Help me come up with the cost of an Inn.

[Zaran]

Hey, there. I have a player who came to be wanting to buy an Inn in the City of Overlook (Scales of War Campaign) or maybe a day's travel away towards Brindol. What do you think something like that would cost on say ...a per guestroom basis?

Like if he wanted to buy an inn with 8 rooms, how much would that cost?

What about if it was also a Tavern?

I would think with the Orcs being uppity and Adventures are coming to town in droves that it an Inn would be worth quite a bit since most of the rooms would probably be filled.

Would this be out of line? (8 Rooms*300 days*5sp)= 12000 Sp. or 1200 gold income to the owner a year. Granted alot of that would go towards staff and upkeep but would 1200 gold be out of line for an Innkeeper to sell his Inn or about right?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Depends upon a lot of factors, but I would say 1200gp is too low. If the owner is selling for that price, then the seller is only getting one year's worth of revenue for the inn.

Not that the real world is a good model for a fantasty RPG, but with a small amount of Googling, many corporate buyouts seem to be for between three and four times the annual sales of the company being bought.

Figure the owner of the inn is losing a place to live, and a steady income stream that needs to be replaced through the purchase price. I would say double the price at a minimum, and perhaps more. A lot depends upon the amount of wealth in your campaign.

 

[Zaran]

Yeah but I figure the Inn Keeper probably would only make maybe 10% profit or about 120 gold. Which isn't a bad amount of money. 10x that amount seems like a good price but economics isn't my strong point. I might offer 1200 +800 gold for a tavern and it be fairly low quality and the PC build it's profitability

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Remember that the 120gp profit is on top of the other expenses he gets to avoid. If you bought the inn from him and then rented one of the rooms back to him so he had a place to stay, then his expenses jump by 150gp per year minimum. So he goes from +120gp per year to -150gp. In less than 4.5 years he is worse off than had he kept the inn.

2000gp feels like a more reasonable amount to me.

 

[Stoat]

Use the treasure parcel system.

Assign the Inn a level. For example, a crummy hostel in a tiny village is a Level 1 Inn. A resort hotel in Sigil is a Level 30 Inn. I'd call a modest place in Overlook a Level 5 Inn, but it's up to you.

Then say that the Inn generates profit equal to the smallest treasure parcel for its level on some regular basis. I'd distribute profit four times a year, but the choice is yours.

Edit: The above is for generating income. For a purchase price, use the price of a magic item of the Inn's level.

 

[Umbran]

I would expect the selling price to be several year's worth of total income (not net profit). Closer to 10,000 gp than 1000 gp.