Questions People Ask
(Please scroll down to see the answers or click on the question you want the answer for)

Is This Legal?
Who Are You?
How Can You Make This Too-Good-To-Be-True Offer? What's In It For You?
But I Live Too Far Away to Ever Use One of Your Hotel Vouchers.
Do We Get a Paper Voucher?
How Do I Redeem a Voucher for a Stay in the Hotel?
If I Use My Voucher to Stay in the Hotel Before the Draw, Will I Lose It?
Is This a Raffle or a Lottery That Might be Restricted?
Can You Tell Us More About the Properties?
Where Are They?
How Much Are They Worth?
Who Made Those Valuations?
How Will It All Work?
When Will the Drawings Take Place?
Tell Us About the Vouchers?
Will There Be a Watchdog?
Why Are You Selling?
Why Aren't You Selling in the Usual Way?
What Could I Do with a House or Studio if I Won?
If I Win, Will I Have to Pay Any Taxes, Closure Fees or Other Costs?
What Fraud Protection Is There?
Will My Online Purchase Be Secure?
Isn't This Gambling, and Isn't Gambling Immoral?
What If You Don't Sell Enough Vouchers?
But What If Something Else Goes Wrong?
What Will Be the Random Way of Choosing the Winners?
If I Were to Win, What About My Costs?
And If I Don't Feel I Can Afford a Voucher?
Who May NOT Buy a Voucher?
Tell Me About the 10,000 Euro Extra Cash Raffle.
Any Other Reasons Why I Should Buy a Voucher?

 

Is This Legal?

Logically, that's the first question some people ask. Well, our lawyers — all three of them in three different countries — can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be. You're buying a hotel voucher, a perfectly straightforward and ordinary item, and one which is almost indistinguishable from the hundreds of thousands of hotel vouchers sold around the world every day. The only difference is that ten of our vouchers have a little pot of gold concealed inside, a key to a valuable house or studio. So, yes, it's legal, but you shouldn't register or buy a voucher if you have the least worry or doubt.

Ten new owners will walk into our ten prize properties,
pour champagne and smile as they toast their luck.

Is This a Raffle or a Lottery That Might be Restricted?

Of course it's a raffle, and in some countries raffles are restricted. However the addition of the hotel voucher to the ticket means that the lawyers and the governments in those countries don't call it a raffle or a lottery in the usual sense, and that's the most important thing to us: being absolutely legal wherever we offer tickets for sale.

If raffles are restricted where you live, we suggest you take advice regarding your participation, though your personal details are confidential should you choose to participate. That has to be your decision and I'm afraid we can't help you decide.

So this is what it is. You may call it whatever you want. We have done everything in our power to have it clean and above board because we just want to sell you a ticket and a hotel voucher and hope one day to hand you the keys to a lovely house or studio.

Can You Tell Us More About the Properties?

Yes — please click the link at the bottom of this page.

Where Are The Properties?

On the island of Mallorca, in the mountains about 20/25 minutes from Palma. We are currently running the complex as a hotel (ranked on a leading Internet hotel review site as the 10th most popular of 907 hotels in its category).

For those who don't know Mallorca, it's the largest of the Balearic Islands and is about 120 miles off the coast from Barcelona. Californians tend to know the island because it was the birthplace of Junipero Serra, a Franciscan monk who founded a few little towns out there - San Francisco, San Diego, Monterey, Carmel, and eight others.

Every property is decked with flowering plants and climbers.

How Much Are They Worth?

From about 250,000 to 500,000 euros, and we've put more specific prices in the descriptions of the individual accommodations. Nearby properties are selling for more than a million euros each, but that's for three or four bedroom houses on their own plots. Our assessors tell us that the studios would sell in the 250/350,000 euros range and the largest house, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, for more than a  half million euros. We will be disposing of them according to size, from the smallest to the largest. The whole complex has been valued at 4.5 million euros, including all the common land, gardens, facilities and amenities.

Who Made Those Valuations?

Two reputable property surveyors, plus an appraiser for the bank. Technically, the property is still for sale via the agents, and will remain so until we have a quorum of potential voucher purchasers.

How Will This Venture Work?

We have spent the last few months working out the complex administrative issues and assembling a preliminary list of people interested in taking part. Now that we know the project is broadly supported we are beginning to allow people to purchase vouchers. Participants are able to buy vouchers online, using a credit card. As the project goes forward we will keep all registrants informed with regular newsletter progress reports.

When Will the Drawings Take Place?

Just as soon as enough people have signed up. I'm sorry if that sounds inexact, but we're promoting this project in the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden, and a few other countries, and that means we're still working on translations and other data processing adjustments in order to conform to local requirements and practices. As we have said elsewhere, the project will take months, but in the meantime voucherholders may visit our hotels, see the properties up close, and get value from their vouchers even before the drawings take place.

Tell Us About the Vouchers

They cost 150 euros each, plus a fee for credit card processing of 6 euros per voucher.

They each carry a unique number and are issued to a person, by name and secret code.

They are virtual, not physical, which is to say we don't print them out and send them to you, but all of your details and records are held on two separate secure data bases.

The total number issued will not exceed 33,333 and this will be certified by inspectors and an independent monitoring agency.

Early Bird purchasers may choose their own numbers, subject to availability.

They are good for, may be applied to, a stay in either to our hotels prior to the drawing, and at Scott's Townhouse Hotel afterwards, subject to availability. Vouchers are good indefinitely.

They may be shared by a maximum of three people, all of whom must be named.

They may be given as gifts, but the recipient must be specified by name.

At a date to be specified in the future, once sufficient vouchers have been issued, ten voucher owners will be randomly chosen and each will receive a house or studio.

Will There Be a Watchdog?

Of course. Ariadne Asesores in Palma de Mallorca has been established for more than fifteen years. "Asesores fiscales" are Spain's equivalent of UK chartered accountants or United States CPAs, but with the added qualification of being tax advisors as well. Their role will be to ensure and certify that there will be only the equivalent of 33,333 vouchers issued for participation in the random process of choice. They will function as an independent entity to make sure the project is carried out in a fully neutral and unbiased way. We ourselves will have nothing to do with these procedures. Our job, as we see it, will be limited to smiling and having the delightful experience of notifying the winners.

Why Aren’t You Just Selling the Property in the Usual Way?

It was a flat-faced guy with a heavy Slavic accent who put us on this path. He handed me an attaché case stuffed with 500-euro notes and told me I could take it with me. The rest I could pick up later.

We were in an 800-euro-per-night suite at the five-star George V in Paris and to hear him tell it all I had to do is sign the contract and I would have 4.5m euros and he and his buddies would own our little mountain paradise cluster of houses and studios on the island of Mallorca in Spain.

What was unspoken was that they would also own me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you the back story.

Some months ago my doctor told me to slow down. He wasn't happy with my state of health. Besides, I'm of an age when I should be slowing down anyway. "Retirement" was the word the doc threatened me with. Thinking it over, it just made sense to give up the little boutique place in the mountains, however reluctantly.

So a few months ago I began to put out feelers for someone to take it over.

What a fiasco! First came the impoverished wannabes with no hotel experience, no Spanish, but who had always had a dream to run a small gem of a hotel in the Mediterranean. Would we mind financing them privately? 100%, of course.

Then there were the hotel chain agents, convinced that anyone who was even thinking of selling must be flirting with bankruptcy. For them, an offer of 40% of the fair market value was a logical start to any discussion.

And we must not forget the property agents, willing to put a photo in their window in return for only 6% of the sale price.

But finally there were the money launderers, with whom I started this text. They were willing to pay our price, our fair price, but only in filthy money from drugs or prostitution or whatever. Which is how I wound up in Paris, invited to sign on with people who had described themselves on the phone as "international investors". Ha!

Apart from all that, there is also an element of self-interest. We own land directly next to the car park up the hill above the property. We've had thoughts about building a house there and it would be nice to be next door to our winners. (I'll bet they'd never turn us down if we ever wanted to borrow a pint of milk.)

Frankly, when all was said and done we just thought this might be lots of fun to do.

And just by the by, if anybody ever asks you the question in a trivia quiz, a million euros in 500 notes weighs about 20 pounds; I had it in my hand.

What Could I Do With a House or Studio If I Won?

Live in it - they are proper dwellings — use it for your holidays, rent it out, lend it to family or friends. Or simply sell it for the cash. They would be easy to sell.

If I Win, Will I Have to Pay Any Taxes, Closure Fees or Other Costs?

No - the property will be delivered into your possession at no expense to you whatsoever. Obviously, if you subsequently sell it, you will have all the usual taxes and expenses to pay.

What Fraud Protection Is There?

We are devising several layers of protection for all participants.

1) Only credit card or traceable bank instruments will be accepted in payment for the vouchers. That is, no cash.

2) All participants will be asked at the time of purchase to provide a secret code number or password. No vouchers will be redeemed without full identification of the registered voucherholder.

3) The choice of the winners will be filmed and also broadcast online so that anyone with a broadband Internet connection may see the process.

4) The results will be publicly published for all voucherholders to check.

Will My Online Purchase Be Secure? Of course. Your funds will go into a reputable bank through the bank’s credit card processing technology. Isn't This Gambling and Isn't Gambling Immoral? Well, we must admit that elements of it — despite what the lawyers say — are an awful lot like gambling; you buy a hotel voucher and you may end up with a house. But that said, we still look forward to the day when we turn over the keys of ten lovely properties to nice people who've bought a voucher from us, some of whom might not otherwise have had the means or opportunity to own holiday homes as delightful as these. In the end, it's always a question of how legal and political people use words to make things conform to the law, regardless of what's going on. In the Middle East, where gambling is prohibited, you can go to a race track and see signs that say, "Win big prizes by guessing which horse can run fastest." Hmmm. But we accept your point of view and hope you won't censure us for doing this.

A fireplace for a chilly night.

What If You Don’t Sell Enough Vouchers?

We already have evidence that this venture will be successful. One single article in the Sunday Express brought in thousands of registrants for vouchers. Other articles are scheduled for two other major national UK papers, a Los Angeles magazine chain is promoting the project, and one of Germany's major publishers will begin to register people for the vouchers in a month or so. The reason we went ahead with the sale of a limited number of Early Bird vouchers is that we weren't worried about finding enough people, and the proceeds of the initial voucher sales are being put toward a substantial advertising campaign. In fact, in the end — like the US house drawings we modeled ourselves on — we expect to be oversubscribed and to have to turn some late registrants away.

But What If Something Else Goes Wrong?

Theoretically, that's possible, though it's looking more and more like only a remote chance. But let's look at the absolutely worst case scenario — the whole project collapses, we are left bereft and in the lurch, the whole project a bungled flop, a bomb, a total botch. Well, whatever happens, we still happen to own two award-winning hotels and you might just have to come and stay in one of them — you'd have spent 150 euros and all you would get is a stay in a hotel that one New York reviewer (we thought he was crazy, but we were flattered) named as one of the world's fifty best small hotels. Gee whiz, that's such a horrible fate that we find it hard to conceive of it happening.

A bad photo of what all the private terraces see.

What Will Be the Random Way of Choosing the Winners?

We don't know yet — our mathematical guru is looking various fair ways of determining our ten winners. It may be as simple as having a tiny child like my granddaughter fish around in a barrel of vouchers, or it more likely will be some sophisticated process like having a machine that mechanically dumps the vouchers onto a flat surface over and over again, each time eliminating those that fall face down until there are only ten left. Whatever the process is, it will be random, and random is fair.

If I Were to Win, What About My Costs?

Think of it the other way around. Think how much money you could make renting the property out.

We are currently using the property as a hotel, with prices ranging from 175 euros per night for the smallest studio to 330 euros per night for the two-bed, two-bathroom house. We have no problems filling the place. Those prices include breakfast and maid service, but we also offer the accommodations as self-catering for a 25% discount, which is to say 131 and 248 euros respectively. Renting out the property on a self-catering weekly basis, we think that it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a return of at least 500 euros per week for the smaller properties and up to 1,500 euros per week for the big house. Given that the high season is more than seven months long, this begins to become reasonably interesting money, from 15,000 to 45,000 euros per season, still with many weeks open for personal use or to lend to family or friends.

Maintenance and other costs — water, taxes, electricity, would only make a small dent in those sums.

And If I Don't Feel I Can Afford a Voucher?

Share with a friend. Or even two friends (maximum two). Surely you all won't want to take your holidays at the same time (though two of you could if you got really lucky and won the two BR, two bath house). And there would still be enough rental income for everyone to make the arrangement interesting all around. Sharing with someone else makes a voucher affordable for virtually everybody. They also make nifty gifts; you're just not allowed to get jealous if your giftee wins.

Who May NOT Buy a Voucher?

Our friends, employees and family. What would you think if my sister won a nice studio or house?

Surrounded by green, the complex is an oasis of tranquility. Hawks
actually fly by below the pool, patrolling the Roman terraces.

Tell Me About the 10,000 Euro Extra Cash Raffle.

It's very simple. Advertising is expensive. We want you to tell other people about what we're doing. Send five friends or colleagues to us and we will enter you in an extra cash draw for 5,000 euros. Send ten people and you qualify for a 10,000 euro draw. Send twenty and you get two chances to win the 10,000 euro cash drawing. We both come out ahead: you qualify for extra prizes and we save money on advertising. And these are independent drawings so winning will not affect your chances of success in the choice of the winners of the properties.

Any Other Reasons Why I Should Buy a Voucher?

The real question is "Why not?" The cost isn't prohibitive, the odds are reasonable, and the prizes are valuable and life enrichening.

Imagine a bored angel sitting up there somewhere dangling her feet over the edge of a cloud and deciding, on a whim, that you, me, or that guy over there, should be treated to a sweet piece of good luck. She looks at us all, and then decides to point at you.

Now all she needs is a mechanism to deliver her sumptuous gift. Your responsibility is to give her a way to reward you for all you've done that deserves rewarding. But if you don't make it simple for her, if you don't provide her with an easy way of dropping her bounty upon you, then she just might get fed up with the whole process and decide to point at somebody else.

Give your angel a chance to make your day, your month, your next ten years. Buy a voucher.

Click here to purchase a voucher:

Register here simply to be on the mailing list
and receive further information:

*All photos were taken outside or inside the properties or show views from the accommodations.

Copyright © 2008, Scott Properties. All Right Reserved