How to play Boutique Hotel Manager

In a Nutshell

In the booking phase, players set their prices per day, and guests choose the cheapest available hotel.

In the planning phase, players hire staff to cater to their guests.

In the walk-in phase, guests arrive at the hotel with a budget in mind and stay at the first hotel that matches it.

At the end of the week, guests give a positive or negative rating based on the staff level at the hotel.

Components

• 2 Hotel Mats
  
• 16 Price Dice (numbered), 8 per player
  
  • 7 are for the daily rates
  • 1 die is for the breakfast add-on
• 6 Staff Dice (piped), 3 per player
• 2 Rating Markers, 1 per player
  
• 1 Check-in Die (piped)
  
• 28 Guest Cards
  
• 44 Money Cards
  
• 56 Tokens, in two colors and two shapes
  
  • squares are for check-in dates
  • circles are for dates without check-in
  • green are for rooms only dates
  • brown are for rooms with breakfast
• 8 Transparent Room Connection Tokens
  

Setup Instructions

1. Each player takes a Hotel Mat, 8 Price Dice (numbered), 3 Staff Dice (pipped), and the Rating Marker of the same color.
2. Take 10 random Guest Cards face down and place them in the middle of the table.
3. Place the Check-in Die in the middle.

Detailed Rules

Preparation Phase for Week 1

• Each player secretly sets their daily rates by placing 1 Price Die on each day of the week on their Hotel Mat and 1 Price Die on the Breakfast space. Dice values represent 100 to 600 in increments of 100. (i.e. 1 means 100, 2 means 200 etc..)
  • this dice represent the daily rate for each day for all rooms
• Each player receives 500 in Money Cards and 1 blank Money Card (card back on both sides).
• Each player places their Rating Marker on the 3-star space on their Hotel Mat.
• Note that each player starts with only 3 rooms in their hotel marked as "Start"

Example of initial set-up:

Booking Phase

• Players take turns starting from the youngest, proceeding clockwise.
• At the start of their turn, a player may change one and only one Price Die.
• The player then rolls the white Check-in Die; the result shows the day guests are checking in.
• The player draws and reveals a Guest Card, which shows the type of stay the guests are trying to book.
• Each player with availability calculates the total rate for the stay, including breakfast if requested.
  • to have availability, players need to offer the same rooms for the entire stay
  • when more than 1 room is required, rooms can be placed anywhere unless there is a door symbol between the room which requires the rooms to be adjacent

The card mention breakfast not included so we only add up the room prices

The final price for player Blue is 100 + 100 = 200

• The player offering the lowest total price wins the guests and receives the money
  • If there is a tie in price, guests choose the best-rated hotel. If ratings are equal, players compete in marketing by bidding Money Cards face down (blank cards allowed). The highest bidder wins. If still tied, all tied players get guests.
    • the blank card is used to bluff the opponent, making them think that you will spend on marketing so they overspend 
    • Losing bidders discard their bid as marketing expenses are non-refundable.

• The winning player then blocks the rooms according to the card symbols. Note the color (brown or green) and shapes (circle and squares) of the stay.
  • if rooms need to be adjacent, the cards makrs them with a symbol between the shapes and they need to be connected with a transparent cube on the Hotel Mat

Example of "blocking" rooms reserved

Example: this stay requires 2 adjacent rooms on the first day, only one room on the second day and breakfast.

Example of joined rooms reserved with the transparent token between the squares:

• Each player starts with three rooms. If all are booked on a single day, the hotel is full for that day.
• Repeat for all 10 Guest Cards.

Planning Phase

• Players hire staff for the upcoming week. Staff must be hired for the entire week, even if demand is on one day of the week.
• Hotels need staff for Housekeeping, Kitchen, and Check-in:
  • Housekeeping: 1 staff per occupied room per day.
  • Check-in: 1 staff per guest checking in on a given day (squares of any color)
  • Kitchen: 1 staff per stay with breakfast on a given day (brown tokens of any shape)
• Players place Staff Dice on the appropriate spaces on their Hotel Mat and pay 300 per staff (each pip equals 1 staff).
• Note: Players should take into account guests who will walk-in during the next phase as there is a penalty for understaffing (see Rating Phase).
  

Example of staffing:

Walk-in Phase

This phase has 7 turns that represent the 7 days of the week. In this phase, each turn, one Guest tries to check-in on that same day. (i.e. on the first round guests try to check-in on Monday, then on the second turn on Tuesday etc...). During this phase, there is no need to roll the Check-in Die since Guest check-in on the day of the turn.

• Each day of the week, draw one Guest Card. Guests are checking in on that day.

At the beginning of the Walk-in Phase, rank all players from lowest to highest money. This order remains unchanged for the entire phase. In case of a tie, players bid Money Cards face down for marketing. All marketing money is lost. If still tied, roll the white die to determine the winner.

During the phase, Guests go to the hotel in the order determined until they find a stay.  

• • This ranking is done once at the start of the Walk-in phase and valid for the entire phase.

• For each day:
  • Players may change one Price Die.
  • Roll the white die to determine the guest's budget per night. Die values represent 100 to 600 in increments of 100.
  • Draw a Guest Card.
  • Guests go to the first hotel (based on the ranking) that meets their budget. If no hotel qualifies, the guests are lost.

Rating Phase

• At the end of the week, guests rate each hotel.
• Players evaluate for each day and calculate the maximum requirement for the week (requirement for the week is the maximum of each staff on any day):
  • Number of booked rooms vs. Housekeeping staff
    • rooms blocked have a token on them (any token)
  • Number of check-ins vs. Check-in staff
    • check-ins are marked by squares
  • Number of breakfasts vs. Kitchen staff
    • breakfasts are marked with brown tokens
  • For each shortfall, lose 1 star (multiple infractions per category are possible).
  • A player who reaches 0 stars loses the game.
  • If there are no infractions, increase the rating by 1 star.

Example of requirement check:

The hotel needs 2 reception staff:

The hotel needs 3 housekeeping staff:

The hotel needs 2 kitchen staff:

The hotel staffed 1 reception, 3 housekeeping and 2 kitchen staff:

But the hotel needs 2 reception, 2 housekeeping and 2 kitchen staff, since there is not enough reception staff, the hotel will lose 1 star rating. (Note that having too much staff doesn't have. any benefit)

Expansion Phase

• Players may pay 1000 per room to expand their hotel for the next round.

Preparation Phase for Week 2

• Each player secretly sets new daily rates by placing 1 Price Die on each day and 1 on the Breakfast space.
• Players remove the Staff Dice from their Hotel Mat.
• All Stay and Check-in Tokens are removed
  • Tokens from previous weeks that rolled over are added, if any

End of Game

At the end of the second week, the player with the most money wins. In case of a tie, the highest-rated player wins. If still tied, the game ends in a draw.

F.A.Q.

• What happens when a stay exceeds Sunday?
  Use the Sunday rate for the extra days. Place tokens on the side of the Hotel Mats; they carry over to the next week if needed.

Additional Rules

• More than 2 players: With additional sets, the game can be played with any number of players.
  • On the Advance Booking Phase: draw 5 times the number of players in Guest Cards and place them in the middle, face down.
  • On the Walk-in Phase, for every 2 players, one walk-in guest appears per day