Buying a hotel, motel or RV park in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida

• Guests coming for more than one reason: vacations, business, sports and events, nearby hospitals or construction work.
• Plenty of direct bookings and repeat guests, not total reliance on online travel agencies.
• For RV parks, seasonal guests who rebook before they leave, and monthly sites that stay rented in summer.
• Roofs, air conditioning, plumbing and pools in good repair, with records of what was replaced and when.
• A good general or resident manager who plans to stay.
• Review scores that have held up over several years.
• For a branded hotel, a franchise agreement with years left and no large property improvement plan (the list of upgrades a brand requires) hanging over it.
• A site outside the worst flood zones, or buildings that came through recent storms well.

• Occupancy and rate by month for several years, checked against the sales and tourist tax returns actually filed.
• The buildings. A full property inspection covering roofs, air conditioning, fire alarms and sprinklers, pools and elevators (which need annual inspections under chapter 399), plus any open code or fire marshal violations.
• Insurance. Get your own quotes for wind, flood and liability before you sign. In Florida they can change the whole picture.
• The franchise. Whether the brand will approve you, what upgrades it will require, and what it charges.
• Booking sources. How much comes through online travel agencies, and what they keep.
• For an RV park. The list of long-term residents and their agreements, any duties under chapter 723, and the condition of water, sewer and electrical service to the sites. Many parks run their own utility systems, which have their own permits and repair costs.
• Staffing. How hard it is to keep housekeepers and maintenance staff in that town during peak season.

• How full are you, and what do you charge, in your best and slowest months?
• Where do your bookings come from: direct, online travel agencies, the brand's system or repeat guests?
• What major work has the property needed in the last five years, and what's coming next?
• How did the property come through the last few hurricanes, and what did insurance cover?
• Who runs things day to day, and will they stay?
• For an RV park: how many guests return every season, and how many sites are rented by the year?
• If it's branded, has the brand said what upgrades it would require from a new owner?

This region covers Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker and Putnam counties: Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Macclenny and Palatka. Jacksonville merged with most of Duval County in 1968, which makes it the largest city by land area in the lower 48 states.

The economy leans on logistics, the Navy and financial services. Logistics runs through JAXPORT, major rail lines and the meeting of Interstates 95 and 10. The Navy has Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport. Insurance and health care matter too. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, and Amelia Island draw steady tourism. Trucking and logistics firms, the building trades, medical practices and home services all fit this market.

Northeast Florida is less seasonal than South or Southwest Florida, with fewer winter residents and more year-round employers. Direct hurricane landfalls have been less common here than on other parts of the coast, but storms still bring flooding along the St. Johns River and the beaches, so check insurance costs and flood zones.

Military families bring skilled workers and working spouses into the labor pool, though they also move on when orders change. St. Johns, Clay and Nassau have added the most new homes, and companies serving those suburbs have grown with them. Georgia is close, and some companies here serve customers across the state line. Work in Georgia may need Georgia licenses, so ask how much revenue comes from there and who holds those licenses.