Shepherd Cox and Platinum Portfolio Builder

Beenie

Has anyone had dealings with with either company, or can pull apart the claims being made?

The main attraction seems to be that you are buying into Travelodge and Best Westerns etc. and not unbuilt complexes in Cape Verde or Wales.


http://www.platinumportfoliobuilder.co.uk/about-us/nick-carlile/

dunstonh

The main attraction seems to be that you are buying into Travelodge and Best Westerns etc. and not unbuilt complexes in Cape Verde or Wales.

Is there a reason why you can't find something in the mainstream that works for you?

Going away from the mainstream and into niche non-mainstream, often illiquid areas is when you tend to find things that go bump in the night. I am not saying that this scheme will go bump but it is certainly non-mainstream and unregulated and not dissimilar to Cape Verde other than location.

Albermarle

Looks like the website has not been updated for a few years .

badger09

Albermarle wrote: »

Looks like the website has not been updated for a few years .

Over 4 years for the platinum website and almost a year for the shepherd cox. Mr Carlile must be busy elsewhere. Motivational speaking, or setting up new companies perhaps:cool:

OP
where did you hear about them?

Beenie

my personal investments are mainstream (Fundsmith and Linsell Train) and I am very happy with them.

My query is because some people I mix with are getting revved up about property investments, and the usual stuff about not losing money where property is concerned. I have no intention of putting my money anywhere near property/motivational speakers, but am eaten up with curiosity as to how these hotel investments work.

Malthusian

Beenie wrote: »

My query is because some people I mix with are getting revved up about property investments

Never a good sign. Successfully making money from investment is very dull. When something is exciting you pay people to take part in it, people don't pay you. In the case of exciting unregulated investments, that is usually exactly what happens.

I have no intention of putting my money anywhere near property/motivational speakers, but am eaten up with curiosity as to how these hotel investments work.

You buy some grotty hotel for £1 million. You then take the 100 rooms in it and flog them to suckers for £50,000 each, telling them they'll get an "assured rental" of 8% a year. You pay them £4,000 of their own money a once or twice until you're certain that they aren't going to buy any more rooms. Then you turn it off and stop answering their phone calls. Sell the freehold of the hotel to another company controlled by you, wind up the old one, rinse and repeat.

This is how it generally works with unregulated hotel investments. There is little mention of hotels on the website you linked to so I don't know exactly how the scheme they are proposing to works specifically. I don't know how Travelodge are meant to be involved.

dunstonh

My query is because some people I mix with are getting revved up about property investments, and the usual stuff about not losing money where property is concerned.

Anyone that says they cannot lose money on a property should instantly tell you that they do not know what they are talking about.

but am eaten up with curiosity as to how these hotel investments work.

Variations of a theme but broadly you buy a hotel room in the hotel. The hotel owner will usually keep some of themselves but sometimes the whole lot is privately owned and the hotel is managed.

Key risks are
1) your room is not let out a lot. So, limited income
2) the hotel fails and you are left with a room with no income. If there are no buyers for the hotel (as its cheaper to build a new one a mile away on a new bypass/roundabout) you are left with a worthless asset.
3) illiquid. It can take years to sell, it at all.
4) your asset/income is dependent on a whole host of others (upkeep, quality, reputation, location (And changes to the locality - just look at the number of demolished or run down hotels that were once in key locations and good quality)
5) unregulated. Its contact based.

Beenie

this is the website mentioning Best Western , Ibis hotels etc.

https://www.shepherdcox.com/

AnotherJoe

Beenie wrote: »

this is the website mentioning Best Western , Ibis hotels etc.

https://www.shepherdcox.com/

To me, investments in hotel rooms are illogical and perverse. Let's say there is a hotel that has two rooms. One owned by you one by the hotel owner, when someone checks in would they give them the room the hotel owner owns or yours? Also, how would you know and track how often it had been let and what your income would be ? Completely unknowable. Lastly if its such a great investment why is the hotel owner making it available to you? Why don't they keep it for themselves ?
As for the website mentioning those well known hotels be aware you are NOT investing in them you are investing in a company thats bought the franchise to operate under those names. If you like Best Western or Ibis why not invest directly ?

doe808

Beenie wrote: »

this is the website mentioning Best Western , Ibis hotels etc.

https://www.shepherdcox.com/

Why cant they obtain funding themselves through standard (and normally cheaper) means?



Hotels (in the right areas) are not hard to fund.

Malthusian

As I somewhat suspected, they "operate under" brands like Best Western. In other words all it means is that Best Western slaps its name on the building. If Shepherd Cox runs out of money to pay your "secure returns", Best Western isn't going to stump up.

Anyone who promotes an investment by touting its association with a larger company which is financially totally irrelevant should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

Also, these schemes are illegal unauthorised collective investments. Cf Park First and Asset Land which had exactly the same structure but with car parks and land instead of hotels. They are not property investments, but investments in the company backing the supposedly "secured" or "fixed" return. If a company is willing to break the Financial Services and Markets Act, which other laws are they willing to break?