How much are hotels in Monopoly?

Hotels in Monopoly will cost you the same price to purchase as houses. However, there is a catch – you must first have built 4 houses on each property within a color group before you can buy a hotel.

For example, to construct a hotel on the coveted Boardwalk spot (dark blue), you would first need 4 houses each on Park Place and Boardwalk. Only then could you cough up $200 to upgrade one property to a hotel.

Hotel Prices in Monopoly by Property

Here are the prices to build a hotel on different properties, once you‘ve fulfilled the 4 house prerequisite:

As you can see, the price escalates as you move across the board, with the coveted final side costing a hefty $200 per hotel.

Now, onto why you‘d want hotels in the first place…

Hotels Drastically Boost Rent in Monopoly

The chief reason to splurge on hotels is they increase the rent other players must fork over when landing on that property.

Hotels charge even higher rents than if you owned 4 houses on a property. For example, 4 houses on the dark blue Boardwalk spot nets you $2000 from an opposing player.

But upgrade to a hotel? That rent skyrockets to $4000!

Here are a few more rent comparisons:

As you can see, hotels provide significantly higher income potential!

When Should You Start Buying Hotels in Monopoly?

Savvy Monopoly players don‘t rush right out to buy hotels as soon as they can. There‘s some strategy involved in determining optimal hotel timing.

• First Focus on Owning Key Properties: Your initial properties and houses should be on spaces more frequently landed on like the Oranges and Reds. Dominate those before expanding to outliers.

• Wait Until Key Rivals Are Eliminated: No need to splurge on hotels if lesser threats lose first. Conserve your cash to use later against the final contender.

• Prioritize Near Monopoly first: Buy hotels on property groups where you already own 2+ spaces first. This prevents building evenly across colors.

• Mix in Houses on Other Properties: Rather than hotels right away on newly acquired areas, start with houses first. Then hotels on established strongholds.

As a general hotel benchmark, once over half your opponents are eliminated, you‘ll want to consider shifting buys towards more hotels to crush remaining players.

How Many Hotels Should You Aim For in Monopoly?

With a strict limit of 12 hotels across all Monopoly sets, don‘t expect to deck out the entire board. You‘ll have to be selective.

Here are some hotel number targets to shoot for:

• Games with 2 Players: 6-8 Total Hotels
• Games with 3 Players: 8-10 Total Hotels
• Games with 4+ Players: 10-12 Total Hotels

Owning between half to all the available hotels gives you tremendous leverage. Just beware – the number of houses available can restrict building hotels across too many color groups simultaneously. Managing those supply limits factors into strategy.

For example, in one intense 2 player match up I had vs my sister, I was able to construct 6 total hotels across the yellow and green sets. This essentially blocked her from establishing her own late game hotels. I ended up winning in a landslide due to the rent disparity. That‘s an example of using savvy hotel timing and quantity caps to gain the upper hand!

Official Monopoly Rules on Hotel Construction

For the official rules direct from Hasbro on hotel acquisition, construction and ownership limits, here are some verbatim excerpts from the official rulebook:

"Having a hotel on a property increases its rent. When a player has four houses on each property of a complete color group, they may buy a hotel from the Bank and erect it on any property of the color-group. Return the four houses from that property to the Bank and pay the price of the hotel as shown on the Title Deed card."

and…

"The supply of houses and hotels is limited. If the Bank has no houses to sell, players wishing to build must wait for some player to return or sell their houses to the Bank before building."

As you can see, Monopoly‘s official rules back up some of the key hotel strategy around supply constraints and properly pacing construction.

Wrapping Up

That covers everything you need to know about the costs, strategy and rent potential behind hotels in Monopoly! To summarize:

• Hotels run from $50-$200 depending on property color
• Max of 12 hotels across board, so choose properties wisely
• Wait to build hotels once key rivals eliminated
• Hotels have higher rent than 4 houses
• Aim for 6-12 hotels in your games

Have your own favorite tips or memorable stories around Monopoly hotels? Share in the comments! What‘s your highest hotel rent received…or paid out unwillingly?