Hotel Samoa Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Game in Short
• Contents
• Preparations
• Playing the Game
  • Summary of a Round
  • 1) Reveal Build Tile(s)
  • 2) Tourists of Current Nationality Go Home, New Arrive
  • 3) Select and Reveal Price Cards
  • 4) Build Phase
  • 5) Tourist Phase
    • Accommodating Tourists
  • 6) Payment and Card Discard
• The Game Ends
• Tourists' Special Abilities
• Build Tiles
• Special Tiles
• Things to Remember
• Game Hints

The Game in Short

Before the game starts, twelve flag cards – one for each round of the game – are put out face up in a row.

Each round a plane will bring tourists of the indicated nationality to the island. These tourists will stay at the island until the next plane from their nation arrives.

If the first card is a Japanese flag, the tourists arriving in the first round will be Japanese, and these tourists will stay at the island until the next round with a Japanese flag.

Each round the players will simultaneously play one of their price cards. Each price card shows both a bid for building an available hotel upgrade, AND the price you set on your hotel rooms.

The players who played the highest building bids may buy a build tile in the building phase.

Then follows the tourist phase, where the tourists will be accommodated. The player with the cheapest hotel may start to accommodate tourists, and then follows the more expensive hotels.

At the end of the game, the winner is the one who has accumulated the most money.

Contents

• 12 Flags (3 of each nationality)
• 13 Tourist cards
• 1 Tie breaker card
• 11 x 6 Price cards – one set for each player
• 6 Hotel boards – one for each player
• 18 x 4 Tourist chips – eighteen of each nationality
• 19 Build tiles
• Lots Money (worth 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100)
• 2 2X-tiles

Preparations

Each player takes one hotel board, one set of price cards and 25 worth of money.

Divide the 12 flag cards into 3 stacks, sorted by the small number in the corner of the flag. Shuffle each stack separately, and then place the 3 stacks on top of each other. Start with the top card, and lay all of the 12 cards face up in one row. This set up is just to make sure that the nationalities are about evenly spread out, and the small numbers don't have any effect beside this. Try to avoid having two identical flags next to each other. If this is the case, just move the flags around a bit until the problem is resolved.

Put a 2X-tile on the 6th and 12th flag card.

The tourist chips are put in four separate face down piles, sorted by their color/nationality.

Shuffle the tourist cards and put them in a face down deck.

Shuffle the build tiles and put them in a face down stack.

Put the Tie breaker card between two neighboring players, with the Build end pointing forwards (clockwise) and the Tourist end pointing backwards (counter clockwise) around the table.

Playing the Game

The 12 flag cards represent the twelve rounds of the game. The game begins with the leftmost flag card, and then goes on card by card until you have gone through all 12 rounds.

Each round follows these steps:

Summary of a Round

1. Reveal build tile(s)
2. Tourists of current nationality go home, new tourists arrive
3. Select and reveal price cards
4. Build phase
5. Tourist phase
6. Payment and card discard

1) Reveal Build Tile(s)

Place a number of face up build tiles in the middle of the table, according to how many players are playing:

Number of build tiles available each round:

	Rounds 1-3	Rounds 4-6	Rounds 7-9	Rounds 10-12
3 players	1 tile	1 tile	1 tile	No tiles
4 players	2 tiles	1 tile	1 tile	No tiles
5 players	2 tiles	2 tiles	1 tile	No tiles
6 players	3 tiles	2 tiles	1 tile	No tiles

2) Tourists of Current Nationality Go Home, New Arrive

All tourists of this round's nationality go home on the arriving plane. All players remove tourists of this nationality from their hotels. The removed tourists are put back in the supply. Put them face down in the pile of their nationality, and shuffle them around a bit.

Now draw a tourist card and place it face up on this round's flag card. Then draw random tourist chips from the pile of this round's nationality and make groups as shown on the tourist card. Put these groups of new tourists face up and clearly visible on the middle of the table.

On the tourist card you should use the line marked by the number of players playing.

Example: The 4th round's flag card shows "Norway". 4 players are playing, and the tourist card says: "4 players: 4+3". First all players remove their Norwegian tourists from their hotels and put them face down and shuffle them into the supply. Then 2 groups of Norwegian tourists arrive; One group of 4 tourists and one of 3. These new tourists are put in two clearly visible groups in the middle of the table.

Exception: In round 6 and 12 there's the general holidays, and the "2X"-tile indicates that the numbers on the tourist card should be doubled these rounds.

Example: In the example above, a 2X tile would result in two groups of 8 and 6 Norwegian tourists.

3) Select and Reveal Price Cards

Now all players choose one of their price cards and put it face down in front of them. When all players are ready, the price cards are revealed.

Example price card: Bid price 6, Room price 5.

4) Build Phase

Look at the build bid on the price cards. The player with the highest build bid is offered to buy one of the available build tiles for this price. The player may choose to pass. If there are still available tiles left, the player with the second highest build bid is offered to buy a tile, and so on.

If there is a tie, the tied players take turns in clockwise order from the Tie breaker card.

At the end of the round, if there are still unbought build tiles left, they remain on the table, being added to the available build tiles next turn.

Each player has one gray price card, the "Staff holiday" card. When a player plays this card, he is not offered to buy a tile.

5) Tourist Phase

Look at the room price on the played price cards. The player who played the lowest price is offered tourists first. This player can now choose to accommodate tourists. Then the player with the second lowest price is offered tourists, and so on. This goes on until there are no more available tourists left, or all hotels have had an opportunity to accommodate tourists. Eventual leftover tourists are put back in the supply.

If there is a tie, the tied players take turns in a counter clockwise order from the Tie breaker card.

A player who played his gray "Staff holiday" card is never offered to accommodate tourists. Instead this player can remove up to two tourists from his/her hotel and put them back in their respective nationality pile (the tourists are annoyed because of the bad service during Staff Holiday).

Accommodating Tourists

If you choose to accommodate tourists, you can take as many tourists as you like from one of the available groups – as long as you have free rooms, of course. You do not have to take all the tourists from a group, even if you do have free rooms in your hotel. You can even choose not to take any tourists at all. New tourists that you accommodate must be put in a free room in your hotel, one tourist per room. Once a tourist is placed in a room, it can not be moved to another room during it's stay.

When picking tourists from a group, you can freely choose which of the tourists to accommodate, taking their special abilities into consideration. See the table below for what the different special abilities mean.

Example: It's the 4th round, and a Norwegian flag is in line. If there had been any Norwegian tourists in the hotels, they would have gone home now – removed from the hotels and put back in to the pile. The tourist card shows that two groups of Norwegians arrive, a group of 4 and a group of 3. With 4 players there is 1 hotel tile available this round (a swimming pool). Anna, Bart, Claude and David simultaneously choose a price card:

• Anna: bid price 2 – room price 3
• Bart: bid price 14 – room price 8
• Claude: Staff holiday – send two tourists home
• David: bid price 6 – room price 5

The build phase: Bart has the highest bid price (14), and so gets the chance to build first. He decides to pass. Now David – with the second highest bid – gets the option to build. He takes the available tile and pays 6 to the bank. If there had been another build tile available this round, Anna would have been offered to build this for 2 money (her bid price).

Tourist phase: Anna has the lowest room price (3), and so gets to accommodate tourists first. She chooses to take 3 of the tourists from the group of 4. Now there are two groups with 1 and 3 tourists left. David has the second lowest price, and chooses to take the 3 tourists from the second group. Bart (with a price of 8) is now offered the last single tourist. He decides to pass, wanting to keep his card. Claude is not offered any tourists, as he played Staff holiday. The last tourist is therefore put in its proper pile. As Claude played Staff Holiday, he can remove two tourists from his hotel and put them in their proper pile.

6) Payment and Card Discard

For each new tourist a player accepted into his hotel this round, he is paid the price indicated on his price card. In addition some tourists may pay a bonus – see special abilities for tourists and buildings.

You should always keep your money secret from your opponents!

Anna accommodated 3 tourists with price 3. She therefore receives 3x3 = 9 money. David accommodated 3 tourists each worth 5, and receives 3x5 = 15 money. If the tourists picked had any special abilities, Anna and David may score additional bonuses (see Special abilities).

Note: The price you indicate with your price card is a one-time price that the tourists pay for their entire stay.

All players who either accommodated new tourists and/or bought a build tile this round, discard their played price card. All other players take their played price card back into their hand (including those who played their gray "Staff Holiday" card).

Keep your discarded cards in a face down stack in front of you.

Anna and David discard their played card. Claude and Bart neither accommodated any new tourist nor built a hotel tile this round, so they both take their played price card back in their hand.

Sometimes it is wise to pass on building/tourists in order to save the price card you just played.

Then the Tie breaker card is moved clockwise, and positioned between the next pair of players.

Movement of Tie breaker card at end of turn: At end of turn, the Tie breaker card is moved one step clockwise, and positioned between the next pair of players.

Then the next round begins.

Example with Tie breaker: The Tie breaker card is located between Anna and Bart. The players sit in the following order around the table and play the following cards:

• Anna: bid price 8 – room price 6
• (Tie Breaker card)
• Bart: bid price 6 – room price 5
• Claude: bid price 8 – room price 6
• David: bid price 12 – room price 9

Build phase: David has the highest bid price (12), and is offered to build first. Anna and Claude are tied for the second highest bid price (8). In the build phase, ties are resolved in a clockwise order from the Tie breaker, so Claude is offered to build before Anna.

Tourist phase: Bart has the lowest room price (5) and is offered tourists first. Anna and Claude are tied for the second lowest room price (6), and in the tourist phase, ties are resolved in a counter clockwise order from the Tie breaker. Anna therefore goes before Claude.

At the end of the round, the Tie breaker is moved one step clockwise around the table, and so will be positioned between Bart and Claude.

The Game Ends

The game ends after the 12th round.

Each player counts their money, and the player with the most money wins. If two players have the same amount of money, the player with the most free rooms in his hotel wins. If this too is the same, the game is a draw.

Tourists' Special Abilities

Rich*: Pays double room price. Example: With a price card of 7, you are paid 14 when accommodating a rich tourist.

Lover: Two lovers can be placed together in one room – even if they are of different nationalities. Two lovers will always leave together, so if they are of different nationalities, they will both leave (as a couple) when a flag card matching one of them comes up. When you play Staff holiday and remove tourists, removing 2 lovers from one room counts as just 1.

Celebrity*: The celebrity itself pays normal price. When a tourist moves into a room adjacent to a celebrity (a room directly above, below or next to the room with the celebrity, not diagonally), the new tourist pays double room price. Extra room tiles are not considered adjacent to any other rooms. (Like every tourist, a celebrity placed next to another celebrity would also pay twice the normal room price).

Swimmer: For each swimming pool you have, you get paid the number inside the buoy as a bonus. Example: You have three swimming pools. You accommodate two swimmers with a total of 5 buoy points. You score a bonus of 5x3 = 15.

Build Tiles

Extra room: An extra room for accommodating tourists. Place this tile next to your hotel board. New tourists may be placed onto this tile, just as if it was a room on your hotel board.

Suite*: When you buy this tile, immediately place it so that it covers one of your hotel rooms. This room is now upgraded to a suite. When a tourist moves into a suite, it pays double room price.

Swimming pool: When you buy this tile, you immediately score 1 for each buoy point currently in your hotel. Later, when you accommodate swimmers, you score bonus for their buoy points. Example: You buy a new swimming pool, and have a total of 5 buoy points accommodated in your hotel. You immediately score a bonus of 5. If you later accommodate a tourist with 2 buoy points, you will score an additional bonus of 2.

* Note to Celebrity/Suite/Rich: Effects are not cumulative! A tourist will never pay more than double room price, so a rich tourist placed in a suite next to a celebrity will still only pay double price. A swimmer placed in a suite or next to a celebrity, will pay twice the normal room price, together with the regular bonus of 1 per buoy point for each swimming pool.

Special Tiles

Put the special tile next to your hotel. Later you may discard the tile to carry out its special effect. Unused special tiles are worth 3 at the end of the game.

Example 1: After price cards are revealed, you may discard this special tile to switch the card you just played with another one from hand.

Example 2: Before new tourists are accommodated, you may discard this special tile to send two of your tourists home.

Example 3: At any time you may discard this special tile to take two of your discarded price cards back into hand.

Things to Remember

• Move Tie breaker tile to the left at end of turn.
• Building bid ties are resolved clockwise from the Tie breaker card, room price ties are resolved counter clockwise.
• Remember to send home two of your tourists whenever you play your gray Staff holiday card.
• You can keep your played price card if you neither build nor accommodate tourists in a round. You always keep your Staff holiday card.

Game Hints

Study the order of the flag cards. Some tourists will stay long at the island while some will only be staying for a short time.

A most beneficial situation is when you are the only player with free hotel rooms left. This can happen when there are lots of tourists at the island. This is most often in the general holidays (round 6 and 12) or right after the holidays (round 7-8) when the tourists from the general holidays still haven't left.

You can make big money by foreseeing when the other players are sending their staff on holiday – then you can build for cheap, or charge higher prices for tourists.

When being offered very few tourists, you should consider if it might be best not to accommodate or build anything – in order to save the price card for later.