can you help after closing?
Yes. Many investors do not live on site. We can help put the management and the reporting in place so the hotel runs without you standing in it. See our hotel management services.
How do I start?
Write to us with what you are looking for, even if it is still an idea. The first conversation tells us both which stage you are in. Browse the hotels for sale in Costa Rica on our register to see how blind listings work.
CHN Hospitality Partners is an intermediary in hospitality businesses in Costa Rica, not a real estate agency. Tara Nowacki and Daniel Chavarria guide investors in hotels, lodges, resorts, hospitality development land and joint ventures, from the first scouting trip to the letter of intent and beyond. Every asset on our register appears at invest-costarica.com under its CHN reference code; its identity is disclosed only after buyer registration and a signed NDA for that specific asset. Write to tara@invest-costarica.com or daniel@invest-costarica.com.
General orientation only. Not legal, tax or investment advice.
Keep reading
