Survey on Mexico accomodation prices

[Jools]

Hi all

I'm thinking buying a holiday home in Mexico near Tulum so that I can head over for some dives when I want and also plan to rent it out to help cover the costs. I'm possibly thinking of getting my own compressor in there too so maybe the package could include tank hire and air fills. I just wondered what people paid for their accommodation over there and what they looked for when choosing.

Cheers all.

Jools

[Lanny]

Hi Jools,

We bought some land here in Tulum and built our own place, a house, dive centre and some rental apartments. When we were coming here on holiday, there was no accommodation that provided what we wanted as visiting divers - self catering, lots of storage space, water cooler, safe, full sized fridge, dunk tank, drying area, pool, somewhere to sit and socialise etc, so we built it! There are some photos on the website (link below).

Accommodation prices for holiday lets in Tulum are going up all the time, and I think we are good value at US$80 per night. You can get cheaper places, but certainly not as well equipped, and there are some places that are double the price or more, even in town. Beach prices are insane, especially in high season.

Longer term rents are a different ball game and you can get somewhere basic but pleasant for around the MX$8000/US$400 mark for a month (no bills), but you would normally have to have at least a 3 month contract.

Cylinder hire is around US$5 per day, per cylinder. If you visit regularly then buying your own will pay off in a couple of years.

Gas fills are pretty cheap in Tulum ($2 Air/$5 Nitrox), and you would have to fill a lot of cylinders to break even on the cost of a compressor and consumables. I have 60 or so cylinders and getting a compressor does not make any financial sense as I have a choice of reputable fill stations (ProTec, Xibalba, Chango) within 5 minutes, and would much rather the risk and compressor repair costs lay with someone else. I also don't want to disturb our guests with a running compressor and am busy enough teaching diving and running a business, without spending hours pumping gas every night.

Happy to Skype or FaceTime if you want a chat and some more detailed advice. Do pop in for a beer next time you are here!

Best,

[Jools]

Hi Lanny

Thanks for that.

I met you when I was diving with Budgie earlier this year, we had Andreeas tag along with us too.

We spoke briefly spoke about build prices then but this is just to get an idea of rental. I also think I'm going to go with a more secluded jungle spot with a larger land area :-)

Cheers

Jools

[t0by]

As Lanny said, I wouldn't consider running a compressor in Mexico as there's plenty of decent filling stations and if you have your own tanks it works out pretty cheap.

I've rented places longterm in Tulum. The price used to work out pretty cheap, but much has changed and prices now are way higher than they were a few years ago.

Leaving a place unattended has significant risks. Most people have a caretaker to look after their place if they leave town for any length of time. Theft is prevalent and the only real solution is to have some dogs.

There's also the climate to think about. Pretty much everywhere ends up saturated with mould after a couple of months of summer. So you need to be careful about what you store and how.

There are a number of people in town who manage holiday rental properties for people, so there's a good chance of covering costs / making a bit with rental income.