How much does an inn cost to buy?

[random user]

My players are thinking about investing in a partnership to buy or build an inn/tavern. They want it to be fairly big (how many rooms is a big inn anyways?). Anyone have any idea how much that should cost or where I can find out where I can find the answer?

The DMG (pg101 v3.5) says that a Grand House "4-10 room house is made of of wood and has a thatched roof" costs 5000gp. Based on that I ballparked the cost of an inn/tavern to be around 10000gp.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Arnwyn]

Full details can be found in a Dragon Magazine article called "Ill Gotten Gains" (Dragon #268, February 2000).

It's all about investing in an inn (or shipping, tavern, etc) and gives all the necessary costs to buy and run the endeavor.

 

[ichabod]

By the SBG, 10,000 gp will get you an in with a kitchen and dining area serving 30 people, stables with room for 12 horses, a common sleeping area for 20 people, and 4 private bedrooms.

Of course, that's just the building. If it's already built in an area that attracts steady business, the owner will probably want more.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

My goodness, that all sounds ridiculously expensive! It sounds more like the price for an estate or villa than an inn. One wonders how the one-horse town ever managed to put up a saloon at those prices. And, considering the amount of money that commoners and experts most likely make (between 1 and 12 gp/week), one wonders how anyone ever manages to open an inn. In the stories, inkeepers are generally wealthy folk in the town but they don't have 100 times the wealth of everyone else--or at least they don't need to have that much to start an inn.

 

[ichabod]

Well, the numbers I quoted were for a 5,000 sq. ft. inn. Around here something that big, completely unfurnished unlike the inn I quoted, would cost around $400,000. That's what, 16 years income for someone who is a modern commoner? At 12 gp a week, you make about 600 gp a year, so 10,000 gp is about 17 or 18 years income.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Well, consider that your average inkeep isn't buying an inn -- he built it up, and lives in it with his family. He's well-off because travelers are good income, not because he can afford a giant building.

Also, this raises the issue of not every hamlet having a tavern or inn.....leads to some interesting actions as the PC's try to finangle a bedroom for the night out in the boondocks.

 

[med stud]

Lots of inns werent that dramatic. It was someone who served food and beverage as an aside and maybe later specialized in it. This kind of custom still exists in Tanzania today; while the men are at work many house wives cook food and sell it outside their houses.

If a small town wants an inn and a special building for the inn they will probably do what farmers did until early 20th century; they would build it themselves from the materials available. They wont go to the local carpenters and hand up 10000 gp up front. Building was extremely expensive during the middle ages IF you wanted strange materials or lots of stone. Otherwise it was mostly a question of time and the "monetary" cost was the reduced production of the farm it meant to leave it during the building.

 

[Phineas Crow]

Using MMS: WE I got the following numbers:

Inn, 3 stories 4000 sq. ft. (1500/1500/1000)

Foundation: Stone
Walls: Wattle and Daub
Roof: Thatch

Interior Style: Normal
Exterior Style: Normal

Cost: 272,025 gp
Build Time: 160 weeks

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Well, consider that your average inkeep isn't buying an inn -- he built it up, and lives in it with his family. He's well-off because travelers are good income, not because he can afford a giant building.

I would imagine that's true--however, the question is how the inkeep managed to build the inn up. How much of the cost is labor, for instance, and how much is materials and land. If the prospective innkeep has enough money to live on for a while, I would imagine that he and his family can account for most of the labor. But that still leaves the question of how much money the original inkeep had on hand.

Also, this raises the issue of not every hamlet having a tavern or inn.....leads to some interesting actions as the PC's try to finangle a bedroom for the night out in the boondocks.

That's certainly true. I believe the medieval demographics (including those in MMS) were such that only mid size towns could be expected to have an inn. Most of the time the PCs are travelling through the country they should be staying as guests in houses or barns.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

There's got to be something wrong either with those numbers or with some other prices.

According to Sword and Fist, I could buy and outfit four border towers for that price. It seems like they should cost more than an inn not less (especially since they're mostly stone structures and the inn is wattle and daub.

For that matter, I could hire wizards or priests to build the inn using Wall of Stone spells for much less than that (at PHB prices).

Using MMS: WE I got the following numbers:

Inn, 3 stories 4000 sq. ft. (1500/1500/1000)

Foundation: Stone
Walls: Wattle and Daub
Roof: Thatch

Interior Style: Normal
Exterior Style: Normal

Cost: 272,025 gp
Build Time: 160 weeks