Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1888-09-29
NEW Works. HOTELS.
The Capital Invested In tho Caravauserie
of the American NJ etropolIs.

''Ps"''r 's'''SsVV vs. Su6 S1raVhu9er1S8
ofthe American Metropolis.
The am cunt Of money invested in
hotel PROPERTY in New York is vari-
ously est mated, but according to a
lair allow ince the land and buildings
are worth Sl5.OO0.000 - that is, an
averaged valuation Of each piece Of
property at $241 1880. OF course
this amount would be largely in excess
OF the va ne OF more than half Of the
regular hbtels within the city limits,
but 1t Is also away below the just as
sessment pf nearly twenty OF the big
hotels now in business. The furniture
In the hotels is estimated as having a
value OF T2,0o0,000, with an average
value of S32, 259. Several of the large
houses have expended $500 on
their inter decorations, and three
or four even more than this. All of
these estir hates are placed exceedingly
low, yet they show that simply to
build and furnish the good hotels it
required ah outlay Of $l7 ,OO0,OO This,
after all, IS an exceedingly small in
vestment when compared with the
amount OF money required to acc I'M
modate the guests.
At the legal rate of interest this in
vestment should return $3.50, 900 a year.
1t does all this and much more. The
total income OF the number OF hotels
mentioned is estimated by good au-
thorities aB 1880, 900 a year. How
much OF til is is profit is figured out in
this way: There are accommodations
Tor nearly 30, 900 person in the hotels
rated as respectable. There are at
least o-thirds that number + per-
sons who are counted upon as regular
patrons. costs a hotel keeper on
the averag % about $l.25 day to feed
and attend to the needs of one guest.
ms amount on an average patronage
o. 20, 900 would represent an outlay Of
$4,000 day, or $9,025.OO year.
When this is added to the interest on
the orgina investment of $4,000, 900,
1t brings III total yearly cost, count
ing t. employment of servants, W hich
represents an outlay OF 81 1862, 900 more
up to the r spectable total of $ll, 237,-
600. This deducted from the estimated
total receipts gives $3,513, 900 as the
profits to be divided between sixty-two
ESTABLISHMENTS, and would be an ex-
cellent chance for capitalists to go right
to work and pile up more capital with
the rapidity and persistency Of the
everlasting SNOWFALL.
Such profits would easily explain the
reasons for the great number of big
new hotels in contemplation or already
under way. But, unfortunately, when
the noses OF the guests Of a big New
York hotel are counted, they don't
always mea n weekly or monthly set
Element of the bill. The number OF
"hotel beat b." despite all the precau-
tlons taken to detect them and to avoid
giving them credit, is a matter which
Is exceedingly grave to the hotel pro-
prletors. There are at least a thou
sand person S who practically live upon
the hotel pfoprietors OF this city. Not
the same ones all the while, of course,
but the loss represents the loss of the
board OF that number of individuals.
This at once makes an inroad into the
big profit Of 81 ,095, 900 at an average
OF three dol lars day. Then come the
breakages in dishes and the invest
ment in new cutlery, which in a prop
erly managed house amounts at the
average to $1,000 II year. This draws
another S3l 1000 from the profit, and
then come I he thousand and one other
Items OF Xpenditure-gas, coal, dam
age to furn iture, and the like which
run up to the big total of 81 ,O26, 600 a
year, and again pare the profit down,
leaving it In the neighborhood of 81
0S2,0oO to be divided among the sixty
two hotels. giving each an average
profit. subject to still further drains,
OF Sl7, 453. When one considers that
this profit has to be divided in most
cases among three or four partners,
the little hotels are not coiners OF
money, and the student of finance as
applied to hotel keeping continues to
wonder why it is that big hotels are
still going mp in various parts of the
metropolis. N. Y. Times
Graceful Princesse Gowpe