A condo hotel, also known as a condotel, hotel condo or a contel, is a building which is legally a condominium but which is operated as a hotel, offering short term rentals, and which maintains a front desk. Condo hotels are typically high-rise buildings developed and operated as luxury hotels, usually in major cities and resorts. These hotels have condominium units which allow someone to own a full-service vacation home. When they are not using this home, they can leverage the marketing and management done by the hotel chain to rent and manage the condo unit as it would any other hotel room. Legal conflicts The U.S. Government is very strict about the type of advertising that can be done vis-a-vis condo hotel projects. Some condo projects have advertised themselves as real estate investments, but since the value of these condos as a real estate investment is not entirely clear the U.S. Government currently disallows use of this reference when advertising condo hotels. Condo hotels have been criticized in California for allowing developers to skirt laws designed to protect public access to beaches. Because such a facility has hotel rooms, it can be classified as a public accommodation, even though the majority of the units are privately held, and the facility does little to accommodate the public. In the Philippines condominium hotels carry a condominium real estate deed. This allows foreigners to acquire up to 30% of the condotel units, unlike most other real estate. This has made this particular development popular in the country. Location While not intended as a complete list, the most popular locations in the U.S. for condo hotels include: Aspen, Chicago, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, the Las Vegas Valley, New York City, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Orlando, Florida. Condo hotels are also found at ski resorts and international destinations, such as Jaco, Costa Rica. Investors spent an estimated $250 million on condo hotels in 2006, with much of that spending concentrated on resort areas. Costs Note that analyzing the economics of a condo hotel unit is extremely difficult because of the challenge of getting accurate information about the potential income stream. Developers uniformly do not provide important data or estimates for room rates or occupancy levels for fear of coming under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations on investments, as opposed to real estate regulations. Financial considerations The primary factors that contribute to the