http://www.albertastars.com/posts.php?forum=4&topic=1277 Anything goes. en-us Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:18:55 +0400 http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:18:55 +0400 Angie wrote:
Yep, plus a whole lot of other possibilities, like selling soil from the castle as advised above, etc

Sounds like a plan and the potential to actually go some where but id need atleast a dozen people agreed to go in on this before i even had the audacity to get in contact with this guy, i mean he obviously means business.. ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 http://www.albertastars.com/member/19 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:08:13 +0400 ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/19 http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:18 +0400 Angie wrote:
that sounds very good. Or maybe partnership. He'd remain the owner, we'd be running it. He obviously doesn't want to live in Romania but cares for the castle to be treated in a certain way. This could work.

Exactly, and all those involved would sort of be involved in maybe renting out rooms or having a dracula site-seeing tour of the castle and charge 20 to 30 bux a head for, i dunno a 1 hour view of the entire castle, a small lunch and $150.00 bux if they want a 1 night stay in it? maybe? ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 http://www.albertastars.com/member/19 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:55:22 +0400 http://www.albertastars.com/member/19 http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:47:29 +0400 Angie wrote:
Aside from being entirely broke, I'm absolutely serious. I'd lay down entire business plan and proposition for Dominic von Habsburg if he's willing to listen.

Well, if thats the case i can use some contacts in the city as i said to try to contact him and maybe give him a proposal.. Maybe something along the lines of all parties interested or involved to give him some kind of payment plan or an option to atleast allow the parties involved to some kind of resolution to atleast partial ownership of the property.. ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 http://www.albertastars.com/member/19 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:41:41 +0400 http://www.albertastars.com/member/19 http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:16:07 +0400 IndieVixen wrote:
Who from New York can go and track down the owner of Dracula's Castle? If he's an architect named Dominic Habsburg, it should be possible

HELLO? where am i? lol ... Actually i might be willing to track him down and use several of my contacts from the city to try working something out, that is if several people here were willing to put up a fee to the dude if some kind of plan got under-way.. I mean its a long-shot, but if u all are serious about ur castle business i can try to do something from my end here.. ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/746 http://www.albertastars.com/member/1062 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:23:33 +0400 Tender wrote:

This is form 1978. Thing like that in 2008 would be worth at least $25. Or more. Considering this is the REAL dirt form Dracula's Castle, you can overcharge easily.

Yeah, $9.95 in 1978 would be worth $31.69 in 2008 due to inflation alone. This doesnt even consider rise in value of the item. ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/1062 http://www.albertastars.com/member/697 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:03:08 +0400


This is form 1978. Thing like that in 2008 would be worth at least $25. Or more. Considering this is the REAL dirt form Dracula's Castle, you can overcharge easily. ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/697 http://www.albertastars.com/member/96 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:03:39 +0400
Dominic von Habsburg own Dracula’s Castle – the most notorious of all castles. The name itself is a landmark that will never fail to work. Obviously – Dominic doesn’t want to return to Romania. He lived in the castle when he was a little boy and then when communists took over and took the castle form them, the family fled form Romania. So he feels certain attachment to the castle, but he doesn’t like the country.

Why do I think this is the case? Easy – he wants to sell the most notorious castle in the world that he owns. But at the same time he says he will only sell it to the right buyer, who would respect the property and its history. Dominic has not been back to Romania since The Habsburgs fled. It’s not a communist country anymore and new government showed step of respect by giving him the castle back. Why did he not come back – he still feel strongly about the need to flee. He hates Romania and it’s unlikely he’s gonna come back.

But he grew up in the castle, his childhood is forever bound with it. So he’s gonna be picky about who gets it. You tell him you want to turn it into a vampire worship castle and you will not be considered. Romanian government runs museum in Bran Castle. He’s probably thinking of retaining that.

Let’s look at the value of the castle and potential return on investment:

$135 million… damn! Dominic von Habsburg once offered to sell it for $80 Million and Romanian government rejected the offer as extremely high. They probably know - they are running it. They know what shape it is in and how much further investment it will need in repairs and reconstruction.

I think $135 Million is highly exaggerated. But there is some potential. The museum currently gets about 450 000 visitors. If you were to buy it and retain the museum there, you would charge approximately $10 entrance fee – that’s $4.5 Million a year you would collect. You would also have little kiosks with memorabilia and food stands, so aside from entrance fees you would collect additional $20 on average per visitor. You could offer such services as having an actor dressed up as Dracula and offer people to have a picture taken with him and sell picture. So let’s assume with all those, museum related services you collect about $15 Million a year. That’s gross income. You will have to pay taxes, and cover your running costs. Probably about $11 - $12 Million a year net income. It would take you over 10 years before you start declaring any profit.

One way to enhance it is to invest few million into reconstruction and turn a few of the rooms in the castle into hotel room and rent them out for people to stay in Dracula’s Castle overnight. Because it’s Dracula’s castle and because there’s only few rooms, you could easily charge premium dollars per night. That could significantly increase the revenue and it sounds like soothing fairly within “showing respect towards the property and its history”.

Further options you have would be to run special events. If you wrapped it up in “Increasing Romanian Cultural Heritage” blabber, you may pass it as “respectful”. I could see stuff like pagan festivals and so running well with the name of Bran Castle. Romanian government may also be willing to give you a break if you come with foreign investment to the country that really needs the money from abroad.

In general I think asking price is a bit too high. Because you wouldn’t see return on investment for many years. So unless you are really into vampires and have shit loads of money, $135 Million is high. But potential is immense and unlimited. If utilized properly, Bram castle can be a major success and a great business model.

Let’s buy that thing ]]> http://www.albertastars.com/member/96