---
title: "Resorts, Hotels and Turnkey Businesses for Sale in Nicoya, Costa Rica"
description: "The liquor licence is not an asset, staff liabilities transfer with the business, and the real 2025 tourism numbers. A sourced guide to buying a hotel in Nicoya, Costa Rica."
canonical_url: "https://tierra-tropical.com/magazine/resorts-hotels-for-sale-nicoya-costa-rica"
author: "Tierra Tropical"
published: "2026-08-15"
updated: "2026-09-15"
source: "Tierra Tropical"
---

# Resorts, Hotels and Turnkey Businesses for Sale in Nicoya, Costa Rica

> Buy the hotel as an asset and the liquor licence dies at closing. Buy the company and it survives. What actually transfers when you buy a lodge on the Nicoya Peninsula, what last season looked like, and what is on the market now.

People searching for a "resort for sale in Nicoya" usually mean one of three things: an operating hospitality business with staff and bookings, a set of rental cabins that can be run from a phone, or a parcel with the zoning and water to become either. The southern Nicoya Peninsula — Montezuma, Santa Teresa, Mal País, Cabuya, Tambor — has all three on the market right now.

What almost nobody tells you before the first viewing is that the most valuable thing about an operating hotel here — its licences, its staff, its reputation — does not automatically come with the building. This is the guide to what actually transfers, what does not, what the numbers looked like last season, and what is on our shelf this month. It is not legal advice; you will need a Costa Rican lawyer for a hospitality purchase, and we say so again at the end.

## The liquor licence is not an asset. Read that twice.

Since August 2012, liquor licences in Costa Rica have been governed by [Ley 9047](https://www.pgr.go.cr/pronunciamientos/oj-172-2016-licencias-para-la-comercializacion-de-bebidas-con-contenido-alcoholico-revocacion-falta-de-explotacion-debido-proceso/), and Article 3 of that law is blunt: the licence can only be used at the establishment it was issued for, and on any change of location, name *or owner*, a new licence must be requested from the municipality. The licence is expressly not transferable and not an asset. The old pre-2012 *patentes de licores* that used to change hands for real money are gone.

For a buyer this has one enormous practical consequence. If you buy the hotel as an **asset** — the land, the buildings, the furniture — the seller's liquor licence dies at closing and you start again at the counter in Cóbano. If you buy the **company** that owns the hotel — its shares — the licence holder never changes and the licence survives. That is why most operating hotels on this coast are sold as companies, and why the share-purchase route needs a lawyer who will audit everything the company has ever done, because you are buying its history along with its bar.

The municipality's own [patentes page](https://www.municobano.go.cr/index.php/es/gestion-municipal/servicios-tributarios/patentes) lists what a fresh application needs: a land-use certificate, a Ministry of Health permit, INS workplace-risk insurance, current CCSS (social security) standing, ACAM authorisation for music, a lawyer-authenticated declaration and — for the tourism-class licence most hotels want — a certification from the Tourism Institute. Budget weeks, not days, and do not plan a reopening around it.

## The commercial patent does transfer — with conditions

The ordinary business licence (*patente comercial*) is different: Cóbano's patentes department processes *traspasos* — transfers — as a matter of course. But the transfer is reviewed for compliance, so an operation that has quietly grown beyond its permitted use, its parking, or its coverage ratio can find the transfer stalls exactly when the buyer needs it most. Ask to see the current patente and its stated activity before you offer.

## Staff come with the business, and so do their liabilities

Costa Rican labour law treats a change of owner as a *sustitución patronal* — a substitution of employer — and [Article 37 of the Labour Code](https://www.mtss.go.cr/elministerio/marco-legal/documentos/Codigo_Trabajo_RPL.pdf) says the sale cannot worsen any employee's position. Every contract continues. Every year of seniority continues. The old and new owner are jointly liable for any obligation that arose before the sale for six months; after that, it is entirely yours.

The number to ask for is the *prestaciones* calculation: what each employee would be owed today in severance, notice, accrued holiday and the Christmas bonus (*aguinaldo*), plus a CCSS clearance certificate showing contributions are current. On a fifteen-room lodge with a decade of staff, that figure can be a meaningful fraction of the price, and it is a real liability whether or not it appears on the seller's balance sheet.

## What the tourism declaration does — and does not — do

Many listings mention a *Declaratoria Turística* from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute as if it were a licence. It is not. The [ICT describes it](https://www.ict.go.cr/es/servicios-institucionales/declaratoria-turistica.html) as a voluntary recognition: it gets the property into official listings and campaigns, makes it eligible for trade fairs and the Country Brand, and costs nothing to obtain. It grants no liquor licence and no tax or import exemption, and because it is tied to the applicant and current standards, a new owner should expect to apply again rather than inherit it. Nice to have. Not the thing the price should hinge on.

## Water, at hospitality volume

Everything in our [land buyer's guide](/magazine/land-lots-for-sale-nicoya-buyers-guide) about water letters applies here, with the volume turned up. A hotel needs a *legal* supply sized for guests, not a household meter stretched across twelve rooms. That means either a registered ASADA or AyA connection with capacity for the use, or a well with a MINAE concession — and the engineers' college reported in [May 2026](https://revista.cfia.or.cr/falta-de-capacidad-hidrica-y-problemas-de-gestion-retrasan-la-construccion-de-viviendas-y-proyectos-de-grandes-dimensiones/) that water availability was holding up projects across the country for months. "There is water" is the beginning of the question. On our shelf, the operations that command the highest prices are the ones that can show both: [a boutique hotel in Montezuma](/property/luxury-boutique-hotel-in-montezuma) lists public water *and* a well; a [lodge in the Nicoya hills](/property/luxury-lodge-in-nicoya-peninsula) the same. That is not decoration. It is the reason they can sell rooms in April.

## What last season actually looked like

It is easy to buy a hotel on the strength of a story about Costa Rica's tourism boom. The recent numbers are more useful than the story.

The Tourism Institute's final count for 2025, reported by [La Nación in January 2026](https://www.nacion.com/economia/visitacion-turistica-en-costa-rica-cierra-2025-con/XWCETNHXI5GZRFGWEE7SEXD62Q/story/), was **2,943,991 international arrivals — up 0.8%** on 2024, the weakest growth in a decade. But the shape of the year matters more than the total: arrivals were down for most of it and then surged in the fourth quarter — October +5.3%, November +12%, December +13.4% — and the Liberia airport that feeds this peninsula grew 2.7% while the capital's stood still. North America still supplies roughly two million of those visitors.

On the supply side, the hoteliers' association surveyed its members in [December 2025](https://camaradehoteles.com/hoteles-proyectan-una-ocupacion-promedio-del-77-para-el-periodo-de-fin-y-principio-de-ano-2025-2026/): a projected **77% average occupancy** for the year-end high season nationally, with **Guanacaste at 88%** and the Puntarenas coast — which is where Cóbano sits on the map, if not in spirit — at 72%. Half of hotels expected a season like the last one; about a quarter expected better, a fifth worse.

The honest reading for a buyer: demand is real but no longer growing fast; the high season is strong and the shoulder months are where a business is won or lost; and the properties that fill in May are the ones with a reason to visit beyond the beach — surf, yoga, retreats, a restaurant people drive to.

## What it costs here right now

Our active hospitality and commercial listings this month, from the top down. Prices are asking, and they move.

**Operating hotels and lodges** — priced on what they earn, not what they are made of:

- [Luxury Boutique Hotel in Montezuma](/property/luxury-boutique-hotel-in-montezuma) — $7.2M, titled, public water and well
- [Beachfront Hotel in Tambor](/property/beachfront-hotel-in-tambor) — $4.2M, titled
- [Luxury Lodge in the Nicoya hills](/property/luxury-lodge-in-nicoya-peninsula) — $2.45M, titled, well and public water
- [Jungle Lodge Montezuma](/property/jungle-lodge-montezuma-established-15-room-eco-hospitality-business) — $1.19M; fifteen rooms, fifteen-plus years of operation, licences in place
- [Hotel & Retreat Center in Tambor](/property/hotel-retreat-center-in-tambor) — $700,000

**Cabin compounds and turnkey rentals** — the flexible middle, runnable remotely or convertible to a retreat business:

- [Ocean View Cabins in Montezuma](/property/ocean-view-cabins-in-montezuma) — $850,000
- [Five-Cabin Turnkey Retreat near the Los Cedros break](/property/five-cabin-turnkey-retreat-200-m-from-the-los-cedros-surf-break) — $795,000
- [Charming Home & Restaurant in Montezuma](/property/charming-home-restaurant-in-montezuma) — $825,000
- [Turnkey Multi-Home Rental on the Montezuma road](/property/turnkey-multi-home-rental-property-on-the-montezuma-road) — $475,000

**Build-your-own** — commercial lots with utilities, for a concept you design:

- [922 m² commercial lot in the heart of Mal País](/property/prime-922-m2-commercial-lot-in-the-heart-of-mal-pais) — $750,000, water and power meters connected
- [Commercial lot on the Montezuma–Cóbano road](/property/flat-commercial-lot-on-the-montezuma-cobano-road) — $195,000

One listing on this list deserves a separate sentence: the [Montezuma Beach Hotel](/property/montezuma-beach-hotel-for-sale) at $900,000 sits inside the Maritime Zone with its concession *applied for, not granted*. That is a legitimate thing to buy at the right price, and a very different thing from a titled hotel at the same number.

## Due diligence for a hospitality purchase

Everything in the land checklist, plus:

1. **Asset or shares?** Decide with your lawyer before the offer. It determines whether the liquor licence survives.
2. **The liquor licence itself** — class, issue date, in whose name, and whether it has been continuously used (unused licences can be revoked).
3. **The commercial patent** — stated activity versus actual activity.
4. **Employees** — the *prestaciones* calculation and a current CCSS certificate. This is a liability you are buying.
5. **Water for the volume** — a legal source sized for guests, in writing.
6. **Booking history from the platforms** — not the seller's spreadsheet. Occupancy by month, average rate, review scores, repeat rate.
7. **Coverage ratio and zoning** — if you plan to add rooms, is there room in the permitted footprint?
8. **The Maritime Zone question** — if it is near the beach, which band, and does a concession exist?

## Where to look

Each town fills a different kind of room. [Montezuma](/location/montezuma) draws the waterfall-and-bohemia traveller and has the deepest bench of small lodges. [Santa Teresa](/location/santa-teresa) is the international surf and wellness market with the strongest rates and the highest entry price. [Cabuya](/location/cabuya) is quiet nature stays beside the Cabo Blanco reserve. [Mal País](/location/mal-pais) balances surf and seclusion. [Tambor](/location/tambor) has the calm bay, with the Cóbano airstrip a few minutes inland. Match the business to the town before you compare prices.

Browse all current [commercial and hospitality listings](/properties?type=Hotel), or [talk to us](/contact). We walk every property we list, and we will tell you which operations actually perform — and which licences actually transfer.

## Where these numbers come from

- Liquor licences: [Ley 9047 and the Procuraduría's opinion OJ-172-2016](https://www.pgr.go.cr/pronunciamientos/oj-172-2016-licencias-para-la-comercializacion-de-bebidas-con-contenido-alcoholico-revocacion-falta-de-explotacion-debido-proceso/); [Cóbano municipality, patentes requirements](https://www.municobano.go.cr/index.php/es/gestion-municipal/servicios-tributarios/patentes).
- Employer substitution: [Código de Trabajo, Article 37 (MTSS)](https://www.mtss.go.cr/elministerio/marco-legal/documentos/Codigo_Trabajo_RPL.pdf).
- Tourism declaration: [Instituto Costarricense de Turismo](https://www.ict.go.cr/es/servicios-institucionales/declaratoria-turistica.html).
- 2025 arrivals: [La Nación, 15 January 2026](https://www.nacion.com/economia/visitacion-turistica-en-costa-rica-cierra-2025-con/XWCETNHXI5GZRFGWEE7SEXD62Q/story/), citing ICT.
- Occupancy projections: [Cámara Costarricense de Hoteles, 16 December 2025](https://camaradehoteles.com/hoteles-proyectan-una-ocupacion-promedio-del-77-para-el-periodo-de-fin-y-principio-de-ano-2025-2026/).
- Water: [Revista CFIA, 18 May 2026](https://revista.cfia.or.cr/falta-de-capacidad-hidrica-y-problemas-de-gestion-retrasan-la-construccion-de-viviendas-y-proyectos-de-grandes-dimensiones/).
- Our shelf: live listings on this site in the week of publication.

*Tierra Tropical is a real estate agency based in the Cóbano district of Costa Rica's southern Nicoya Peninsula. Nothing here is legal advice; a Costa Rican attorney should structure any hospitality purchase.*

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Published by Tierra Tropical — Nicoya Peninsula real estate. https://tierra-tropical.com